Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen - Alternate Version (1967) (NEW TO PUBLIC CIRCULATION)

Two months ago (as I write this in January 2024), I posted three albums that came from a 1970 Leonard Cohen copyright extension release. In brief, that's an extremely limited official release record companies sometimes to do retain the legal rights to music, based on a law in the European Union. After discovering all that great 1970 music that had never been in public circulation before, I found out that there were 1967 and 1972 copyright extension releases as well. I'm very happy to say that some kind souls gave me copies. This is the first of several albums I'm making to get this material to a wider audience.

For starters, I'm focusing on the 1967 copyright extension release. 1967 was the year Leonard Cohen put out his first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," which came out just a few days before the end of the year. It's an undisputed classic. For instance, Rolling Stone Magazine has ranked it Number 195 in its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Because this was Cohen's first album, and he was a total novice when it came to recording music, there were many takes done of nearly all the songs. Plus, he brought in many more songs than could fit on a single album. The 1967 copyright extension release apparently includes all the different takes of each song in the 1967 recording sessions, other than the final versions that made the album. There are so many takes, in fact, that it would get too repetitive for all but the most die-hard Cohen fan. For instance, in the most extreme case, there are 22 takes of the song "Love Calls You by Your Name."

So, to make this release more palatable for most listeners, I've broken it into two albums. The first one is this one here. With the assistance of another Cohen fan, 21st Century Schitzoid Cat, I've picked the most interesting version of each song that made it onto "Songs of Leonard Cohen." Then I put them in the exact same order as the released album, giving you an interesting alternate version of that album. I've also made another album that consists of the best of the 1967 recorded songs that didn't make that album. I'll be posting that album right after this one.

Next, I need to explain that the recording of this album was difficult and contentious. Initially, legendary producer John Hammond was supposed to produce the album. He had signed Cohen, and understood his music. But Hammond got sick and had to drop out. He was replaced by producer John Simon. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia entry about the album:

By all accounts, Simon and Cohen clashed over instrumentation and mixing; Cohen wanted the album to have a sparse sound, while Simon felt the songs could benefit from arrangements that included strings and horns. Writing for Mojo in 2012, Sylvie Simmons recalls, "When Leonard heard the result, he was not happy; the orchestration on 'Suzanne' was overblown, while everything about 'Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye' felt too soft. Several tracks had too much bottom, and there were even drums; Leonard had clearly stipulated no drums." The singer and producer also quarreled over a slight stop in the middle of "So Long, Marianne" – a device Cohen felt interrupted the song. According to biographer Ira Nadel, although Cohen was able to make changes to the mix, some of Simon's additions "couldn't be removed from the four-track master tape."

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So, while the 1967 copyright release didn't come with any notes to explain things (as far as I know), it's pretty clear that many of the songs were often done in different styles that fit more with Simon's vision of what he thought would be commercially successful. 

Often, this meant more instrumentation, while Cohen wanted things more stripped back. Sometimes, the difference between these versions and the final released versions are dramatic. For instance, the version of "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" here has a fast drumbeat through the whole song, while the released version has no drums at all. But rather than spell everything out, I'll let you be surprised by discovering the differences yourself. 

Often times, the first take was the most different. Note that the first five songs are all the first takes. Many of the takes are incomplete, since something like a flubbed lyric would cause the song to stop before it was finished. In case you're curious, here are the numbers of takes for each song:

Suzanne: 4
Master Song: 1
Winter Lady: 3
The Stranger Song: 2
Sisters of Mercy: 4
Come On, Marianne: 6
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye: 12
Stories of the Street: 9
Teachers: 3
One of Us Cannot Be Wrong: 12

I made significant edits to five of the songs. One of the most drastic was to "Suzanne." The first take is very different from all the other takes, and the album version, so I wanted to use that one. However, it ended after the second verse, missing all of the second chorus as well as the third verse and chorus (with each chorus having different lyrics). I repeated the first chorus after the second verse. Even though they don't match lyrically, I felt that was better than having no chorus at all there. 

"Come On, Marianne" (the early name for "So Long, Marianne") also got a drastic edit. For both Takes Two and Four, there were entire verses that were not used on the album version, but some of them made it to Take Two, and others made it to Take Four. Since the backing music was basically exactly the same for both takes, I merged them together so one got all the different verses from both takes, without any repeats. The result is two minutes longer than the album version.

The edits of the other three songs were more minor. In all three cases, the songs ended abruptly, only a couple of seconds after the last words. For "Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye," I used Take Four for nearly all of the song. But Take Two had an instrumental ending that went on for about 15 seconds. So I patched that ending onto Take Four. With "Winter Lady" and "Teachers," I just repeated some instrumental bits to make the songs last five or ten seconds longer, giving them a less abrupt ending.

This album is 45 minutes long. By contrast, the official album is 41 minutes long. Most of the difference in the times is due to the two extra minutes added to "Come On, Marianne/ So Long, Marianne."

Note that I plan on posting the other 1967 album here tomorrow or thereabouts. After I do that, I will share the full 1967 copyright release, including every single take, via SoulseekQT, for the really die-hard fans. (It's seven hours long!) Then I will get to the 1972 copyright extension release.

01 Suzanne [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
02 Master Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
03 Winter Lady [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
04 The Stranger Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
05 Sisters of Mercy [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
06 Come On, Marianne [Early Version of So Long, Marianne] [Takes 2 & 3] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
07 Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye [Take 4 plus Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
08 Stories of the Street [Take 5] (Leonard Cohen)
09 Teachers [Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
10 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong [Take 8] (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16141676/LENRDCHN1967_SngsfLnrdChnAltrnte_atse.zip.html

The cover is very closely based on the official cover. However, I added the words "alternate version" at the bottom, and I used a different picture in the middle. This picture is from an August 1967 photo shoot that probably was meant for the album cover. It was a black and white photo, but I tinted it the same way as the version on the official album.