Leonard Cohen - Songs from a Store Room - Alternate Song Versions (1967-1968) (NEW TO PUBLIC CIRCULATION)

I had been planning on posting this a couple of days ago, but I got knocked down pretty badly by the flu. I know some people are keen on hearing it, so I'll push through and post it now.

This is meant to be the companion piece to the alternate version of Cohen's 1967 album "Songs of Leonard Cohen," which I posted recently. That was Cohen's very first album, but he'd been building up to it for a long time, especially since he was 34 years old at the time, which was quite old for a first album in that era. As a result, he had lots of songs written, many more that could fit on a single album. So this contains the best versions of all the songs he recorded for his 1967 album but didn't get released on it.

Like my alternate version of "Songs of Leonard Cohen," the source for all of these is the official 1967 copyright extension release. I've explained some of this with other posts. But, in brief, in the European Union, for record companies to keep the legal rights to some performances, they need to be officially released within a 50-year time period. So this, it seems, was released in 2017. However, for some of these releases, they were only put on sale for an hour or two in the middle of the night on the Internet in some limited part of Europe. That's what happened here. Luckily, a few people grabbed it, but it never got publicly circulated beyond that. The same thing happened in 2020 with some Cohen 1970 music and in 2022 with some 1972 Cohen music. 

Recently, I happened to find the 1970 release. I put out some feelers, and some kind strangers sent me the 1967 and 1972 releases. The entire 1967 release is seven hours long, and contains every take of all the songs Cohen recorded in 1967 except for the ones that made the official album (or at least all the ones that the record company wanted to maintain the rights to). I've selected just one take of each one. 

In selecting the takes, I largely went with the recommendations of 21st Century Schizoid Cat, who found a copy of this even before I did and was one of the people to send it to me. So, a big thanks to him (and the other person who sent me the files). 21st Century Schizoid Cat also came up with this album title. I like it, because it's a clever word play on the title of Cohen's second album, "Songs from a Room" as well as the title of one of the songs here, "Store Room." Plus, there's also the implied word play that these songs sat in a store room archive all these years.

Pretty much all the songs here would eventually be released on other albums, in different forms. The second and third tracks, "Store Room" and "Blessed Is the Memory," would eventually come out as bonus tracks for the "Songs of Leonard Cohen" album. Tracks four and five, "Tonight Will Be Fine" and "You Know Who I Am," would appear on his 1969 album "Songs from a Room." Tracks six through ten are all from his 1971 album "Songs of Love and Hate." Track 11, an early version of "Take This Longing," is from his 1975 album "New Skin for the Old Ceremony."

That leaves just two songs. The first one, "I've Been Through All Your Clothes," is an early version of "You Know Who I Am," but it's so different that it has all different lyrics and a different title. I put that first to give some space between that one and a more typical version of "You Know Who I Am" at track five, since their melodies are basically the same. 

And the last song, an early version of "Bird on a Wire," is an official bonus track to the "Songs from a Room" album. Although that album was released in 1969, this version dates from 1968, when David Crosby of the Byrds tried to produce the album. That didn't work out; all the songs were rerecorded later. (There also is a bonus track version of "You Know Who I Am," but I didn't include that since this already has two versions of that song.) 

I suspect that some of the other songs here could have been recorded in those 1968 Crosby-produced sessions, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows, please let us know. If some 1968 alternate takes were thrown in with the 1967 copyright release, that might explain why there was no similar 1968 or 1969 copyright release. It's also possible though that such a release did happen, and everyone missed it. Furthermore, it's known that one song included with the 1970 release, "Priests," was recorded by Cohen in 1967. (Judy Collins released a version of it in 1967, and Richie Havens released a version in 1968.) However, he may well have given it another try around 1970. I put that on a 1970 stray tracks album I made, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/11/leonard-cohen-news-from-authorities-non.html

But if I ever confirm that version was actually recorded in 1967, I'll move it to this album.

Most of the alternate versions of "Songs of Leonard Cohen" were pretty close lyrically to the officially released versions on that album. But these often went through more tinkering before being released on later albums. So you'll find more differences both musically and lyrically. This is reflected by the different song titles, which were either used on the 1967 copyright release, or were the titles of songs mentioned in books about Cohen. For instance, one such book mentioned a song called "Jewels in Your Shoulder." I figured out that had to be an early version of "Take This Longing," since it had very different lyrics that included the phrase "jewels in your shoulder."

I made a couple of important edits. "I've Been Through All Your Clothes" only included the first verse, the first chorus, and then all of the second verse except for the last line. That was a very unsatisfying ending for me. So I finished off the second verse with just the instrumental part of the last line from the first verse, and then I repeated the first verse where the second verse would have gone. Also, there was only one take of "Store Room," and it ended about halfway through the song. I assume the bonus track version that eventually got released was the second take. So I finished off the incomplete part of the song with that version.

If you're a big Leonard Cohen fan, as I am, this is a really interesting album. I hope you enjoy it. For the really die-hard fans, starting today, I will also be sharing the entire seven hours of this 1967 copyright release via SoulseekQT. So look for that there. And I soon will be posting some of the 1972 copyright release here, and all of it via SoulSeekQT. That one consists of eleven similar 1972 concerts, but with all of the banter between songs removed.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 I've Been Through All Your Clothes [Early Version of You Know Who I Am] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
02 Store Room [Takes 1 & 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
03 Blessed Is the Memory [Take 2] (Leonard Cohen)
04 Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen)
05 You Know Who I Am [Take 2] (Leonard Cohen)
06 Avalanche [Take 3] (Leonard Cohen)
07 Dress Rehearsal Rag (Leonard Cohen)
08 Nancy Where Have You Been Sleeping [Early Version of Diamonds in the Mine] (Leonard Cohen)
09 Love Calls You by Your Name [Take 17] (Leonard Cohen)
10 Anyone Can See [Early Version of Sing Another Song, Boys]  [Take 4] (Leonard Cohen)
11 Jewels in Your Shoulder [Early Version of Take This Longing] (Leonard Cohen)
12 Like a Bird [Early Version of Bird on the Wire] (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16159453/LENRDCHN1967-1968_SngsfrmStrRm_atse.zip.html

The cover is the only color photo of Cohen that I know for sure was from 1967. There was another person's head blocking some of the top back part of his head, but I used some Photoshop tricks to get rid of that.