Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love and Hate

Leonard Cohen: Songs of Love and Hate

Album #136 - March 1971

Episode date - February 26, 2020

The Alternative Top 40
0:00
0:00

Too often, I’ve seen critical reviews of “Songs of Love and Hate” that take the title literally by attempting to divide each of the songs into either of the two most extreme human emotions. From my own perspective, these SOP-eyed critics fail to take the title literally enough – these songs do not present an either/or proposition.

As the title states, these songs express love and hate simultaneously. Leonard Cohen creates a musical universe that suggests an American Kurt Weill writing about self-obsessed thinkers rather than existentialist drinkers. The entire album has a darkly passionate quality, portraying a craven world where the shadows obscure the light, and evil trumps good – in song after song, love succumbs to hate.

 “Avalanche” seems like an awkward way to start an album, but it works perfectly as a manifesto to love intermingled with hate, disguised as regret. “Last Year’s Man” buries the very concept of love under an avalanche of religious iconography until the emotion is rendered obsolete. This song contains the first of two impossibly disparate and destructive marital couplings that appear on the album. Here, Babylon marries Bethlehem, a symbolic wedding of mutual destruction, while on “Joan of Arc,” Joan is ‘wed’ to the flame that consumes her. Needless to say, these are not happy marriages. “Dress Rehearsal Rag” is the bluntest of character studies, wherein the proud (a delusional form of self-love) protagonist views himself in the mirror and launches into an internal dialogue of intense self-loathing. The creepy children’s chorus only exacerbates the macabre nature of the considered suicide.

For the first time in his career, Cohen learns to wring intensity from his deadpan basso voice. “Diamonds in the Mine” is an angry, dismissive rant that finds Cohen almost yelling in frustration, and speaking of frustration, how in the world did Cohen conjure the mismatched couple in “Sing Another Song, Boys”? These are despicable characters that only Bertolt Brecht could love. “Love Calls You By Your Name” sounds like something beautiful until you realize that it calls you to the brink of non-existence, “between the ocean and your open vein, between the snowman and the rain.” The siren’s call is much more of a threat than a promise, more like an adjudicator than an angel. This is where the album balances on the head of a pin, between the ex-lover(s) in “Famous Blue Raincoat” who try desperately to forgive and see past the brooding hatred elicited by rejection and unfaithfulness, and “Joan of Arc”, who dies for her love of God and country at the hands of a man who despised her for political reasons. “Songs of Love and Hate”, indeed.

March 1971 - Billboard Charted #145

 

Related Shows

Merle Haggard: Branded Man

Merle Haggard: Branded Man

Album #76 - August 1967

0:00
0:00
Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Album #75 - August 1967

0:00
0:00

Velvet Underground and Nico

Album #74 - March 1967

0:00
0:00
Miles Davis - Miles Smiles

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles

Album #73 - January 1967

0:00
0:00
Gene Clark w/ The Gosdin Brothers

Gene Clark w/ The Gosdin Brothers

Album #72 - February 1967

0:00
0:00
The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee

The Left Banke: Walk Away Renee

Album #71 - February 1967

0:00
0:00
Buffalo Springfield - Self Titled

Buffalo Springfield: Self Titled

Album #70 - December 1966

0:00
0:00
Howard Tate: Get It While You Can

Howard Tate: Get It While You Can

Album #69 - April 1965

0:00
0:00
THE REAL FOLK BLUES – JOHN LEE HOOKER

John Lee Hooker: Real Folk Blues

Album #68 - October 1966

0:00
0:00
The Kinks: Face to Face

The Kinks: Face to Face

Album #67 - October 1966

0:00
0:00
OTIS REDDING - DICTIONARY OF SOUL

Otis Redding: Dictionary of Soul

Album #66 - October 1966

0:00
0:00
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High

Ike and Tina Turner: River Deep, Mountain High

Album #65 - September 1966

0:00
0:00