Leonard Cohen, Phil Spector -and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
I’ve found myself listening to a lot of old records during lockdown, especially LPs from my teenage years, the Seventies . I suppose it’s the musical equivalent of comfort food, helping me get through this strange and isolating time. Hope you’re all doing well, wherever you are, and finding ways to get by.
One of those albums was Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies Man. It’s his most controversial album, written and recorded with Phil Spector during dark times in both their lives. Leonard himself described it as “grotesque”, though he grew to like it more over time. If you’d like to read more, here’s a new piece I wrote on the making of the album.
I’ve also been listening to CSN&Y’s debut album Deja Vu - the massive new anniversary edition with three CDs of bonus tracks. I wrote a six-page story on it for the new edition of MOJO. Since Covid put paid to interviewing anyone in person, it made for a lot of phone calls and Zooming into people’s homes. Which meant seeing what they get to wear in lockdown - and first prize goes to Stephen Stills’ very fine Hawaiian Shirt! (Sorry, no link to this article, because MOJO doesn’t put its content online, but you can find it in the new issue, #331)