Leonard Cohen - Dear Heather
(Columbia)
The iconoclastic Cohen, who just turned 70 in September is truly the grand old man of rock and roll, with perhaps more tribute albums than any other artist (there are over two dozen documented on his website by artists from Scandinavia, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, et. al., including entire disks of Cohen material by Judy Collins (Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy) and Jennifer Warnes (Famous Blue Raincoat). Artists as diverse as Billy Joel, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine and a whole generation of alterna-rockers from John Cale and Nick Cave to Ian McCulloch, The Green Pajamas, The Pixies and R.E.M. have covered his songs and some (particularly McCulloch and PJ’s frontman Jeff Kelly) have specifically cited Cohen as a major influence on their songwriting careers. In total, over 900 versions of Cohen’s songs have been recorded.
All this in honor of a man who is not exactly the world’s most prolific artist (this is only his 11th studio album in over 35 years, although several live and greatest hits packages also exist) and perhaps sensing this may be his final opportunity to pay tribute to his own friends and inspirations, he dedicates songs to his early mentors, Canadian poets Irving Layton (by setting Lord Byron’s “Go No More A-Roving” to original music) and A.M. Klein (“To A Teacher”), as well as the recently deceased Carl Anderson, who played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar (“Nightingale”). Cohen’s tongue-in-cheek wit and self-deprecating humor is evident in “Because Of,” which begins, “Because of a few songs/Wherein I spoke of their mystery,/Women have been/Exceptionally kind/to my old age,” and while the song occasionally drifts into self-parody (longtime fans have been known to mimic Cohen’s delivery like Joe Piscopo impersonating Frank Sinatra), it’s refreshing to hear an artist of Cohen’s stature poke fun at himself with such gleeful pride.
With a gravelly, sandpaper voice so low it makes Tom Waits and Barry White sound like castratos, LC oozes more sexuality than rock’s sex symbols 1/3 his age. He’s low key and relaxed throughout, with several songs little more than poetry recitations (“Morning Glory,” Frank Scott’s “Villanelle for Our Time,” featuring Anjani Thomas’ sweet harmonies that provide a gentle counterpoint to Cohen’s gruff exterior, and his eulogy to Klein, “To A Teacher”) and one (“Undertow”) where he’s even relegated to singing backing vocals (for Thomas) on his own album! Still, “There For You” bears that swaying melody and clipped delivery that’s been his trademark since his 1968 debut.
Cohen has said there’s no Heather, per se; thus the title song becomes an ode to perhaps his ideal, unattainable woman, although his robotic delivery and the playful organ and trumpet backing (by Sarah Kramer) turn this into a children’s song and one can envision Lenny singing this to his grandchildren (at one point he even resorts to spelling the lyrics!) Finally, the toe-tapping country jig of “Nightingale,” complete with Cohen’s own Jew’s harp backing will have you kicking up your heels in no time, and while this is as much a spoken word album as anything else, it still is Leonard Cohen. It may be the last we will hear from him, and while certainly not ranking with the best of his later releases like I’m Your Man and The Future, like any idol who may be past his prime, it still beats the prospect of eternal silence from a friend you’ve grown up with and is a pleasure to hear the master one more time.
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