- Mass Market Paperback: 216 pages
- Publisher: Viking Pr (Sep 1979)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140422757
- ISBN-13: 978-0140422757
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,949,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There's something horribly sordid and alluring about this album -- my first ever Cohen and by far his most uncharacteristically bewitching. And It's not even the ever-dubious nietzschean Spector touch which seeks to apply The Wall Of Sound to whatever it hears. In fact, The Wall itself is so oddly built up that it ends up defeating the high and mighty aplomb it is known for.
The huge arrangements, the choruses, the rising and swirling cadences with all their monumental aspirations are there, but they sound bizarrely dwarfed. The mystery, I think, is in the mix. The whole wagnerian army is meshed together as one beast, with little sound separation. But then it's pushed all the way to the back. So Cohen sings (and hollers) above an otherwise lush and nearly indistinguishable sea of tinny sounds that strives to lurch forward into the foreground but can't. The effect is unique. Spector's massive backup comes across as thin and distant, echoing all over the place, while Cohen seems wholly out of sorts, forced to sing in ways he never imagined. And he does so with desperate grace. Then there's the rickety chorus of females coming in and out, like they're popping their heads into the room intermittently, warbling their lines in sensuous white trash tones.
Think of an ample and disreputable saloon with the a full string section and keyboards playing on an ancient jukebox at the FAR end of the lounge. Then, before the music reaches you, some twisted cowboy sitting midway decides to add his singing, backed up occasionally by the skanky barroom girls. By the time this mix has finished bouncing through the room and hits YOU, the effect is both pathetic and glorious, threadbare and deeply moving, comical and metaphysical; it's both muzak and great music.
It's downright tacky...but oh so beautiful.
The cover says it all: Decadent white 'customer' of a cheap 'gentleman's club' in a dark corner of the world flanked by two anonymous, overly-perfumed, and terribly young 'ladies of the night'. The music in such a setting would be the music you hear on this album. (I should've just said that at the start!)
How they did it, I dunno.
The huge arrangements, the choruses, the rising and swirling cadences with all their monumental aspirations are there, but they sound bizarrely dwarfed. The mystery, I think, is in the mix. The whole wagnerian army is meshed together as one beast, with little sound separation. But then it's pushed all the way to the back. So Cohen sings (and hollers) above an otherwise lush and nearly indistinguishable sea of tinny sounds that strives to lurch forward into the foreground but can't. The effect is unique. Spector's massive backup comes across as thin and distant, echoing all over the place, while Cohen seems wholly out of sorts, forced to sing in ways he never imagined. And he does so with desperate grace. Then there's the rickety chorus of females coming in and out, like they're popping their heads into the room intermittently, warbling their lines in sensuous white trash tones.
Think of an ample and disreputable saloon with the a full string section and keyboards playing on an ancient jukebox at the FAR end of the lounge. Then, before the music reaches you, some twisted cowboy sitting midway decides to add his singing, backed up occasionally by the skanky barroom girls. By the time this mix has finished bouncing through the room and hits YOU, the effect is both pathetic and glorious, threadbare and deeply moving, comical and metaphysical; it's both muzak and great music.
It's downright tacky...but oh so beautiful.
The cover says it all: Decadent white 'customer' of a cheap 'gentleman's club' in a dark corner of the world flanked by two anonymous, overly-perfumed, and terribly young 'ladies of the night'. The music in such a setting would be the music you hear on this album. (I should've just said that at the start!)
How they did it, I dunno.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I've thought long and hard about what rating to give this and I've only arrived at the two stars after much deliberation. To explain: Leonard Cohen is a consummate songwriter and craftsman. He doesn't just write lyrics, as many people think, but creates songs that are intensely musical and affecting. Usually, he's fortunate enough to work with people who share his vision and bring to the table the kind of sensitivity and artfulness that shows its work off to its best advantage. Sadly, this was not the case with Death Of A Ladies Man.
OK - the collaboration with Spector wasn't the most obvious of ideas, but it wasn't necessarily doomed to catastrophe. Sadly, though, Spector had far too much 'muscle' in the recording process - he ended up excluding Leonard (by force, if word is to be believed) from the mixing sessions, for which Leonard had only laid down 'guide' vocals. The result is a bloated, over-produced mess, in which Spector edges out Cohen by about 80-20.
Most of the songs are good: Paper Thin Hotel and Iodine particularly so and Memories is probably the best thing on here (though check out the Field Commander Cohen version to hear how it should sound). Too often, though, there is the sense that yer man is merely a guest on someone's else's album.
Don't get me wrong: it pains me to give this low a rating to a Leonard Cohen album, but - as I've said elsewhere - people like LC deserve to be judged only by their own highest standards. This album falls far short of those - through no fault, sadly, of Leonard Cohen himself.
OK - the collaboration with Spector wasn't the most obvious of ideas, but it wasn't necessarily doomed to catastrophe. Sadly, though, Spector had far too much 'muscle' in the recording process - he ended up excluding Leonard (by force, if word is to be believed) from the mixing sessions, for which Leonard had only laid down 'guide' vocals. The result is a bloated, over-produced mess, in which Spector edges out Cohen by about 80-20.
Most of the songs are good: Paper Thin Hotel and Iodine particularly so and Memories is probably the best thing on here (though check out the Field Commander Cohen version to hear how it should sound). Too often, though, there is the sense that yer man is merely a guest on someone's else's album.
Don't get me wrong: it pains me to give this low a rating to a Leonard Cohen album, but - as I've said elsewhere - people like LC deserve to be judged only by their own highest standards. This album falls far short of those - through no fault, sadly, of Leonard Cohen himself.
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As somewhat of a Cohen completest I bought this against the advice of the majority of the reviews I had read. This is the Phil Spector co-written/produced album that apparantly LC himself would now like to disown. However, I for one am glad that this album came to fruition... It's less immediately depressing than most of Cohen's work even having some relatively upbeat songs on it ("Fingerprints" for example) but still brutally covers the staple Cohen themes of sex, love, lost love, and love that was never there in the first place... Paper thin hotel and Iodine are beautiful. Don't go home with your hard on and Memories are honest. Definately worth a listen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Leonard Cohen - the master of poetry and prose
This collection has it all; from the humorous to the darkly bleak Leonard Cohen has given us everything and the notes about each poem on the page adjacent to the poem are an added... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Cohenite
Death Of a Ladies Man:Leonard Cohen-True love may leave no traces, but...
This is the fifth studio release from Leonard Cohen, and for me the weakest album in his back catalogue. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Victor
Ecoutez vos envies
Je ne connaissais que quelques uns des poèmes de ce recueil.
J'ai commis " l'erreur " de décider de l'acquérir, me précipitant par là même... Read more
J'ai commis " l'erreur " de décider de l'acquérir, me précipitant par là même... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Envie de vivre enfin
Cohen at his worst, and one album he regrets doing I would imagine!
Well what can I say in defence of this cacophony of sound - hardly anything! I am not surprised that Leonard doesn't want anything to do with this album and I assume wishes he had... Read more
Published 15 months ago by P. A. Mitchell
Ahead of its time
Death of a Ladies man seems to be slated by most die-hard Leonard Cohen fans, and so is at risk of disappearing into obscurity. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Wreckthedisco
Strangely it works; well mostly!
Firstly, this is not Leonard's best album nor is it a typical Cohen album but it is worth listening to. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. S. Webb
First rate
This is possibly the L Cohen album that Iisten to the most - its profound (look for the lyrics to True love leaves no traces, Iodine or Dont leave home), very musical and hugely... Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2009 by M. Joshi
NOT COHEN'S BEST...
...but still great enough. Phil Spector gives you the ultimate musical overkill with his famous WALL OF SOUND, which personally I could have done without. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2008 by Sick-o
Cohen:A Man For All Seasons
Cohen himself is less than fond of this album, but it's better than 'Dear Heather' and 'Ten New Songs,' in my humble opinion. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2007 by pikeyboy
An acquired taste
In common with many Leonard Cohen albums, this does have the odd duff song ('I left a woman waiting' in this case), but the album does not suffer for it. Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2006 by Edward Hough
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