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Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Columbia Records
Released: 1988.02.02
Time:
 40:41
Category: Folk
Producer(s): Leonard Cohen, Roscoe Beck, Jean-Michel Reusser, Michel Robidoux
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.leonardcohen.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2013
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] First We Take Manhattan (L.Cohen) - 6:01
[2] Ain't No Cure for Love (L.Cohen) - 4:50
[3] Everybody Knows" (L.Cohen/S.Robinson) - 5:36
[4] I'm Your Man (L.Cohen) - 4:28
[5] Take This Waltz" (L.Cohen/F.G.Lorca) - 5:59
[6] Jazz Police" (L.Cohen/J.Fisher) - 3:53
[7] I Can't Forget (L.Cohen) - 4:31
[8] Tower of Song (L.Cohen) - 5:37

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Leonard Cohen: keyboards, vocals, producer, arrangement

Jude Johnson: vocals
Anjani Thomas: vocals
Jennifer Warnes: vocals
Mayel Assouly: backing vocals
Evelyine Hebey: backing vocals
Elisabeth Valletti: backing vocals
Jeff Fisher: keyboards
Bob Stanley: guitar
Sneaky Pete Kleinow: pedal steel guitar
Peter Kisilenko: bass
Tom Brechtlein: drums
Vinnie Colaiuta: drums
Lenny Castro: percussion
Michel Robidoux: drums, keyboards
John Bilezikjian: oud
Richard Beaudet: saxophone
Raffi Hakopian: violin

Ian Terry - engineer
Leanne Ungar - engineer, mixing, technical co-ordination
François Deschamps - engineer
Fred Echelard - assistan engineer
Roscoe Beck - production co-ordination

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


I'm Your Man is the eighth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1988. The album marked Cohen's further move to a more modern sound, with many songs having a synthpop production. "First We Take Manhattan" had been released the previous year by Jennifer Warnes on her album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat. The song "Everybody Knows" was one of Cohen's first writing collaborations with Sharon Robinson, who would become a frequent collaborator in the future. Most notably, Robinson co-wrote every song on Cohen's 2001 outing Ten New Songs. In "Tower of Song", Cohen discusses songwriting and acknowledges the influence of Hank Williams ("a hundred floors above me"). "I'm Your Man" was number 1 in Norway for 16 weeks. The album is silver in the UK and gold in Canada. It was ranked 51 on Pitchfork Media's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s. Tom Waits has named it one of his favourite albums. Slant Magazine listed the album at number 29 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s". The track "Take This Waltz" was already released in 1986 (as a single off the Federico García Lorca tribute album Poets in New York) and reached number 1 in the Spanish charts. The words were translated by Cohen from García Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés".



Sogar die mit Synthesizer-Streichern und gurrendem weiblichen Background-Gesang beladene Produktion von I'm Your Man, einem charakteristischen Leonard-Cohen-Album, ist trocken. Obwohl leicht tragisch angehaucht (wie in "Take This Waltz", basierend auf einem Gedicht von Garcia Lorca), erreicht dieses Album seine Höhepunkte oft durch die Verbindung von Cohens Weltmüdigkeit mit schwarzhumorigen Beschwörungen von sozialen und romantischen Mißständen sowie künstlerischen Widrigkeiten. "So wurde ich geboren, ich hatte keine Wahl", vertraut uns der rauhe Cohen am Ende der Platte an, "ich wurde mit der Gabe einer goldenen Stimme geboren".

Rickey Wright - Amazon.de



Aus der Feder des Kanadiers stammt "First We Take Manhattan". Den Jenni- fer-Warnes-Hit und weitere Lieder serviert Cohen zum 20jährigen Plattenju- biläum: Lyrik, schwarz-grau, mit ebensolcher Stimme vorgetragen. Dazu mo- derne, maßgeschneiderte Instrumentierung - frisch, ironisch, naiv, hinter- gründig.

© Audio



Die kanadische Sängerin Jennifer Warnes brachte Leonard Cohen im vergan- genen Jahr wieder ins Gespräch - mit dem Album "Famous Blue Raincoat", das nur Coverversionen von Songs ihres großen Idols enthält. Der 54jährige Weltschmerz-Barde schrieb für das LP-Projekt auch ein neues Lied, mit dem Jennifer Warnes einen beachtlichen Radio-Hit landete: "First We Take Manhattan". Dieses textlich recht undurchsichtige Stück ist nun auch der Auftakt zu Cohens eigener neuen Platte "I'm Your Man". Selbstredend kommt "First We Take Manhattan" hier nicht so rhythmisch flott daher wie in der Warnes-Aufnahme: Cohens herber Sprechgesang kontrastiert mit einem einsamen Sequenzer. Diesen Stil behält der Poet und Novellenschreiber über die ganze Produktion hinweg bei. Nur die notwendigsten Begleittöne geleiten die Texte, die mehr gesprochen als gesungen werden und deren Inhalt rätselhaft ist wie immer - Cohen liebt es eben, seine Fans grübeln zu lassen. Verhaltene Computer-Rhythmen, softe Tastenklänge und laszive weibliche Chorstimmen bestimmen den so zeitgerechten wie ungewohnten Sound - für die eingeschworene Gemeinde des singenden Dichters sicher ein hartes Brot. Doch warum sollte nicht auch ein Leonard Cohen mit den Errungenschaften der Studiotechnik flirten dürfen? Solange er seine depressive Stimme nicht über einen Modulations-Verfremder schickt, läßt sich vieles vertreten. Keine Klangunterschiede zwischen LP und CD. ** Interpret.: 7-8

© Stereoplay
 

 L y r i c s


First We Take Manhattan

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'd really like to live beside you, baby
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes
But you see that line there moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of those

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I don't like your fashion business mister
And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin
I don't like what happened to my sister
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'd really like to live beside you, baby ...

And I thank you for those items that you sent me
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I'm ready
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I am guided

Ah remember me, I used to live for music
Remember me, I brought your groceries in
Well it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin


Ain't No Cure For Love

I loved you for a long, long time
I know this love is real
It don't matter how it all went wrong
That don't change the way I feel
And I can't believe that time's
Gonna heal this wound I'm speaking of
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love
I'm aching for you baby
I can't pretend I'm not
I need to see you naked
In your body and your thought
I've got you like a habit
And I'll never get enough
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love

There ain't no cure for love
There ain't no cure for love
All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they'll never ever find that cure for love
There ain't no drink no drug
(Ah tell them, angels)
There's nothing pure enough to be a cure for love

I see you in the subway and I see you on the bus
I see you lying down with me, I see you waking up
I see your hand, I see your hair
Your bracelets and your brush
And I call to you, I call to you
But I don't call soft enough
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love

I walked into this empty church I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard, whispered to my soul
I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much
It's written in the scriptures
It's written there in blood
I even heard the angels declare it from above
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love

There ain't no cure for love
There ain't no cure for love
All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they'll never ever find that cure,
That cure for love


Everybody Knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows


I'm Your Man

If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man

Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please
I'm your man

And if you've got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I'm your man

If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you


Take This Waltz

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws
Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallways where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and Death
Dragging its tail in the sea

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it's been dying for years

There's an attic where children are playing
Where I've got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow
Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its "I'll never forget you, you know!"

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz ...

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder,
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
Oh my love, Oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now. It's all that there is


Jazz Police

Can you tell me why the bells are ringing?
Nothing's happened in a million years
I've been sitting here since Wednesday morning
Wednesday morning can't believe my ears
Jazz police are looking through my folders
Jazz police are talking to my niece
Jazz police have got their final orders
Jazzer, drop your axe, it's Jazz police!

Jesus taken serious by the many
Jesus taken joyous by a few
Jazz police are paid by J. Paul Getty
Jazzers paid by J. Paul Getty II

Jazz police I hear you calling
Jazz police I feel so blue
Jazz police I think I'm falling,
I'm falling for you

Wild as any freedom loving racist
I applaud the actions of the chief
Tell me now oh beautiful and spacious
Am I in trouble with the Jazz police?

Jazz police are looking through my folders ...

They will never understand our culture
They'll never understand the Jazz police
Jazz police are working for my mother
Blood is thicker margarine than grease

Let me be somebody I admire
Let me be that muscle down the street
Stick another turtle on the fire
Guys like me are mad for turtle meat

Jazz police I hear you calling
Jazz police I feel so blue
Jazz police I think I'm falling,
I'm falling for you


I Can't Forget

I stumbled out of bed
I got ready for the struggle
I smoked a cigarette
And I tightened up my gut
I said this can't be me
Must be my double
And I can't forget, I can't forget
I can't forget but I don't remember what
I'm burning up the road
I'm heading down to Phoenix
I got this old address
Of someone that I knew
It was high and fine and free
Ah, you should have seen us
And I can't forget, I can't forget
I can't forget but I don't remember who

I'll be there today
With a big bouquet of cactus
I got this rig that runs on memories
And I promise, cross my heart,
They'll never catch us
But if they do, just tell them it was me

Yeah I loved you all my life
And that's how I want to end it
The summer's almost gone
The winter's tuning up
Yeah, the summer's gone
But a lot goes on forever
And I can't forget, I can't forget
I can't forget but I don't remember what


Tower Of Song

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song

I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all
I'm standing by the window where the light is strong
Ah they don't let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song

Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor
And there's a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the Tower of Song

I see you standing on the other side
I don't know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that we lost
We'll never have to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
There moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the Tower of Song

Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on
I'm just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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