I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen Album)
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''I'm Your Man'' is the eighth
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by Canadian singer-songwriter
Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
, released on February 2, 1988, by
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
. The album marked Cohen's further move to a more modern sound, with many songs having a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
-oriented production. It soon became the most successful studio album which Cohen had released in the US, and it reached number one in several European countries, transforming Cohen into a best-selling artist.


Recording

''I'm Your Man'' was recorded in
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,
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and
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, and while it was the first studio album where Cohen took sole credit for the production, three contributing producers participated: Roscoe Beck, Jean-Michel Reusser and Michel Robidoux. The LP would give Cohen an updated, contemporary 80s sound, featuring songs composed primarily on keyboards and delivered in Cohen's increasingly gravelly rasp. Cohen's sound had started to evolve on his last studio album '' Various Positions'' (1984) but it is more fully realized on this album. Fellow Montrealer, Jeff Fisher, contributed his driving keyboard arrangements, playing all the music on "First We Take Manhattan" and "Jazz Police", and arranging and playing on "There Ain't No Cure for Love". Cohen's collaboration with Fisher, who delivered a "cinematic" feel reminiscent of
Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...
, "convinced Cohen the album was possible". In his book ''Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life'' (2010), biographer Anthony Reynolds observes, "...in almost every respect ''I'm Your Man'' marked not so much a progression but an evolutionary leap forward...Cohen's new musical canvas was rich and wide, with its bold and bald use of sequencers,
drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...
s,
synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the ea ...
and synths all mixed exotically with the lingering eastern
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an textures of the
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, the oud, and the heart rending (old
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n school)
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
." Cohen felt his singing had improved as well, telling Adrian Deevoy of '' Q'' magazine in 1991, "Sometimes I can’t stand the sound of my voice. It went through periods. The first and second records it sounded right. Then I stopped being able to find the right voice for the songs. The songs were good and the intention was good but the voice wasn’t really up to it. I lost it for a while. When I did ''Various Positions'' it was coming back and when I got to ''I’m Your Man'' I was in full stride." In 1997, he reiterated to Nigel Williamson of '' Uncut'', "On ''I'm Your Man'', my voice had settled and I didn't feel ambiguous about it. I could at last deliver the songs with the authority and intensity required."


Composition

The album includes some of Cohen's most popular songs and concert staples, including the single " Ain't No Cure for Love", " First We Take Manhattan", "
Tower of Song "Tower of Song" is a song written by Leonard Cohen that appears on his 1988 album ''I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen album), I'm Your Man''. In a 2014 reader's poll, ''Rolling Stone'' listed it as the 8th favorite Cohen song. Background The genesis ...
", and " Everybody Knows", which was a collaboration with Cohen's backing vocalist Sharon Robinson. "Everybody Knows" is known for its somber tone and repetition of the title at the beginning of most verses. Featuring phrases such as "''Everybody knows that the dice are loaded''" and "''Everybody knows that the good guys lost''", the song has been variously described by critics as "bitterly pessimistic" yet funny, or, more strongly, a "bleak prophecy about the end of the world as we know it." The lyrics include references to
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, social problems, and relationship and religion issues. The album's opening track, "First We Take Manhattan" (originally called "In Old
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"), deals with
geopolitical Geopolitics () is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of states: ''de facto'' independen ...
ideas, specifically
extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied sha ...
, as he explained himself in a backstage interview: :I think it means exactly what it says. It is a terrorist song. I think it's a response to
terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
. There's something about terrorism that I've always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don't like it when it's manifested on the physical plane – I don't really enjoy the terrorist activities – but Psychic Terrorism. I remember there was a great poem by Irving Layton that I once read – I'll give you a paraphrase of it – it was "Well, you guys blow up an occasional airline and kill a few children here and there," he says. But our terrorists,
Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, Freud,
Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
,
Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
. The whole world is still quaking... "Take This Waltz" was originally released as part the 1986
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...
tribute album ''Poets in New York (Poetas en Nueva York)'' and as a single. It reached number one in Spain in 1986. The song appears on ''I'm Your Man'' in slightly re-arranged version (with addition of violin and Jennifer Warnes's duet vocals, both absent from the 1986 version). The song's lyrics are a loose translation of the poem "Pequeño vals vienés" by the Spanish poet
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...
(one of Cohen's favorite poets). The poem was first published in Lorca's seminal book ''Poet in New York/Poeta en Nueva York''. In his 2010 Cohen biography, Anthony Reynolds claims that the unorthodox "Jazz Police" was Cohen's response to his band's effort to introduce augmented fifths and sevenths to their playing. He "policed" such jazz intrusions, although he "wasn't sure of the lyric's meaning and grew to dislike the conceit." The genesis of "Tower of Song" is described in Ira Nadel's 1996 Cohen memoir ''Various Positions'': :"Tower of Song" is the keynote work of ''I'm Your Man''. With it Cohen wanted to "make a definitive statement about the heroic enterprise of the craft" of songwriting. In the early eighties he called the work "Raise My Voice in Song". His concern was with the aging songwriter, and the "necessity to transcend one's own failure by manifesting as the singer, as the songwriter." He had abandoned the song, but one night in Montreal he finished the lyrics and called an engineer and recorded it in one take with a toy synthesizer. Cohen revised the song, which contains the rumination, "I was born like this, I had no choice/I was born with the gift of a golden voice." Ever mindful of his reputation as a "flat singer" among critics, audiences always erupted when Cohen sang these lines live. Cohen also cites
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
, a songwriter he has professed great admiration for, in the song ("...''a hundred floors above me''..."). Cohen recited the lyrics in full when he was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
. Although Cohen had earned a reputation among critics and some listeners for excessive gloominess, several tracks on the album displayed his wry sense of humor and playfulness, such as the lascivious title track and "I Can't Forget", which he cited in a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
interview with John Archer after the album's release as an example of his simpler approach: "I had to go back to the beginning and determine where I was in regard to my own song and I realized that I'd have to find another kind of language that was much flatter, which I think this record has...I began that lyric just trying to locate myself...That was really close to the bone, and that's where I like to keep my lyrics now." In the Paul Zollo book ''Songwriters on Songwriting'' (1991), Cohen said of the song " I'm Your Man": "I sweated over that one. I really sweated over it. I can show you the notebook for that. It started off as a song called "I Cried Enough for You". It was related to a version of "Waiting for a Miracle" that I recorded. The rhyme scheme was developed by toeing the line with that musical version that I put down. But it didn't work." "Ain't No Cure for Love", with its slick AOR sound, was chosen as the first single. Although ''I'm Your Man'' did not do as well in the United States as it did in other countries, CBS Records awarded Cohen with the Crystal Globe award, reserved for artists who have sold more than five million albums overseas, to which Cohen famously quipped, "I have always been touched by the modesty of their interest in my work."


Album cover

The album cover may be Cohen's most memorable, featuring the dapper singer eating a banana. As recounted in Ira Nadel's ''Various Positions'', Cohen was at a Los Angeles warehouse to watch the filming of Jennifer Warnes's music video "First We Take Manhattan" and was photographed by publicist Sharon Weisz in his dark glasses, charcoal gray pin-striped suit, and white T-shirt chomping on a banana: "Sharon showed it to me later and it seemed to sum me up perfectly. 'Here's this guy looking cool,' I thought, 'in shades and a nice suit. He seems to have a grip on things, an idea of himself.' And it suddenly occurred to me that's everyone's dilemma: at the times we think we're the coolest, what everyone else sees is a guy with his mouth full of banana." Cohen liked the image so much that he not only used it for the album cover but as the poster images of his 1988 world tour.


Critical reception

''I'm Your Man'' was hailed by music critics as a return to form. It was No. 1 in Norway for 16 weeks. The album is silver in the UK and gold in Canada. In the original ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' review, David Browne called it "the first Cohen album that can be listened to during the daylight hours." Jason Ankeny of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
writes that ''I'm Your Man'' "re-establishes Leonard Cohen's mastery. Against a backdrop of keyboards and propulsive rhythms, Cohen surveys the global landscape with a precise, unflinching eye: the opening 'First We Take Manhattan' is an ominous fantasy of commercial success bundled in crypto-fascist imagery, while the remarkable 'Everybody Knows' is a cynical catalog of the land mines littering the surface of love in the age of
AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
." It was ranked 51 on ''
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''s list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s.
Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...
has named it one of his favourite albums. ''
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'' listed the album at number 29 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s". In a ''Rolling Stone'' top ten readers poll, three songs from the album – "I'm Your Man", "Tower of Song", and "Everybody Knows" – were voted the best Leonard Cohen songs of all time, ranking #10, #8 and #4, respectively. The album was also included in the book '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. It was voted number 495 in the third edition of
Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
'' (2000).


Track listing

All songs were written by Leonard Cohen, except where noted.


Personnel

Musicians *
Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...
– keyboards, vocals * Jude Johnstone – vocals * Anjani Thomas – vocals *
Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter who has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet " Up Where We Belong", and in 1987 fo ...
– vocals * Mayel Assouly – backing vocals * Evelyine Hebey – backing vocals * Elisabeth Valletti – backing vocals * Jeff Fisher – arrangements/all music on tracks 1, 6 (with additional drums from
Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drumme ...
), and arrangements/keyboards on track 2 * Jean-Philippe Rykiel – arrangements and keyboards on track 5 * Bob Stanley – guitar * Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar * Peter Kisilenko – bass * Tom Brechtlein – drums *
Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drumme ...
– drums * Lenny Castro – percussion * Michel Robidoux – drums, keyboards * John Bilezikjianoud * Richard Beaudet – saxophone * Raffi Hakopian – violin Liner notes:
Written, produced, arranged and played by Leonard Cohen.
Vocals by Leonard Cohen and
Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter who has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet " Up Where We Belong", and in 1987 fo ...
.
Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...
:
Ian Terry with François Deschamps at Studio Tempo in
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, Leanne Ungar at Rock Steady in
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.
Mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...
:
Leanne Ungar at Rock Steady in Los Angeles, second engineer: Fred Echelard. Production by Leonard Cohen.
Production co-ordination: Roscoe Beck.
Technical co-ordination: Leanne Ungar.


Charts


Certifications and sales


References


External links


''I'm Your Man ''
(
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) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed) * {{DEFAULTSORT:I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen Album) 1988 albums Leonard Cohen albums Columbia Records albums