History Music / SongsOfLoveAndHate

''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the third album from Music/LeonardCohen. It is considered by many to be his masterpiece. It is also the darkest and most introspective of all his albums and was the product of a very bleak time in his life when he wrestled with depression, suicidal feelings and drug abuse. Thematically it is the most coherent; eight songs that echo and contrast with each other with imagery in binary pairs: love and hate but also hot and cold, summer and winter, morning and afternoon, clothed and unclothed.

-->--'''[[http://www.judithfitzgerald.ca/famousblueraincoat.html Judith Fitzgerald]]'''

The album was listed at #295 in Magazine/RollingStone's [[Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time]].

[[AC: Side One]]

[[AC: Side Two]]

--> ''And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin''
--> ''that the wilderness is gathering all its children back again.''

--> ''New York is cold, but I like where I'm living''
--> ''There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.''

--> ''Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain''
--> ''So I hang upon my altar and I voice my acts again''
--> ''And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began''
--> ''When Jesus was the honeymoon and Cain was just the man.''

--> ''And what can I tell you my brother, my killer''
--> ''What can I possibly say?''

--> ''Sincerely, L Cohen''

--> ''They locked up a man''
--> ''Who wanted to rule the world''
--> ''The fools''
--> ''They locked up the wrong man.''

--> ''And then the cameras pan''
--> ''The stand in stunt man''
--> ''Dress rehearsal rag''
--> ''It's just the dress rehearsal rag''

--> ''And you treated my woman to a flake of your life''
--> ''And when she came back she was nobody's wife.''

--> ''It was deep into his fiery heart''
--> ''He took the dust of Joan of Arc''
--> ''And then she clearly understood''
--> ''If he was fire, oh then she must be wood''

--> ''Cover up your face with soap, there now, you're Santa Claus''
--> ''And you've got a gift for anyone who will give you his applause.''

--> ''Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth''
--> ''One more thin gypsy thief''

--> ''Now Santa Claus steps forward, that's a razor in his mitt''
--> ''And he puts on his dark glasses and he shows you where to hit''

* WeddingDay: Another recurring motif
** "Last Year's Man"
--> ''I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived''
--> ''Bethlehem the bridegroom, Babylon the bride''
** "Joan of Arc"
--> ''"Then fire, make your body cold''
--> ''I'm going to give you mine to hold"''
--> ''Saying this she climbed inside''
--> ''To be his one, to be his only bride''