Line #66 Music/SongsFromARoom


1	[[quoteright:301:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/58ce7b2ebe4d4b24186fcce0ba57c7ed.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:301:''"Tonight will be fine ... for a while."'']]
3	->''"Like a bird on a wire\
4	Like a drunk in a midnight choir\
5	I have tried in my way to be free"''
6	-->-- '''Bird on the Wire'''
7
8	''Songs from a Room'' is the second album by Music/LeonardCohen, released in 1969 through Creator/ColumbiaRecords. It has a lighter, folkier feel than its predecessor, Music/SongsOfLeonardCohen, and is the nearest Cohen got to a Main/CountryMusic album -- it was produced in Memphis by Bob Johnson after sessions produced by David Crosby in Los Angeles failed to work out. The lightness of tone on the surface is deceptive however; songs on the album probes deeper into the themes of religion, despair and suicide that were evident in the earlier album. Along with "Suzanne" from his previous album, the opening track "Bird on the Wire" was probably the most-covered of Cohen's songs before "Hallelujah".
9
10	----
11	!! Tracklist:
12	[[AC: Side One]]
13	# "Bird on the Wire" - 3:28
14	# "Story of Isaac" - 3:38
15	# "A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes" - 3:18
16	# "The Partisan" - 3:29
17	# "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" - 3:41
18
19	[[AC: Side Two]]
20	[numlist:6]
21	# "The Old Revolution" - 4:50
22	# "The Butcher" - 3:22
23	# "You Know Who I Am" - 3:32
24	# "Lady Midnight" - 3:01
25	# "Tonight Will Be Fine" - 3:53
26	[/numlist]
27	----
28	!!Tropes associated with this album:
29	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''S'''eems '''S'''o Long Ago, Nancy".
30	* AntiLoveSong: "Tonight Will Be Fine"
31	--> ''Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past.''
32	--> ''We swore to each other then that our love would surely last.''
33	--> ''You kept right on loving, I went on a fast''
34	--> ''Now I am too thin and your love is too vast.''
35	* AsTheGoodBookSays: Of the Old Testament variety, as befits Cohen's active Judaism.
36	** "Story of Isaac"
37	--> ''He said, "I've had a vision''
38	--> ''And you know I'm strong and holy''
39	--> ''I must do what I've been told."''
40	--> ''So he started up the mountain''
41	--> ''I was running, he was walking''
42	--> ''And his axe was made of gold.''
43	** "The Butcher"
44	--> ''Was I supposed to praise my Lord,''
45	--> ''Make some kind of joyful sound?''
46	** "You Know Who I Am"
47	--> ''Sometimes I need you naked''
48	--> ''Sometimes I need you wild''
49	--> ''I need you to carry my children in''
50	--> ''And I need you to kill a child''
51	--> ''You know who I am.''
52	* BilingualBonus: Parts of "The Partisan" are in French. Being a ''Québécois'' Cohen handles French just fine.
53	--> ''Les Allemands étaient chez moi"
54	--> ''Ils me dirent "résignes-toi"
55	--> ''Mais je n'ai pas peur"
56	--> ''J'ai repris mon arme."
57	* BrokenRecord: "Tonight Will Be Fine"
58	--> ''Tonight will be fine, will be fine, will be fine, will be fine...''
59	* CharacterTitle: "Story of Isaac", "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy"
60	* CourtlyLove: "Bird on the Wire"
61	--> ''Like a knight in some old-fashioned book''
62	--> ''I have saved all my ribbons for thee''
63	* CoverVersion: "The Partisan", a translation by Hy Zaret of a 1943 French song "La Complainte du Partisan" by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, about the French Resistance in [=WW2=]. One of very few cover versions in the early part of Cohen's career.
64	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The cover is in stark black and white.
65	* DrivenToSuicide: "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy"
66	--> ''It seems so long ago''
67	--> ''Nancy was alone''
68	--> ''A forty-five beside her head''
69	--> ''An open telephone''
70	--> ''We told her she was beautiful''
71	--> ''We told her she was free''
72	--> ''But none of us would meet her in''
73	--> ''The house of mystery.''
74	* FaceOnTheCover: Confined to a small box, perhaps echoing the spartan room in "Tonight Will Be Fine", with the contrast turned up to eleven so that all detail is washed out.
75	* HeroicSacrifice: "The Partisan"
76	--> ''An old woman gave us shelter''
77	--> ''Kept us hidden in the garret''
78	--> ''Then the soldiers came''
79	--> ''She died without a whisper.''
80	--> ''(...)Un vieil homme dans un grenier'' [[note]] An old man in an attic [[/note]]
81	--> ''Pour la nuit nous a caché'' [[note]] Hid us for the night [[/note]]
82	--> ''Les Allemands l' ont pris'' [[note]] The Germans captured him [[/note]]
83	--> ''Il est mort sans surprise'' [[note]] He died without surprise [[/note]]
84	* JobTitle: "The Partisan", "The Butcher".
85	* LaResistance: "The Partisan" is a song about the French resistance during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, originally completely in French, but Cohen sings it in English, thus leaves a few lines in the original language.
86	* LyricalDissonance: "Tonight Will Be Fine" sounds rather jolly. It's about loneliness, depression and drug addiction.
87	--> ''I choose the rooms that I live in with care''
88	--> ''The windows are small and the walls almost bare''
89	--> ''There's only one bed and there's only one prayer''
90	--> ''I listen all night for your step on the stair''
91	* NonAppearingTitle: The album title doesn't appear in any of the lyrics. The song title doesn't appear in the lyrics of "Story of Isaac", "A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes"[[note]]But "A bunch of lonesome and very quarrelsome heroes" does[[/note]], "The Partisan" or "The Butcher"[[note]]But "I came upon a butcher" does[[/note]].
92	* OdeToIntoxication: "Tonight Will Be Fine".
93	* OffingTheOffspring: "Story of Isaac". Though as the song is narrated in the first person it's clear the father doesn't go through with it.
94	* OneWomanSong: "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy".
95	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is based on the life and death of a real Nancy that Cohen once knew. [[http://www.challies.com/articles/seems-so-long-ago-nancy-0 This article]] may shed some light on the real story.
96	* RetroactiveRecognition: [[Music/TheCharlieDanielsBand Charlie Daniels]], who played bass guitar, violin and acoustic guitar on this album, later became famous in his own right for being the leader of his own band and recording a very famous song about a fiddle duel with the devil.
97	* ShoutOut: Some lines from "Story Of Isaac" are quoted in the song "Everybody's Weird" from Music/{{dEUS}}' album ''Music/TheIdealCrash'' (1999). The band's lead singer, Tom Barman, is a huge fan of Cohen.
98	--> ''I will help you if I must''
99	--> ''I will kill you if I can''
100	--> ''(...) I will kill you if I must''
101	--> ''I will help you if I can''
102	* TeamTitle: "A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes"
103	* TheTheTitleConfusion: It's "Bird on ''The'' Wire," but many cover versions make it "Bird on ''A'' Wire," and the compilation ''The Essential Leonard Cohen'' eventually followed suit.
104	* WordSaladLyrics: As with many Cohen songs there is a lot of symbolism which isn't easy to penetrate. This is less evident on this album, however, than with most. Averted with "The Partisan" which is blunt and to the point. Possibly also with "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy".
105	* AWorldHalfFull:
106	** "The Partisan". The narrator seems confident that all will be well in the end.
107	--> ''Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing''
108	--> ''Through the graves the wind is blowing''
109	--> ''Freedom soon will come''
110	--> ''Then we'll come from the shadows.''
111	** "Tonight Will Be Fine"
112	--> ''But I know from your eyes''
113	--> ''And I know from your smile''
114	--> ''That tonight will be fine''
115	--> ''Will be fine, will be fine, will be fine''
116	--> ''For a while.''

Context Music / SongsFromARoom