Ladies Men

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

so i bought death of a ladies man this week, and the fight b/w cohen and spector for supermacy, or for the words and the music to work against each other in such a tense way, makes it an incredible listen, i was wrong about the album.

but listening to let it be again, where something similar should happen, it doenst, its just an ugly, sentimental record.

my thesis was, interesting things happen when

a) spector is allowed to win
b) spector fails to win, but struggles to try.

though the second half of this thesis is disprovable with let it be, and i found for a decade, death of a ladies man an impossible listen...

i dont know what this means, but it keeps reminding me of poptimist, because we keep paying attention to who is behind the curtain (ie the new paris is kind of amazing b/c scott sorch (sp) is amazing), and these two examples seem like an interesting test case of what happens when people with strong, interior voices work together.

why does death of a ladies man work and let it be fail?
why is cohen pleased w. death and displeased with let it be?

(this is the only time that cohen is lush, he went from guitars to casio, and well the beatles were always lush, but differently lush than spector)

(the aesthetics of "lushness". maybe?)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Is Cohen pleased with Death of a Ladies Man? I seem to remember reading that he thought the collaboration failed.

Mind you I am no expert on this, as I think it's a failure because it has Leonard Cohen on it.

As for Paris, most of the praise I've seen - from the Lex and Frank K - has been focussing on Paris not on the backroom staff, tho there's usually an acknowledgement she can buy the best. The faint praise or damnation I've encountered has made more of the backroom staff, as if buying the best is somehow an admission of weakness.

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

I do recall Laughing Len saying he wld be happy to work w/ Spector again even after the perceived failure of DOALM (tho this was pre-murder-trial, obv. Actually a rec PRODUCED by Phil from prison might be interesting - he cld be another Burzum!)

Was the Beatles sound 'lush' pre-Sgt Peppers?

[koganbot]

Well, the faint praisers/damners mention the backroom staff but are generally uninterested in saying what the staffers are actually doing - whereas many of us on the teenpop thread, pro or con, were talking about how Paris's voice was used within the arrangements, which presumably was worked out by Paris and her collaborators.