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

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Geez, I was just reading someone talking about Death of a Ladies Man and how it worked while something similar didn't. Argh. Uh, maybe Dylan's work in a similar period?

Anyway, the argument there, which I agree with, was that Cohen was mocking himself--the title was sarcastic and a little acid, so it became like the lush music was mocking him too, and that created a tension that boosted the whole thing higher than it would've otherwise. The problem with the Wall of Sound is that it needs something holding it up, otherwise it's just a big wash of pretty.

I need to listen to this again, thanks! (A band in my high school did a great punk cover of "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On.")