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New Skin for the Old Ceremony was the Canadian poet, novelist, and songwriter Leonard Cohen's fourth album. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other instruments giving the album a much more full feel.
"Chelsea Hotel #1", the precursor to "Chelsea Hotel #2", was only performed live. "Chelsea Hotel #2" refers to a sexual encounter in the Chelsea Hotel, probably New York City's most famous Bohemian hostelry. For some years, when performing this song live, Cohen would tell a story that made it clear that the person he was singing about was Janis Joplin. In a 1994 broadcast on the BBC, Cohen described that as "an indiscretion for which I'm very sorry, and if there is some way of apologising to the ghost, I want to apologise now, for having committed that indiscretion." [1] (http://www.webheights.net/speakingcohen/bbctrans.htm)
"Who By Fire" explicitly relates to Cohen's Jewish roots, echoing the words of the Kaddish and sung as a duet with Janis Ian (also Jewish; her birth name was Janis Eddy Fink).
"Leaving Green Sleeves" is a reworking of the 15th-century folk song "Greensleeves". Cohen retains the chord progression and the words of the first two verses, but changes the melody and takes the latter verses in a different direction than the original.
The original cover art for New Skin For The Old Ceremony was a rather sexual image of two winged and crowned beings, presumably angels. In at least one early edition of the album, his U.S. record label balked at this art, substituting a photo of Cohen.
Track listing
(all songs written by Leonard Cohen)
- "Is This What You Wanted"
- "Chelsea Hotel #2"
- "Lover Lover Lover"
- "Field Commander Cohen"
- "Why Don't You Try"
- "There is a War"
- "A Singer Must Die"
- "I Tried to Leave You"
- "Who by Fire"
- "Take This Longing"
- "Leaving Green Sleeves"
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