The Loves and Songs of Leonard Cohen｜Vinyl Monday

1. 

   @snowfiresunwind

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   Great and enjoyable video. I consider Songs of LC to be in the top 3 of Best 1st Albums – the other two being Hendrix's Are You Experienced and Jeff Buckley' Grace.

2. 

   @cae2525

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   Stories of the Street is my favorite from the album

3. 

   @mikehiggs2921

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   Beach Boys – Holland – when?!? 😀

4. 

   @grandtheftaholic

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   never forget sabrina mentioning him in Dumb & Poetic 😭

5. 

   @michaelshiflett4835

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   You are the best

6. 

   @sentimentalelephantsamusic9730

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   Re. Nick Cave's forehead : it's something I call the Australian Skull. I noticed it when looking at a picture of Hunters and Collectors (my favorite Australian band) and noticed that most of the members of this 8 piece band had the same skull shaped, which I realized was fairly common among Australian men. A blocky, sort of rectangular skull, with a high forehead and a hairline that goes back a bit but stays. Guy Pearce has it. An Australian co-worker of mine has it. Once seen, it can't be unseen.

7. 

   @billythemountainbear

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   Fire Woman, You're to blame.

8. 

   @ConnerFields-p7w

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   You should review Sandy Bull, sometime.

9. 

   @zacbillard

   January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

   I love some Leonard Cohen! And, while I like a lot of his early work, my favourite album is “I’m Your Man” because of how zany it is.

   He went from poetry about Suzanne and Birds on Wires to being mad about turtle meat and talking to Hank Williams’s ghost in the tower of song, and I prefer that side of him.

   I also miss walking down Crescent Street and having his giant mural watching down over us all, much like the Mary on top of the Mariner’s Church.

10. 

    @trystramshandy4047

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Love your videos. I hope you earn enough to afford a real turntable like a Thorens TD124, Linn LP12 or at least a Rega Planar 3. A Techniques SL 1200 is a good option if you want to DJ for an old skool rap act

11. 

    @emigrant1510

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Looooved this episode. Got into Cohen's albums last year and it was a fantastic experience.

    He's been an inspiration for me, as a slam poet. Would be awesome to see you do Songs of Love and Hate too.

12. 

    @NadirJones71

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Immaculate hospitality as always, Abbie.

13. 

    @guffa1

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Wondering if you've ever read David Mitchell's Utopia Avenue which features cameos from Leonard Cohen with Janis Joplin at the Chelsea as well as Syd Barrett, Keith Moon, Frank Zappa, John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Jerry Garcia, Cass Elliot. It's a flawed novel no doubt but I find myself thinking of it quite often. And there's some wonderful writing on making music which as you know is not an easy subject to write about.

14. 

    @StaVrosBaNdaCoaTes

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    As long as you’re reviewing Leonard Cohen, I’d love to hear your thoughts on "The Pod" by WEEN. 🎉

15. 

    @rachaeltyrell9851

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Leonard Cohen. I came to him late with I'm Your Man in about 1988. What more need I say? "I see you standing on the other side, I don't know how the river got so wide…" Did you ever hear Peter Hammill?

16. 

    @progrockdude2691

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Ah, Leonard Cohen, an artist I have a whole lot of respect for as opposed to outright adoration (for now at least…) Not because of his voice, but rather is a great reminder for me that I am so out of my depth on what he is singing about that I struggle to connect with it. I can't fault him for this as it's a me thing more than anything. It's been something I've been struggling with for a long time regardless of who I listen to, especially of the more lyrically complex writers like him and Dylan. It's part of the reason why I focus more on the music even if I do find the lyrics to be important still.

    Another note: I feel like I've said this before in a previous video or two, but please be wary of the g-word going forward, even in the context of quoting the song. I feel like there needs to be a reckoning within the classic rock community regarding this era's treatment and weird fascination with the Roma at some point. I'm dying for such a creator, author, etc. to dive into this themself if that hasn't already happened (especially from someone that is actually Romani).

17. 

    @kellypeterson2625

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Excellent episode. I'm stealing your Freudian slip.

18. 

    @AlwaysBeBrian

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Live/Dead!

19. 

    @rickdrais9737

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Stories of the Street. My brother loved the line "One eye filled with blueprints; one eye filled with night." We are Borg. Resistance is futile…

20. 

    @Preacherman001

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    There are a lot of comments – I haven’t read them all – so this may have been mentioned!

    In the U.K. we didn’t get that back cover. In fact that’s the first time I’ve seen it. The UK’s was all text with (I think) some lyrics and a bio.

    Great episode though for an album I loved when it came out, and still do to this day.
    Many is the line I added to Birthday and Valentine cards to my girlfriend- now my wife of 50plus years.

    Excellent review Abbie!

21. 

    @eriksebastian6637

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Funny your Geese collection came up in my feed and I was going to mention the LC reference on their live album art

22. 

    @eriksebastian6637

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    My folks were hippies and my first exposure to music came from playing with their records as a toddler. A lot of great stuff in there, but they did have Songs of Leonard Cohen as well which scared the bejesus out of me. Something about the burning Joan D’Arc on the back cover and Master Song…so creepy. I decided that record was too dark for me and didn’t properly explore LC until I was a teenager and read Beautiful Losers. Tangentially they also had Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter which had a similar effect.

23. 

    @Yam_yam_360

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    yesss you did it!!!!

24. 

    @davidmoore659

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Thank you for this review. I love this album. Excellent and informative as ever 😁

25. 

    @borntogazeintonightskies

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Somehow it is VERY hard seeing Leonard Cohen as a country music fan.

26. 

    @geraldbabin6828

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    That performance of young Lenny performing Stranger Song where a single tear rolls down his cheek at the end always gets me right in the feels! Am I also just some Joseph looking for a manger?!?! 😭

27. 

    @dancingbear86

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Songs of… is my favorite album by Leonard. His first three albums are my favorites of his. Judy Collins ( one of my favorite singers) first introduced me to his songs and after hearing his songs featured in the fantastic and favorite film McCabe and Mrs. Miller, I became a fan. 🌚

28. 

    @blahblahblah5816

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Fairport Convention's version of "Suzanne" is my favorite.

29. 

    @PartTimeBuddhist

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I worry I'm the weirdo who listens to Leonard Cohen for the music. This album didn't do much for me on first listen, but Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller gave me an "in," and I can't help but feel a chilly, rustic breeze blowing through it all now. Sometimes his lyrics strike me as the eye-roll inducing verbosity of a college freshman at a poetry reading, but this verse from "Sisters of Mercy" makes me forgive all: "Well they lay down beside me, I made my confession to them/They touch both my eyes and I touch the dew on their hem/If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn/They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as the stem."

30. 

    @nvm9040

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Cohen has been welcome to the channel 😊

31. 

    @natepinson

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I discovered Leonard Cohen, fittingly enough, when I stole a pornographic magazine from my father at age 13- and actually read the articles, which included a glowing review of 'I'm Your Man' that lodged in the back of my consciousness. Then, a couple years later, I read a few of his lyrics (all from 'Songs') in a Norton Anthology of Poetry and figured out he was the voice behind that mysterious song ("Everybody Knows") I loved from the movie 'Pump Up the Volume", in the same week. It was a sign, and I immediately bought every album, novel, and book of poetry I could find. I became a lifelong devotee of the Patron Saint of Envy, although my grocery bill of despair has varied over my many years of working for the yankee dollar. The ways in which all of his incarnations have influenced me are countless: I signed all of my correspondence "Field Commander Pinson" for years, among other things. Your detailed analysis is still more proof that you truly appreciate everything I love, and I should never miss a Vinyl Monday. Thank you, Abby.

32. 

    @neilfmoore

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Excellent video! I got into Leonard Cohen when I was 18 years old, back at the end of the 90s. I think I first heard of him because of Tori Amos's cover of "Famous Blue Raincoat", but it turned out that some of my friends were already fans. I'd love to see a review of "Songs of Love and Hate" and/or "New Skin for the Old Ceremony".

    I thought about seeing LC live in the naughts, but as a 20-something grad student, there was no way I could afford those ticket prices. Then he died in 2016, and I was sad that I hadn't.

33. 

    @ChrissHill-m2g

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I can't even begin to express my joy at finding out that you have discovered Leonard. Welcome!

34. 

    @chrismcgovernthegenxmuse

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    23:06 The Todd in The Shadows of it all

35. 

    @johngregor6743

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    On the topic of Train-Wreckords, I think you'd be a perfect guest on Song-vs-Song some day.

36. 

    @BEEFDEAD

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    There's a bootleg of Suzanne by Nina Simone that is, to me, the pinnacle of covers. So much so,that "this mic doesn't come on" is now a verse in my head canon.

37. 

    @SunFellow941

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I can't find the DOLLS podcast on youtube. Oh well… that's my streaming service.

38. 

    @BEEFDEAD

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I have an original pressing of this. Originally my mother's. Wild, how this was just an artefact of my life, and now it's a bit of a cultural artefact.

39. 

    @apollo.c.vermouth5672

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    I can remember in the 1980s it was actually fashionable for journalists to take cheap shots at Cohen and his music – then someone lent me a copy of 'Songs From A Room' and I realised just how idiotic fashionable opinions can be.

40. 

    @tomsvideosoup

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Thanks for another fine, well-researched review, Abby. My favorite Cohen album is “I’m Your Man.”
    I was stunned by your mention of Janis Joplin labeling him as not handsome enough. She did it with Robert Crumb, for chrissake!

41. 

    @markfiori6515

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    There’s an interview out there somewhere with Suzanne, not sure how long before Leonard’s passing but anywhere from 1/2-2 years. She passed away a little after Leonard I think, Marianne was somewhere in the middle, may have been the stumble for him Vanity seemed to be for Prince…he was middle aged when he started, but his music helped expand the range of what was “commercially accessible”, while quite the writer, no Dylan, no Leonard. Songs of LC’s definitely a first attempt, no lack of production skill but it almost feels too idyllic and almost dreamlike, not as tightly focused as we get him, seemingly drunk and wounded ironically on Songs Of Love And Hate. by then it seemed he had some studio chops and a better handle on how to navigate it and explain the ideas to the next producer…

42. 

    @Teaiori

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    wetdream enthusiast here

43. 

    @jimdonoghue7808

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Thank you . Classic album genius unique song writer . Peace .☮️

44. 

    @An_Cat_Dubh

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Thanks for the bio and review of Mr. Cohen. Looking forward to the latest Dolls of the 1960s and 70s episodes!

45. 

    @karimdib4436

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    YESSSSSSSSSSSSS❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ suzanne is my favourite song everrrrrr :3 thank u for this!

46. 

    @Yakaru1

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    >>No one could accuse him of of under-estimating his audiences.<< Thank you for summing up the essence of great music.

47. 

    @johnwilding4664

    January 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm

    Dear Abigail:
    Leonard Cohen was in a country group called the Buckskin Boys whilst attending McGill University studying English in the 1950's.
    Very interesting.
    Yours truly
    John Wilding

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