Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Leonard Cohen

Songs of Leonard Cohen

c. 1970-1973 · CBS S 63241 · Stereo · Netherlands (MADE IN HOLLAND printed on both labels) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	CBS
Catalogue number	S 63241
Year	c. 1970-1973
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	Netherlands (MADE IN HOLLAND printed on both labels)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Folk/Singer-Songwriter
Producer	John Simon
Composer	Leonard Cohen
Musicians	Leonard Cohen (vocals, acoustic guitar), Willie Ruff (bass), Jimmy Lovelace (drums), Nancy Priddy (backing vocals), John Simon (producer, piano/organ); uncredited on the jacket: members of Kaleidoscope (Chester Crill, Chris Darrow, Solomon Feldthouse) on select tracks

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  01-63241-1A-1 HPG A
Side B:  S63241-B ROMAN NUMERAL 12 ○ H

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1967 - UK CBS SBPG 63241, mono first pressing
1967 - UK CBS SBPG 63241, stereo pressing
1968 - Netherlands CBS S 63241, early stereo pressing
c. 1970-1973 - Netherlands CBS S 63241, red CBS label pressing  <- this copy

This Pressing

Later Dutch pressing (c. 1970s) - CBS Netherlands red-label stereo issue of S 63241, behind the Dutch and UK first pressings in the hierarchy.

The Album

Songs of Leonard Cohen was the debut album of the Montreal poet and novelist, cut in New York after John Hammond's illness handed production to the young John Simon, whose arrangements added strings, winds and backing voices to songs Cohen had originally wanted performed with guitar alone. Drawn from Cohen's already-published poetry and fiction, the record opens with "Suzanne," a song that had already circulated through Judy Collins's cover before Cohen ever released a note of his own. The album moves between spare folk balladry and more ornamented, almost baroque arrangements, carrying the literary density and romantic fatalism that marked Cohen's writing. It was received more warmly in Britain and Europe than in his native North America, where Cohen's unconventional, near-spoken vocal style initially divided critics. In the decades since, it has come to be regarded as one of the foundational singer-songwriter albums of its era, securing Cohen's transition from poet and novelist to recording artist and establishing a sound and sensibility he would develop across his subsequent career.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Suzanne
2. Master Song
3. Winter Lady
4. The Stranger Song
5. Sisters of Mercy

Side 2

1. So Long, Marianne
2. Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye
3. Stories of the Street
4. Teachers
5. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

The Label

This copy carries the red CBS label used on Dutch Columbia Broadcasting System pressings, with the white CBS wordmark top centre, dark-red print, BIEM and Copyright Control marks, and the rim text ending MADE IN HOLLAND / CBS AND (c) CBS INC - a plain, device-free design with no deep groove. The label is stamped (P) 1968, which fixes the earliest possible date for the copyright but not the pressing date itself; this red CBS house style was used on Dutch CBS product into the early-to-mid 1970s, after the label that accompanied the title's first Dutch stereo pressing. The catalogue number printed on the label (S 63241, with the US cross-reference CS 9533) matches the title throughout its Dutch pressing run, so the number alone does not separate first pressing from later repress; only the label style does, and the style on this copy points to a later Dutch pressing in that run rather than to the first.

Fidelity

The Dutch CBS pressing derives from the same Columbia master tapes used worldwide for this title but was cut and pressed locally rather than at the US or UK source plants; collectors generally regard the UK and US first pressings as the more desirable cuts for this title, with continental European pressings such as this one ranked below them for ultimate sonic pedigree, though the difference is modest on a straightforward folk-vocal recording of this vintage. No audiophile remastering of this specific pressing exists; later reissue series on 180g vinyl are mastered separately and are not compared here.

Notes

This is a Dutch CBS stereo pressing of S 63241 on the red CBS house label: white CBS logo, dark-red print, BIEM and Copyright Control marks, and rim text ending MADE IN HOLLAND / CBS AND (c) CBS INC. The label carries a (P) 1968 copyright date, which sets the earliest possible year for the recording but not the pressing itself; this red label style belongs to a later stretch of Dutch CBS production, placing this copy as a subsequent Dutch pressing rather than the title's first Dutch stereo issue. The catalogue number is printed as S 63241 on the label against 63241 on the cover, an ordinary variance in Dutch CBS print practice for this title. The pressing plant is not identified on the label itself.

Documenting collections

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