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 Love And Hate

1971 · CBS S 69004 · Stereo · UK · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	CBS
Catalogue number	S 69004
Year	1971
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	UK
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Folk Rock / Singer-Songwriter
Producer	Bob Johnston
Composer	Leonard Cohen
Musicians	Leonard Cohen (vocals, guitar), Ron Cornelius (guitar), Charlie Daniels (bass, fiddle, guitar), Elkin “Bubba” Fowler (banjo, guitar, bass), Bob Johnston (piano, organ, producer); strings arranged by Paul Buckmaster

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  S69004 A4 C D
Side B:  S-69004-B5 C B

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1971 - UK CBS orange label, square CBS logo with concentric rings and R, no label code  <- this copy
1977 or later - UK CBS orange-to-yellow gradient label, eye-and-R logo at top, LC 0149 code, MCPS/BIEM text

This Pressing

UK pressing (1971) - orange CBS square-logo label, no label code, ahead of the later LC-coded gradient-label UK pressing of the same catalogue number.

The Album

Songs Of Love And Hate was Leonard Cohen's third album, recorded in Nashville and London in the latter half of 1970 under producer Bob Johnston, who had also helmed Songs From A Room. Cohen was by this point an established but unsettled figure in the singer-songwriter world, touring on the back of acclaim from his debut and sophomore records while privately wrestling with depression, and the album's spare, haunted arrangements mirror that mood. Tracks like ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, cast as a letter to a rival, and ‘Joan Of Arc’, a dialogue between the saint and the flames that consume her, show Cohen pushing his lyric writing toward a darker, more theatrical register than before. ‘Dress Rehearsal Rag’, one of the bleakest songs in his catalogue, was reportedly held back from an earlier album at Judy Collins's urging before finding its home here. The record's stark instrumentation, built around Cohen's guitar and voice with understated Nashville session support, became a touchstone for the confessional folk tradition of the early 1970s. Critical reception at the time was mixed to cautious, but the album's reputation has grown steadily, with ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ and ‘Joan Of Arc’ now ranked among Cohen's most covered and most discussed songs. It stands as a pivotal, transitional work between the gentler folk of his first two records and the more experimental, orchestrated directions he would take later in the decade.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Avalanche
2. Last Year's Man
3. Dress Rehearsal Rag
4. Diamonds In The Mine

Side 2

1. Love Calls You By Your Name
2. Famous Blue Raincoat
3. Sing Another Song, Boys
4. Joan Of Arc

The Label

This copy carries the orange CBS label with the square CBS logo, concentric rings and R centred left, the rim reading ‘ALL RIGHTS OF THE MANUFACTURER…UNAUTHORIZED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE…’, catalogue S 69004 (C 30103), publisher credits split by track, and MADE IN ENGLAND - no label code is present on either side. CBS UK used this plain orange square-logo design through the early-to-mid 1970s before resetting the label to the orange-to-yellow gradient with the eye-and-R logo at the top and a four-digit LC code, a change that cannot predate 1977 since the LC system itself began that year. The absence of an LC code and the plain square-logo design place this copy in the earlier UK pressing run, ahead of a later copy of the same catalogue number that carries the LC-coded gradient label.

Fidelity

This is a UK CBS pressing of the original Bob Johnston-produced master, not a specialist audiophile cut or remaster. Collectors on the forums generally rate the UK CBS pressings of this era as solid, if unspectacular, pressings next to US Columbia copies, with no widely distinguished mastering engineer credited on the jacket. No audiophile reissue series (Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records) has tackled this title, so this pressing's main rivals in the fidelity hierarchy are other original-era CBS/Columbia copies rather than a later boutique cut.

Notes

This is an early 1971 UK CBS pressing of S 69004: the orange label carries the plain square CBS logo with no label code, a design CBS UK used before resetting to the gradient eye-logo label with an LC code (a feature that cannot exist before 1977). The runout suffixes (A4/B5) sit within the range of ordinary UK copies of this catalogue number. A second copy of this same catalogue number in circulation carries the later LC-coded label and is a later UK pressing, not an earlier one.

Documenting collections

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