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(?)
Hallelujah (1)
Lucky (2)
The Reagan rag : Homeless (3)_________________
(1) "[Cohen] liked to share his dillemas: I witnessed the (long) creating of Hallelujah. I listened to one of its early versions in his house at Hydra in 1981, on an ancient turntable (something like Tosca), which showed me the idea of possible use of a Hebrew choir. The song appeared four years later on Various Positions." (Vladislav Bajac*, Vreme, 730-731, December 31, 2004, Belgrade, Serbia. Translated by Tom Sakic). * see note of I'm Your Man demos.
(2) copyright registered August 31, 1981. Music by Sharon Robinson, lyrics by Leonard Cohen. Described as "1 sound cassette" (recorded in 1980?).
(3) copyright registered March 12, 1984. Labelled as "song lyrics", 2 pages. We don't know if there was music on it.
sources: U.S Copyright Office, Vladislav Bajac.
CBS Studio's "Quadrasonic Sound" (New York, NY, USA)
The Bells [early Anthem] (1)
Waiting For The Miracle_________________
(1) also known as "Ring The Bells". Not to be confused with "The Bells" [early Take This Longing].
note: both outtakes have not emerged but were recorded later for The Future (1992). See also note of I'm Your Man demos.
Studio Montmartre (Paris, France)
Recording sessions: 25-27 september 1986Take This Waltz (1)
_________________
(1) original mix, slightly different from the 1988 I'm Your Man version (without Jennifer Warnes' back ups and Raffi Hakopian's violin).
note: the song has been released by CBS as a single and also on CBS albums Poetas en Nueva York (Spanish edition) and Poets In New York (English edition). There's also a video clip. More info at www.leonardcohenfiles.com/poetasny.html.
Taken Out Of Egypt [early I Can't Forget] (1)
In Old Berlin [early First We Take Manhattan]
I've Cried Enough For You [early I'm Your Man] (2)
Waiting For The Miracle (2)_________________
(1) Also entitled "Born In Chains", according to the Globe and Mail (1995).
"[...] that song started off as a song about the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. As a metaphor for the journey of the soul from bondage into freedom. It started out, I was born in chains but I was taken out of Egypt / I was bound to a burden but the burden it was raised / Lord I can no longer keep this secret / Blessed is the name, the name be praised. It went on like that for a long, long time, and I went into the studio and tried to sing this song about how "I was born in chains and I was taken..." But I wasn't born in chains and I wasn't taken out of Egypt, and not only that, but I was on the edge of what was going to become a very serious nervous breakdown. So I hadn't had the burden lifted and the whole thing was a lie! It was wishful thinking.
And this song, "Taken Out of Egypt," took months and months to write. Nobody believes me when I say these things but I have the notebooks and I don't fill them in an evening. And there were many of them. So it wasn't as if I had an endless supply of songs: I had to start over. And I was saying to myself, "What is my life?" and that's when I started writing that lyric: I stumble out of bed / I got ready for the struggle / I smoked a cigarette / And I tightened up my gut / I said this can't be me / Must be my double / And I can't forget / I can't forget / But I don't remember what. That was really true." (Leonard Cohen, interviewed by Mark Rowland, "Leonard Cohen's Nervous Breakthrough", Musician, July 1988. Article available at Speaking Cohen website).
(2) co-produced by Sharon Robinson, with Roscoe Beck on guitar: "I wrote "Waiting For The Miracle" with Leonard I think in about 1985 [...]. I made a demo of the song with Roscoe Beck playing incredible blues guitar. I seem to recall that Jennifer was going to record it for Famous Blue Raincoat, or did, but didn’t use it". (Sharon Robinson, interview. Published at www.leonardcohencroatia.com website).
The song [early version?] is reported as being performed by Jennifer Warnes on her 1987 tour.
There is a very close connection between the songs "Waiting For The Miracle" & "I'm Your Man". At one early point, it was a one unique song in progress: "I'm Your Man," that started off as a song about "waiting for the miracle." It had some funny lines in it like waiting for the miracle, there's nothing left to do / I haven't been this happy since the end of World War II. But I couldn't sing it. I wasn't waiting for the miracle, or maybe I was and I didn't like the victimized position. Then it became a song called "I've Cried Enough For You," where I was talking to myself, you know, I've never seen the sky so blue the grass so green the day so new / I can't believe it but it must be true / I've cried enough for you. And that didn't work.
'Cause what I was really trying to say was, "I'll do anything for you." But it took two or three more writings and recordings of the song to get to "I'm Your Man", which is just a perfect little song. It was hard to get to those truths. (Leonard Cohen, interviewed by Mark Rowland, "Leonard Cohen's Nervous Breakthrough", Musician, July 1988. Article available at Speaking Cohen website).
note: although we have only partial informations about these demos, we can say that Cohen made some recordings (reference tapes) of early versions of the songs that will give I'm Your Man. The tracks may not be from the album recording sessions (they were most probably "work in progress" versions). Vladislav Bajac, a serbian journalist, has even reported to own a tape copy of some demos, recorded in February 1984 (month of the release of Various Positions, so this was maybe a tape of outtakes from the Various Positions sessions):
"Cohen's way to the song/album is so long it's sometimes on the edge of masochism. I remember all his remarks regarding the songs of I'm Your Man he was telling me in his studio at off-Broadway [CBS Quadrasonic Sound Studio?], while playing already recorded tapes which he continuously was remixing and adding the new elements. That was in February 1984, and he let the album appears only in 1988! I wouldn't believe that if I didn't have the New York versions of these songs (which he recorded on tape personally for me, there in the studio)." (Vladislav Bajac*, Vreme, 730-731, December 31, 2004, Belgrade, Serbia. Translated by Tom Sakic).
We don't know if "First We Take Manhattan" has already been recorded under the title "In Old Berlin" or only under its final title. But If so, then it was certainly before 1986 (year of release of Jennifer Warne's Famous Blue Raincoat who opened her album with "First We Take Manhattan").
* Vladislav Bajac interwieved Leonard Cohen many times in the 1980s for numerous magazines in former Yugoslavia, and translated two books of his poetry into Serbian [then "eastern version" of "Serbo-Croatian"]. The second book, Sta ja radim ovde, contains his own choice of Leonard's poems, rare 1985 interview, recollections of the Vienna July 6 1985 show, and many photos taken in Leonard's house on Hydra in early 1980s (showing LC, his cat, Bajac and unknown Leonard's companion), from private collection of Vladislav Bajac.
unknown Studios (USA)
[The] Anthem (1)
My Secret Life (?) (2)
Waiting For The Miracle_________________
(1) mixed with strings, voices, and overdubs. "The whole thing completely finished. I listened to it, there was something wrong with the lyric, there was something wrong with the tune, there was something wrong with the tempo, there was a lie somewhere in there, there was a disclosure that I was refusing to make. There was a solemnity that I hadn't achieved. There was something wrong with the damn thing. All I knew is that I couldn't sing it. You could hear it in the vocal, that the guy was putting you on" [Paul Zollo, "Leonard Cohen: Inside the Tower of Song", Song talk, April 1993].
(2) Recitated as a poem during some 1988 concerts (i.e. Helsinki, April 28). Mentioned for the first time in early 1988, during Cohen's promotional press tour for I'm Your Man, in the TV interview programme titled Cohen! produced by Finnish TV. Cohen recited the lyrics (slightly different from the 2001 version but with the same chorus) and said that he's finishing a new song titled "My Secret Life".note: "Anthem" and "Waiting For Miracle" not emerged but recorded later for The Future (1992). "My Secret Life" reworked later for Ten New Songs (2001).
extra: from The Globe and Mail newspaper, Toronto (1995): "In 1988, for instance, [Cohen] worked with songs like "Born in Chains"*, "There’s a Light in Jamaica" (a tribute to Bob Marley), "The Anthem", "Our Time Has Come", "Waiting for the Miracle" and "My Secret Life". His 1992 CD The Future included some of these, some renamed. Some are still in development - or have been dropped".
* early title/version of "I Can't Forget" (a.k.a "Taken Out of Egypt")