One of the most controversial partnerships in either man's career was inaugurated the day
Leonard Cohen and
Phil Spector decided to make an album together. In the course of just three weeks together, the pair had written 15 new songs, described by
Spector as "some great f*ckin' music." And though the recording took somewhat longer,
Death of a Ladies' Man still emerged as an album that, while it certainly lives up to
Spector's billing, can also be viewed as the most challenging record of both
Cohen and
Spector's careers. Certainly,
Cohen fans were absolutely taken aback by the widescreen wash that accompanied their idol's customary tones, and many hastened to complain about the almost unbridled sexuality and brutal voyeurism that replaced
Cohen's traditionally lighter touch -- as if the man who once rhymed "unmade bed" with "giving me head" was any stranger whatsoever to explicitness. It is also true that a cursory listen to the album suggests that the whole thing was simply a ragbag of crazy notions thrown into the air to see where they landed.