“We Were Drunk And Stupid” Leonard Cohen On The Story Behind His Collaboration With Phil Spector On Death Of A Ladies’ Man
Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen, & Their Mutual Agent, Marty Machat
Excess all areas: A life in rock’n’roll1 offers extracts from “Gods, Gangsters and Honour” by Steven Machat,2 a chronicle of the author’s experiences as an “American showbiz lawyer.” While I am posting only the section dealing with Phil Spector and Leonard Cohen, the excerpts also include fascinating (and a bit scary) anecdotes about James Brown, Michael Jackson and New Edition, Peter Gabriel and Womad, Ahmet Ertegun and Henry Kissinger, and Sam Cooke.
Phil Spector and Leonard Cohen
In 1977, my father was confronted by a big problem that was threatening his relationship with Phil Spector. Dad had negotiated Phil a label deal with Warner Brothers that involved Spector getting a huge advance before he delivered his future product. Unfortunately, Spector had failed to deliver the product and Warners wanted their money back.
Machat Senior came up with the answer: stick two of his top clients in the studio. My dad would then give the album to Warners to keep them happy, clear the debts, and keep both clients happy. But this involved two of his most problematic clients. Not just Spector but Leonard Cohen,3 who, like Phil, could not buy a pop hit in the US. Nevertheless, Death of a Ladies’ Man was born. The album would become one of the most controversial productions of the 1970s for the press. My father handed me this poisoned chalice. The lyrics basically involved Cohen and Spector trying to get laid. Track titles such as “Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On” might have been funny to me, but they sure were a hard sell to the labels.
If that wasn’t enough, Cohen and Spector didn’t exactly hit it off. An irate Cohen said to me in September 1977: “Are you out of your brains? This album is junk. It’s your father’s masturbation. I love Marty. He’s my brother. But I never want to see that man Spector again. He is the worst human being I have ever met.”
Cohen complained that he had been held at gunpoint by Spector during the recording sessions. “The man is crazy. We were drunk and stupid. I do not wish for this album to see daylight.”
Warners quickly abandoned the album after its release with no promotion and eventually CBS, after much pushing by my dad, put it out in late 1977 in Europe. My father was so lucky that Spector and Cohen didn’t fire him. He was even luckier that Warners forgot to ask for their advance back. Or chose not to.
I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted July 31, 2009 at 1HeckOfAGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric.
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- Published in The Independent: July 31, 2009 [↩]
- To be released by Beautiful Books on 6 August 2009 [↩]
- Until his death, Marty Machat was Leonard’s manager, at which time Kelley Lynch, accused of embezzling millions from Cohen and, consequently, necessitating Cohen’s World Tour, took over Leonard’s management duties. [↩]
Kelley Lynch says:
NOTE: Posted approximately 8.11 Pacific Time.
Your
comment is awaiting moderation.
Alan, why don’t you stop slandering me? My version of events is
on the record with LA Superior Court.
Let’s see if the operatives descend in the comments to libel me
as has occurred for a decade or so now.
You should include Steven Machat’s other public comments about
Cohen in your article. For the record, Cohen now has three contradictory
versions of his good rock ‘n roll “gun incident” about Phil Spector before LA
Superior Court. Can’t imagine which one the government believes.
You never knew Cohen when I knew him so your interest in promoting
the Official Propaganda Narrative is of interest.
Gods, Gangsters & Honour by Steven Machat
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
Leonard was desperate to get rid of this two managers, Judy
Berger and Mary Martin, who he believed had stolen the rights to his songs and
records early on in his career. Even back then, Cohen was convinced that women
were ripping him off. He signed an agreement, and when he wanted to get rid of
the contract, he accused everyone of ripping him off. You could say it became
repeat behaviour. My father duly got rid of Berger and Martin, set up a new
company called Stranger Music for Cohen and agreed to manage Leonard for 15% as
well as 15% of Stranger. The idea of the company was twofold: one, to maintain
ownership of the copyrights duly created; and two, to minimise Leonard’s
exposure to American tax, just like any other rich individual trying to
minimise their tax liabilities.
I’ve no problem with people trying to avoid tax, but as the
years have passed, I couldn’t help but smile at the apparent contradiction
between Leonard’s public persona and his private business arrangements. This
was a supposedly devout Buddhist with no interest in material possessions, who
was all the same happy to put his trust in business managers and companies he
created with his knowledge and consent whose sole aim was to minimise tax
liability.
Leonard then sold Stranger Music for a small fortune and I’ve
seen nothing from Cohen.
Cohen controlled his copyright, not my father. The irony was
that Cohen had total control over my father … Do you know what happened to the
$400,000 worth of bearer bonds in my father’s office? Bearer bonds are just
unregistered bonds or paper money that are used to conceal ownership and, with
it, tax liabilities. Cristini told me (who knows if this is true?) that he had
found the bonds in my father’s office hours after he had died but the next day
they disappeared.
Cohen denied any knowledge of these bonds. I was unsure if they
existed or were part of my father’s schemes cooked up to conceal Leonard’s money.
Cohen said: “Steven, you remember the 1988 tour? Flemming
extorted $100,000 from me. He wanted 20% managerial commission, in addition to
his promoter’s fees. He thought he was doing extra work for me and wanted me to
pay him.”
Far from being the poet of the spirits, Leonard was a hustler
using Buddhism as a facade.
The next time I would see Leonard … We’d just seen The Hand That
Rocks The Cradle where Rebecca De Mornay plays the psychopathic nanny who
stalks this family. Who should walk along but Cohen, who was holding hands with
DeMornay, his girlfriend at the time. Cohen was extremely uncomfortable because
he knew he had stolen from me and it was clear he couldn’t get away quick
enough. Neither could my son, because he took one look at DeMornay and ran. He
was terrified because he thought she was the nanny in the film!
It was clear that Leonard was also wary of me because, I guess,
he thought I might be planning to sue him.
The whole scheme was so ridiculous [Leonard Cohen’s attempts to
limit his liabilities on the deals] from the start. All Leonard had to do to
avoid U.S. taxes was tear up his green card, and stop living in and using the
U.S. as his base.
It’s no secret that Leonard has also made a killing on the art
market by selling his paintings, plus his touring of the last two years … If
that’s true, it doesn’t really tally with the clear implication from Cohen that
he is a man who has been robbed of everything.
Leonard told me before I left that he had actually offered
Kelley a settlement …
It’s clear that Cohen and his lawyers want to heap the blame on
Kelley’s shoulders for more than just revenge. Because Cohen’s pension assets
were cashed in … ahead of schedule they are liable to tax so they need to
establish that this situation is her fault. The penalties could actually be
greater than the tax itself.
Leonard has cast himself into a hell of his own making. – Steven
Machat