Different Sides

Album: Old Ideas (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Leonard Cohen closes his twelfth studio album Old Ideas with an argument. The Hammond organ-fuelled soft-shoe shuffle is a witty examination of a lovers' tiff. "C'mon baby give me a kiss, stop writing everything down," he croons.
  • Cohen is supported by some angelic female voices supplied by Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters. Longtime collaborator Sharon Robinson first started working with Cohen on his 1979 Field Commander Cohen tour. An established songwriter in her own right, Robinson won a Grammy Award in 1985 for co-writing "New Attitude" with Patti LaBelle for the movie Beverly Hills Cop. She has also written with Cohen, and for 2001's Ten New Songs she wrote all the music, performed virtually all the parts and produced the album.

    Charley and Hattie Webb hail from Kent in England. In addition to their gorgeous harmony singing, Hattie plays harp and mandolin while Charley performs on the guitar, piano, clarinet and saxophone. The sisters were part of Cohen's 2008-10 world tour and are featured on the Leonard Cohen Live in London backing Cohen on the song "If It Be Your Will."
  • Old Ideas is actually an old idea as it was the original name for 2004's Dear Heather. Cohen was persuaded to drop it as it was feared people would assume it was a retrospective.

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