leonardcohenforum.com

That wasn't the title of the BBC news story that I just read, which preferred to focus on his lyrics for 'Unchained Melody' for some reason, but as soon as I read the name Hy Zaret I thought it must be the translator of the Partisan, knowing it was credited to Marly/Zaret. I certainly didn't know he was alive (until so recently) or that he wrote 'Unchained Melody' though.

Tim

Hi Tim,

You're right. Hy Zaret wrote the English lyrics for Anna Marly's song "La Complainte du Partisan" which Leonard recorded as "The Partisan".

All the best, John E

Silly me, I didn't even know Leonard hadn't written that song. Thanks for the info, Tim. You learn something new every day, and I dig it! BTW, you two lucky ones... don't forget Nick's Family Tree is coming out in the UK tomorrow!! Well, today technically for you very soon. 9th July anyway.

Peace,
Julia

i just realized that i can do this kind of thing ...
(partisan_cohen-baez.mp3, 3meg)
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/ ... n-baez.mp3
with adobe audition. so i did.

it's sort of a "mashup" i guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_%28music%29

my purpose was simply "proof of concept",
just to see if i could do it, at all .

but it makes me realize that

At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies
that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts.

may be possible, if not much achieved in this particular case.

In any case, what I did was "center-channel extract" the Baez part,
since the music on the Baez version is, - I don't know, -something,
- "silly" maybe, or "mismatched'. Sort of the way the news is delivered
on TV these days. Essentially the anchor, call her Jill,
with appropriate frowning, first tries to tell all she knows about
everything in the universe, and then says:
" ... and then 3 million died today, 1 million by acts of God,
and then another 2 million, for God's sake, in the explosions.
Isn't that right Jack?"
- and turns it over to Jack in the field for confirmation.
And Jack says:
"That's right, Jill. 3 million.
Except it was 2 million in the storms, and 1 million in the explosions.
And now here's the explanation ...."
Jill:> "Sorry we have to cut you off Jack,
but we have to go now to Fort Lauderdale, where someone
claims to have found Britney's lost panties on the beach.
And just in time too, Jack, since I was never too good at math!"
with appropriate smiling.
Which is what the music on Baez's version of Partisan is like.

So I cut and shifted, and shifted and cut, until things lined up, reasonably,
which is all I hoped for. But perhaps a certain ironic synergy resulted.
There is too much of Baez's music left on, because it's a quick hack,
but potentially an interesting effect. For example, a subtle thing is
that there is a split second of acoustic slash chords left on the line
"still I must go on",
which is reminiscent of hootenannies,
in complete contrast to Cohen's delivery and point.