Heck Of A Guy

Check Out A Different Version of Do I Have To Dance All Night?

Front Cover of Do I Have To Dance All Night? 45 rpm Single¹

When I posted The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard in July 2006, I wrote that even someone who was a Big Leonard Cohen Fan probably hadn’t heard Do I Have To Dance All Night?,² AKA The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, unless he or she were

1. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who went to the right concerts in the late ’70s or
2. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who bought his or her 45s in Central Europe or
3. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who found a crappy MP3 of the song.³

While that list was an oversimplification, its premise - that only a few, atypical Leonard Cohen fans had heard the altogether dandy Do I Have To Dance All Night? - was true.

The cause of this tragedy was no mystery.

Checking Cohen’s discography, one discovers that among all the Leonard Cohen albums, this song is only on – exactly none of them.⁴ Indeed, Do I Have To Dance All Night? was and continues to be available only as a seven inch single that was originally recorded at a 1976 concert in Holland Paris and pressed in Paris Holland⁵ for sale in Central European countries.⁶

Bummer, eh?

Onward Ever, Eventually

Convinced at first that Do I Have To Dance All Night? would inevitably end up on one or another of Cohen’s albums, I waited a couple of years before deciding to go with Plan B, which could be accurately summarized as throw money at it.⁷

I found a decent specimen of Do I Have To Dance All Night? listed at a vintage recordings marketplace, exchanged a few emails with the seller, who lived just outside Paris, zapped a batch of electronic dollars from my credit card company to his bank where they were converted into an impressive number of electronic francs, and, after a ten day wait, took delivery of a genuine, unscratched seven-inch record of the much longed-for song.

After reassembling my ancient turntable, purchasing a stylus that would actually fit into a groove, and setting up a bit of software, I produced the MP3 of Do I Have To Dance All Nightthat I posted on this blog.

Nothing to it.

And, after all that money and hassle, what do I have to show for it?

Yep, I’ve adjusted the original claim a tad because I believe I can now legitimately add a fourth category to the list of folks who have heard this tune so that it now reads …

Even someone who is a Big Leonard Cohen Fan probably hasn’t heard Do I Have To Dance All Night, AKA The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, unless he or she is

1. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who went to the right concerts in the late ’70s or
2. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who bought his or her 45 rpm records in Central Europe or
3. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who found a crappy MP3 of the song or
4. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who heard it at the Heck of a Guy Blog
   (or from one of those rip-off sites, the purveyors of which are no doubt doomed to Hell for all eternity, that have lifted the mp3 in question along with selected graphics and the copy from the Heck of a Guy post, claiming it as their own)⁸

It’s A Hit - Lots Of Hits

In fact, The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard and The TWO Best Leonard Cohen Songs You’ve Probably Never Heard, which also covers Do I Have To Dance All Night? have been two of the most popular Heck of a Guy posts since their publication.

Even more compellingly, of the 875 posts (this morning) published at Heck of a Guy, those two Do I Have To Dance All Night? entries, along with The Best Leonard Cohen-Anjani Duet You’ve Probably Never Heard and Another Leonard Cohen - Anjani Duet You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, have generated the most emails of appreciation from readers.

Recently, perhaps because of the interest engendered by the announcement of the Leonard Cohen World Tour, there has been a significant increase in the number of emails about this song and in the number of new links from other sites to the Do I Have To Dance All Night posts.

In celebration of this further expansion of the set of souls who have heard this favorite of mine, I am posting a second version.

The Question Perplexing Leonard Cohen: Do I Have To Dance All Night?

Do I Have To Dance All Night? - 2 was recorded at a 1980 Amsterdam concert and, of course, was never included on an album or pressed as a single. There are some changes in the lyrics⁹ and the tempo from the 1976 version I’ve previously posted, but the song is once again the final performance of the concert. I still favor the first version I heard (from the 45 rpm record) but that may well be an artifact of my own history with the song rather than the result of a neutral musical assessment.

Those planning to attend one or more of the 2008 concerts should listen carefully to the introduction for an indication of how an audience can boost Leonard Cohen’s self-esteem.

New Version

Do I Have To Dance All Night? by Leonard Cohen from the 1980 Amsterdam concert

Original Version

Do I Have To Dance All Night? by Leonard Cohen from 1976 concert & sold on 45 rpm record

Footnotes

1. Bonus Points: I’d appreciate it if someone would identify the item in the lower left right of the cover. Heck, I’d appreciate it if someone could let me know what that scene on the cover is designed to convey. Don’t get me wrong, I kinda like it, but other than its portrayal of a brooding Leonard Cohen with a good looking woman - which is not exactly a novel motif - its connection to the songs on the record eludes me ↩
2. Indeed, by 2006 only a Big - or at least Longtime - Leonard Cohen Fan would be likely to even know that a song named Do I Have To Dance All Night? ever existed. ↩
3. I fell into the third (i.e., the Crappy MP3) category. In my more haphazard music downloading days, I somehow came into possession of an extraordinarily impaired MP3 file of Do I Have To Dance All Night?. Despite the pops, hiss, and skips, the more I played it, the more I liked it. ↩
4. According to the Wikipedia, “Cohen wanted to include “Misty Blue”/”Do I Have to Dance All Night” as a free bonus single with the [Recent Songs] LP, but Columbia, his record company, rejected the idea.” ↩
5. I initially listed this version of “Do I Have To Dance All Night” as being recorded at a concert in Holland and pressed in Paris. Thanks to a reader who had a 7″ single of the song that indicated it was recorded at the 1976 Olympia performance in Paris, I investigated further. My original reference site no longer exists on the Internet but it is clear that (1) either that data source was inaccurate or, at least equally as likely, I misinterpreted it, and (2) this record, CBS 4431, was recorded in Paris and pressed in Holland rather than - as I had it - recorded in Holland and pressed in Paris. I regret the error. ↩
6. Do I Have To Dance All Night? is Side A on the single; Side B features “The Butcher,” which is available on the Songs From a Room album. ↩
7. This is the short version of the adventure that led to the posting of the original MP3 of Do I Have To Dance All Night?. The complete story can be found at The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard ↩
8. OK, there are a batch of other ways one could hear this song, especially if the one in question were a knowledgeable Cohen fan, but an exhaustive list would only confuse the issue ↩
9. I note, for example, that the 1976 version opens with “I’m 41 …,” but singing the same song 4 years later, Cohen skips the age-declaring line. ‘Tis a pity - I would get off on hearing him start with “I’m 73, … .” ↩

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