Death of a Ladies' Man is the fifth studio album by Leonard Cohen, produced and co-written by Phil Spector. The album was in some ways a departure from Cohen's typical minimalist style by using Spector's Wall of Sound recording method, which included ornate arrangements and multiple tracks of instrument overdubs. The album was originally released in the US by Warner Bros., and on CD and the rest of the world by Cohen's long-time label, Columbia Records. Background By the mid-1970s, both Cohen and Spector were on a downward slide commercially. Although he remained popular in Europe, Cohen had never achieved the success in the United States that Columbia had hoped for. Spector had created hits such as "Be My Baby" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with his "wall of sound" production technique in the 1960s, and had some success in the early 1970s by producing albums by John Lennon and George Harrison; however, his behaviour became increasingly erratic. The craziness would escalate when Spector reunited with Lennon to record a rock and roll oldies project called Roots, which would eventually come out in 1975 under the title Rock 'n' Roll. The sessions took place in a chaotic fog of drugs, booze, and hangers-on as the equally troubled Lennon drank his way through his infamous "lost weekend". In the 2003 book Phil Spector: Wall of Pain, biographer Dave Thompson recounts one famous incident when Spector fired a pistol in the studio. "Listen Phil, if you're goin' to kill me, kill me", Lennon remarked dryly, "but don't fuck with me ears. I need 'em." Such behaviour did Spector's reputation no favors, and as the hits dried up he was viewed more and more by the rock press as an oldies act. As Ira Nadel notes in the 1996 Cohen biography, Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen, stories differ as to how Cohen and Spector became collaborators: The liner notes on the album state that Marty Machat, who was Spector's lawyer as well as Cohen's, introduced them. According to Cohen, this occurred backstage after one of his performances at the Troubadour in L.A. Spector had uncharacteristically left his well-protected home to see Cohen, and at the show was strangely silent. Spector then invited Cohen back to his home, which, because of the air-conditioning, was very chilly, about "thirty-two degrees," Cohen recalled...Spector locked the door and Cohen reacted by saying, "As long