Cohen's first album since 2004, due in January, is called Old Ideas, and that's pretty much what its first official song is all about: a 77-year-old folk O.G. getting in touch with the essentials of his songwriting. His Cookie Monster-does-Deuteronomy baritone has long transcended ephemeral considerations like melody and tone, and the somber piano and stark religious imagery – warmed by a French-Canadian parlor-folk accompaniment and background vocals from old pal Jennifer Warren – will remind many of "Hallelujah." "Show me the place where the word became a man / Show me the place where the suffering began," Cohen growls, bringing to mind hard-nosed meditations on mortality by fellow septuagenarians Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. He's staring down the eternal with unblinking honesty and a primordial sense of purpose. 

Listen to "Show Me The Place":

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“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.