Altman had liked Cohen's debut album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen" (1967), immensely, buying additional copies of it after wearing each vinyl record out. He had then forgotten about the album. A few years later, Altman visited Paris, just after finishing shooting "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", and rediscovered Cohen's album. He had Lou Lombardo, the film's editor, use the music to maintain a rhythm for the film (in effect using it as a "temp" track). He later said, "I think the reason they worked was because those lyrics were etched in my subconscious, so when I shot the scenes I fitted them to the songs, as if they were written for them."