Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted into the
Canadian Music Hall of Fame
The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established in 1978 by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) to honour Canadian musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The award presentation is held each year as part of the ...
, the
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (''Panthéon des Auteurs et Compositeurs canadiens'') is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their ''Hall of Fame'' within three different categori ...
, and the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
. He was invested as a Companion of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the
Prince of Asturias Awards
The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...
for literature and the ninth
Glenn Gould Prize
The Glenn Gould Prize is an international award bestowed by the Glenn Gould Foundation in memory of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. It is awarded every second year to a living individual for contributions that have enriched the human condition thro ...
.
Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1967. His first album, ''
Songs of Leonard Cohen
''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' is the debut album by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on December 27, 1967, on Columbia Records. Less successful in the US than in Europe, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' foreshadowed the kind of cha ...
'' (1967), was followed by three more albums of
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
: ''
Songs from a Room
''Songs from a Room'' is the second album by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached No. 63 on the US ''Billboard'' Top LPs and No. 2 on the UK charts.
Background
The recording sessions for ''Songs From a Room'' began in H ...
'' (1969), ''
Songs of Love and Hate
''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records.
Recording and composition
Cohen reunited with produ ...
'' (1971) and ''
New Skin for the Old Ceremony
''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'' is the fourth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1974. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other ...
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
, was a move away from Cohen's previous minimalist sound.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional ''
Recent Songs
''Recent Songs'' is the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Cohen alongside Henry Lewy, it was a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of '' Death of a Ladies' ...
'', which blended his acoustic style with jazz, East Asian, and Mediterranean influences. Cohen's most famous song, "
Hallelujah
''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...
", was released on his seventh album, ''
Various Positions
''Various Positions'' is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the ha ...
'' (1984). '' I'm Your Man'' in 1988 marked Cohen's turn to synthesized productions. In 1992, Cohen released its follow-up, '' The Future'', which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest.
Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of ''
Ten New Songs
''Ten New Songs'' is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. ...
'', a major hit in Canada and Europe. His eleventh album, ''
Dear Heather
''Dear Heather'' is the 11th studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released by Columbia Records in 2004. It was dedicated "in memory of Jack McClelland 1922-2004."
Background
The album features Cohen experimenting with diffe ...
'', followed in 2004. In 2005, Cohen discovered that his manager had stolen most of his money and sold his publishing rights, prompting a return to touring to recoup his losses. Following a successful string of tours between 2008 and 2013, he released three albums in the final years of his life: ''
Old Ideas
''Old Ideas'' is the twelfth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released in January 2012. It is Cohen's highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200, 44 years after the release o ...
'' (2012), ''
Popular Problems
''Popular Problems'' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on September 19, 2014 in Friday-release countries (such as France and Ireland) and on September 22, 2014 elsewhere.
Overview
Most of the ...
'' (2014), and ''
You Want It Darker
''You Want It Darker'' is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on October 21, 2016, by Columbia Records, 17 days before Cohen's death. The album was created at the end of his life and focuses on death ...
'' (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death. His posthumous, fifteenth, and final studio album ''
Thanks for the Dance
''Thanks for the Dance'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released posthumously through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 22, 2019. It is the first release following Cohen's dea ...
'', was released in November 2019.
Early life
Leonard Norman Cohen was born into an
Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
family in Westmount, Quebec, on September 21, 1934. His Lithuanian mother, Marsha ("Masha") Klonitsky (1905–1978), emigrated to Canada in 1927 and was the daughter of
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
ic writer and rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline. His paternal grandfather, whose family had moved from Poland to Canada, was
Canadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress (, , ) was, for more than ninety years, the main advocacy group for the Jewish community in Canada. Regarded by many as the "Parliament of Canadian Jewry," the Congress was at the forefront of the struggle for human ...
founding president Lyon Cohen. His parents gave him the Jewish name Eliezer, which means "God helps". His father, clothing store owner Nathan Bernard Cohen (1891–1944), died when Cohen was nine years old. The family attended
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim () is an Ashkenazi synagogue in Westmount, Quebec. Incorporated in 1846, it is the oldest traditional Ashkenazi synagogue in Canada and the largest traditional synagogue in Canada.
History
Former building of Sha ...
, to which Cohen retained connections for the rest of his life. On the topic of being a
kohen
Kohen ( he, , ''kōhēn'', , "priest", pl. , ''kōhănīm'', , "priests") is the Hebrew word for " priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. Levitical priests or ''kohanim'' are traditionally ...
, he said in 1967, "I had a very Messianic childhood. I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."
Cohen attended
Roslyn Elementary School
Roslyn Elementary School, located in Westmount, Quebec, Canada, is a coeducational public school for children between kindergarten and grade six. The school opened in September 1908 and is currently operated by the English Montreal School Board ...
and completed grades seven through nine at
Herzliah High School
United Talmud Torahs of Montreal ( he, הַמְאוּחָדִים בְּמוֹנְטְרִיאָל בָּתֵי תַלְמוּד תוֹרָה, french: Talmud Torahs Unis de Montréal) (also known as The Azrieli Schools, in French: Les é ...
, where his literary mentor (and later inspiration) Irving Layton taught. He then transferred in 1948 to
Westmount High School
Westmount High School (french: École secondaire Westmount) is a public co-educational anglophone secondary school located in Westmount, Quebec, Canada, located near Alexis Nihon Complex Shopping Mall.
Westmount High is Quebec's first and o ...
, where he studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in the poetry of
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
. He involved himself actively beyond Westmount's curriculum in photography, on the yearbook staff, as a cheerleader, in the arts and current events clubs, and even served as president of the Students' Council while heavily involved in the school's theatre program. During that time, he taught himself to play the acoustic guitar and formed a
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
–
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
group that he called the Buckskin Boys. After a young Spanish guitar player taught him "a few chords and some
flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
", he switched to a classical guitar. He has attributed his love of music to his mother, who sang songs around the house: "I know that those changes, those melodies, touched me very much. She would sing with us when I took my guitar to a restaurant with some friends; my mother would come, and we'd often sing all night."
Cohen frequented Montreal's
Saint Laurent Boulevard
Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard Saint-Laurent), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north–south through ...
for fun and ate at places such as the
Main Deli Steak House
The Main Deli Steak House, also known simply as Main Deli, is a delicatessen and steakhouse located in Montreal, Quebec. The restaurant was established in 1974 by Peter Varvaro and currently located on Saint Laurent Boulevard right across the stre ...
. According to journalist
David Sax
David Sax (born 1979) is a Canadian journalist. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Sax has written for publications such as ''New York Magazine'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Bloomberg Business Week'', ''The New York Times'', ''Saveur'', NPR, '' GQ'' and ''Toronto L ...
, he and one of his cousins would go to the Main Deli to "watch the gangsters, pimps, and wrestlers dance around the night". Cohen enjoyed the raucous bars of
Old Montreal
Old Montreal (French: ''Vieux-Montréal'') is a historic neighbourhood within the municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is bordered on the west by McGill Street, on th ...
as well as
Saint Joseph's Oratory
Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal (french: Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine located at 3800 Queen Mary Road in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood on Mount Royal's Westmount Summit in ...
, which had the restaurant nearest to Westmount. When he left Westmount, he purchased a place on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in the previously working-class neighbourhood of Little Portugal. He would read his poetry at assorted nearby clubs. In that period and place, he wrote the lyrics to some of his most famous songs.
Poetry and novels
In 1951, Cohen enrolled at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, where he became president of the
McGill Debating Union McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to:
People
* McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname)
* McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...
and won the Chester MacNaghten Literary Competition for the poems "Sparrows" and "Thoughts of a Landsman".Simmons, Sylvie. ''I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen''. NY: HarperCollins, 2012. Cohen published his first poems in March 1954 in the magazine ''CIV/n''. The issue also included poems by Cohen's poet–professors (who were also on the editorial board) Irving Layton and
Louis Dudek
Louis Dudek, (February 6, 1918 – March 23, 2001) was a Canadian poet, academic, and publisher known for his role in defining Modernism in poetry, and for his literary criticism. He was the author of over two dozen books. In ''A Digital Hist ...
. Cohen graduated from McGill the following year with a B.A. degree.Nadel, Ira B. ''Various Position: A Life of Leonard Cohen''. Pantheon Books: New York, 1996. His literary influences during this time included
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, Irving Layton (who taught political science at McGill and became both Cohen's mentor and his friend),
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
,
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
, and
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...
. His first published book of poetry, ''
Let Us Compare Mythologies
''Let Us Compare Mythologies'' is the first poetry book by Canadian poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen. Written in 1956, shortly after Cohen left McGill University where he studied English literature, it was first published as part of the McGill ...
'' (1956), was published by Dudek as the first book in the McGill Poetry Series the year after Cohen's graduation. The book contained poems written largely when Cohen was between the ages of 15 and 20, and Cohen dedicated the book to his late father. The well-known Canadian literary critic
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symm ...
wrote a review of the book in which he gave Cohen "restrained praise".
After completing his undergraduate degree, Cohen spent a term in the McGill Faculty of Law and then a year (1956–1957) at the
Columbia University School of General Studies
The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college and one of the undergraduate colleges of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights, New York City. GS is known primarily ...
. Cohen described his graduate school experience as "passion without flesh, love without climax". Consequently, Cohen left New York and returned to Montreal in 1957, working various odd jobs and focusing on the writing of fiction and poetry, including the poems for his next book, '' The Spice-Box of Earth'' (1961), which was the first book that Cohen published through the Canadian publishing company
McClelland & Stewart
McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann.
...
. Cohen's first novella and early short stories were not published until 2022 (''
A Ballet of Lepers
''A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories'' is a posthumous collection of fiction by Canadian author and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, consisting of the novella ''A Ballet of Lepers'', fifteen short stories and a précis for a play. The colle ...
''). His father's will provided him with a modest
trust
Trust often refers to:
* Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality
It may also refer to:
Business and law
* Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another
* Trust (bus ...
income sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions for the time, and ''The Spice-Box of Earth'' was successful in helping to expand the audience for Cohen's poetry, helping him reach out to the poetry scene in Canada, outside the confines of McGill University. The book also helped Cohen gain critical recognition as an important new voice in Canadian poetry. One of Cohen's biographers,
Ira Nadel
Ira Bruce Nadel (born July 22, 1943) is an American-Canadian biographer, literary critic and James Joyce scholar, and a distinguished professor at the University of British Columbia. He has written books on the twentieth-century Modernists, espec ...
, stated that "reaction to the finished book was enthusiastic and admiring...."The critic Robert Weaver found it powerful and declared that Cohen was 'probably the best young poet in English Canada right now.'"
Cohen continued to write poetry and fiction throughout the 1960s and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances after he bought a house on Hydra, a Greek island in the
Saronic Gulf
The Saronic Gulf (Greek: Σαρωνικός κόλπος, ''Saronikós kólpos'') or Gulf of Aegina in Greece is formed between the peninsulas of Attica and Argolis and forms part of the Aegean Sea. It defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Co ...
. While living and writing on Hydra, Cohen published the poetry collection ''
Flowers for Hitler
''Flowers for Hitler'' is Canadian poet and composer Leonard Cohen's third collection of poetry, first published in 1964 by McClelland & Stewart.
Like other artworks regarding Adolf Hitler as a subject, it was somewhat controversial in its day.K ...
'' (1964), and the novel ''
The Favourite Game
''The Favourite Game'' is the first novel by Leonard Cohen. It was first published by Secker and Warburg in the fall of 1963.
In 1959, Cohen was awarded a $2,000 Canada Council grant, which he used to live cheaply in London and on the Greek isla ...
'' (1963), an autobiographical ''
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...
'' about a young man who discovers his identity through writing.
Cohen was the subject of a 44-minute documentary in 1965 from the
National Film Board
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...
Beautiful Losers
''Beautiful Losers'' is the second and final novel by Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen. It was published in 1966, before he began his career as a singer-songwriter.
Set in the Canadian province of Quebec, the story of 17th-century ...
'' received a good deal of attention from the Canadian press and stirred up controversy because of a number of sexually graphic passages. Regarding ''Beautiful Losers,'' ''the
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' stated: "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen." In 1966 Cohen also published ''Parasites of Heaven'', a book of poems. Both ''Beautiful Losers'' and ''Parasites of Heaven'' received mixed reviews and sold few copies.
In 1966, CBC-TV producer Andrew Simon produced a local Montreal current affairs program, ''Seven on Six'', and offered Cohen a position as host. "I decided I'm going to be a songwriter. I want to write songs," Simon recalled Cohen telling him.
Subsequently, Cohen published less, with major gaps, concentrating more on recording songs. In 1978, he published his first book of poetry in many years, ''Death of a Lady's Man'' (not to be confused with the album he released the previous year, the similarly titled '' Death of a Ladies' Man''). It was not until 1984 that Cohen published his next book of poems, '' Book of Mercy'', which won him the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Poetry. The book contains 50 prose-poems, influenced by the Hebrew Bible and Zen writings. Cohen himself referred to the pieces as "prayers". In 1993 Cohen published ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs'', and in 2006, after 10 years of delays, additions, and rewritings, ''
Book of Longing
''Book of Longing'' was the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's '' Book of Mercy''. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, ''Book of Longing'' contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written a ...
''. ''The Book of Longing'' is dedicated to the poet Irving Layton. Also, during the late 1990s and 2000s, many of Cohen's new poems and lyrics were first published on the fan website The Leonard Cohen Files, including the original version of the poem "A Thousand Kisses Deep" (which Cohen later adapted for a song).
Cohen's writing process, as he told an interviewer in 1998, was "like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it."
In 2011, Cohen was awarded the
Prince of Asturias Award
The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...
for literature. His poetry collection '' The Flame'', which he had been working on at the time of his death, appeared posthumously in 2018.
Cohen's books have been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish.
Recording career
1960s and 1970s
In 1967, disappointed with his lack of success as a writer, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer–songwriter. During the 1960s, he was a fringe figure in
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
's "Factory" crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening to
Nico
Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pl ...
in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style.
His song " Suzanne" became a hit for
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...
(who subsequently recorded a number of Cohen's other songs), and was for many years his most recorded song. Collins recalls that when she first met him, he said he could not sing or play the guitar, nor did he think "Suzanne" was even a song:
She first introduced him to television audiences during one of her shows in 1966, where they performed duets of his songs. Still new to bringing his poetry to music, he once forgot the words to "Suzanne" while singing to a different audience. Singers such as
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
have sung it during their tours. Cohen stated that he was duped into giving up the rights for the song, but was glad it happened, as it would be wrong to write a song that was so well loved and to get rich for it also. Collins told
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
, during a television interview, that she felt Cohen's Jewish background was an important influence on his words and music.
After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records producer John Hammond, who signed Cohen to a record deal. Cohen's first album was ''
Songs of Leonard Cohen
''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' is the debut album by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on December 27, 1967, on Columbia Records. Less successful in the US than in Europe, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' foreshadowed the kind of cha ...
''. The album was released in the US in late 1967 to generally dismissive reviews, but became a favourite in the UK on its release in early 1968, where it spent over a year on the album charts, as well as a cult favourite in the US. He appeared on BBC TV in 1968 where he sang a duet from the album with
Julie Felix
Julie Ann Felix (June 14, 1938 – March 22, 2020) was an American-British folk singer and recording artist who achieved success, particularly on British television, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She later performed and released albums on h ...
. Several of the songs on that first album were recorded by other popular folk artists, including
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...
and Judy Collins. Cohen followed up that first album with ''
Songs from a Room
''Songs from a Room'' is the second album by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached No. 63 on the US ''Billboard'' Top LPs and No. 2 on the UK charts.
Background
The recording sessions for ''Songs From a Room'' began in H ...
'' (1969, featuring the often-recorded "
Bird on the Wire
"Bird on the Wire" is one of Leonard Cohen's signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album ''Songs from a Room''. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, titled "Like a Bird", was added to ...
") and ''
Songs of Love and Hate
''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records.
Recording and composition
Cohen reunited with produ ...
'' (1971).
In 1971, film director
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...
featured the songs "The Stranger Song", "Winter Lady", and "Sisters of Mercy", originally recorded for ''
Songs of Leonard Cohen
''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' is the debut album by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on December 27, 1967, on Columbia Records. Less successful in the US than in Europe, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' foreshadowed the kind of cha ...
'', in '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller''. The film is now considered a masterpiece by some critics who also note that the songs are integral to the film. Scott Tobias wrote in 2014 that "The film is unimaginable to me without the Cohen songs, which function as these mournful interstitials that unify the entire movie." Tim Grierson wrote in 2016, shortly after Cohen's death, that '"Altman's and Cohen's legacies would forever be linked by ''McCabe''. The movie is inextricably connected to Cohen's songs. It's impossible to imagine Altman's masterpiece without them."
In 1970, Cohen toured for the first time, in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and appeared at the
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970.
The 1970 event was by far the largest of these early ...
. In 1972 he toured again in Europe and Israel. When his performance in Israel did not seem to be going well he walked off the stage, went to his dressing room, and took some LSD. He then heard the audience clamouring for his reappearance by singing to him in Hebrew, and under the influence of the psychedelic, he returned to finish the show. Additionally, in 1973, he played special performances for Israeli soldiers in the outposts of Sinai during the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
.
In 1973, Columbia Records released "Leonard Cohen: Live Songs". Then beginning around 1974, Cohen's collaboration with pianist and arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. They toured together in 1974 in Europe and in US and Canada in late 1974 and early 1975, in support of Cohen's record ''
New Skin for the Old Ceremony
''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'' is the fourth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1974. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other ...
''. In late 1975 Cohen and Lissauer performed a short series of shows in the US and Canada with a new band, in support of Cohen's ''
Best Of
A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...
'' release. The tour included new songs from an album in progress, co-written by Cohen and Lissauer and titled ''Songs for Rebecca''. None of the recordings from these live tours with Lissauer were ever officially released, and the album was abandoned in 1976.
In 1976, Cohen embarked on a new major European tour with a new band and changes in his sound and arrangements, again, in support of his ''
The Best of Leonard Cohen
''The Best of Leonard Cohen'' is a greatest hits album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1975. In some European countries, it was released under the title ''Greatest Hits''. This alternative title was used for the original vinyl release and for CD rei ...
'' release (in Europe retitled as ''Greatest Hits'').
Laura Branigan
Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single " Gloria", stayed on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for ...
was one of his backup singers during the tour. From April to July, Cohen gave 55 shows, including his first appearance at the famous
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...
.
After the European tour of 1976, Cohen again attempted a new change in his style and arrangements: his new 1977 record, '' Death of a Ladies' Man'' was co-written and produced by
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
. One year later, in 1978, Cohen published a volume of poetry with the subtly revised title, ''Death of a Lady's Man''.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional ''
Recent Songs
''Recent Songs'' is the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Cohen alongside Henry Lewy, it was a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of '' Death of a Ladies' ...
'', which blended his acoustic style with jazz and East Asian and Mediterranean influences. Beginning with this record, Cohen began to co-produce his albums. Produced by Cohen and Henry Lewy (
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
's sound engineer), ''Recent Songs'' included performances by Passenger, an Austin-based jazz–fusion band that met Cohen through Mitchell. The band helped Cohen create a new sound by featuring instruments like the
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
* String instruments
*Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
, ...
, the Gypsy violin, and the
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
. The album was supported by Cohen's major tour with the new band, and
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 fo ...
and Sharon Robinson on the backing vocals, in Europe in late 1979, and again in Australia, Israel, and Europe in 1980. In 2000, Columbia released an album of live recordings of songs from the 1979 tour, titled '' Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979''.
During the 1970s, Cohen toured twice with
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 fo ...
as a backup singer (1972 and 1979). Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums, receiving full co-vocals credit on Cohen's 1984 album ''
Various Positions
''Various Positions'' is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the ha ...
'' (although the record was released under Cohen's name, the inside credits say "Vocals by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes"). In 1987 she recorded an album of Cohen songs, ''
Famous Blue Raincoat
"Famous Blue Raincoat" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, ''Songs of Love and Hate'', released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter (many of the lines are written in amphibrachs). The lyric tells ...
''. Cohen said that she sang backup for his 1980 tour, even though her career at the time was in much better shape than his. "So this is a real friend", he said. "Someone who in the face of great derision, has always supported me."
1980s
In the early 1980s, Cohen co-wrote (with
Lewis Furey
Lewis Furey, born Lewis Greenblatt (born 7 June 1949) is a Canadian composer, singer, violinist, pianist, actor and director.
Career
Born in Montreal, Quebec to French and American parents, Furey trained as a classical violinist, and at age 11 ...
) the rock musical film ''Night Magic'' starring
Carole Laure
Carole Laure O.C. (born August 5, 1948) is an actress and singer from Quebec, Canada.
Career
Throughout most of her career, Carole Laure primarily collaborated with Anglophone singer, songwriter, producer, and director Lewis Furey, whom she ...
and
Nick Mancuso
Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso (born May 29, 1948) is an Italian-Canadian actor, artist, playwright, and director. Beginning his career as a stage actor, he had his breakthrough role in the 1981 drama ''Ticket to Heaven'', for which he won the ...
; the LP ''
Various Positions
''Various Positions'' is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the ha ...
'' was released in 1984. Cohen supported the release of the album with his biggest tour to date, in Europe and Australia, and with his first tour in Canada and the United States since 1975. The band performed at the
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...
, and the
Roskilde Festival
The Roskilde Festival is a Danish music festival held annually south of Roskilde. It is one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the largest in the Nordic countries. It was created in 1971 by two high school students and a promoter. In 1 ...
.
They also gave a series of highly emotional and politically controversial concerts in Poland, which had been under
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
just two years before, and performed the song "
The Partisan
"The Partisan" is an anti-fascist anthem about the French Resistance in World War II. The song was composed in 1943 by Russian-born Anna Marly (1917–2006), with lyrics by French Resistance leader Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (1900–1969) ...
Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 fo ...
's tribute album ''
Famous Blue Raincoat
"Famous Blue Raincoat" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, ''Songs of Love and Hate'', released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter (many of the lines are written in amphibrachs). The lyric tells ...
'' helped restore Cohen's career in the US. The following year he released '' I'm Your Man''. Cohen supported the record with a series of television interviews and an extensive tour of Europe, Canada, and the US. Many shows were broadcast on European and US television and radio stations, while Cohen performed for the first time in his career on PBS's ''
Austin City Limits
''Austin City Limits'' is an American live music television program recorded and produced by Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and is the only television show t ...
'' show.
"Hallelujah"
"Hallelujah" was first released on Cohen's studio album ''
Various Positions
''Various Positions'' is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the ha ...
'' in 1984, and he sang it during his Europe tour in 1985. The song had limited initial success but found greater popularity through a 1991 cover by
John Cale
John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...
that was featured in the 2001 animated film, ''
Shrek
''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenso ...
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded 10 studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and set ...
. Cale's version formed the basis for a later cover by
Jeff Buckley
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...
. "Hallelujah" has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages.Arjatsalo, J., Riise, A., & Kurzweil, K. (July 11, 2009) A Thousand Covers Deep: Leonard Cohen Covered by Other Artists . The Leonard Cohen Files. Retrieved July 12, 2009. ''New York Times'' movie reviewer A. O. Scott wrote that "Hallelujah is one of those rare songs that survives its banalization with at least some of its sublimity intact".
The song is the subject of the 2012 book ''
The Holy or the Broken
''The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah'' is a 2012 non-fiction book written by Alan Light.
Overview
A look into the enduring popularity of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" and Jeff Buckley
...
'' by
Alan Light
Alan Light (born August 4, 1966) is an American journalist who has been a rock critic for ''Rolling Stone'' and the editor-in-chief for ''Vibe,'' '' Spin,'' and ''Tracks''.http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2003/11/18/new_music ...
Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
's ''New York Times'' book review said that "Cohen spent years struggling with the song, which eventually became "one of the most haunting, mutable and oft-performed songs in American musical history".
1990s
The album track " Everybody Knows" from ''I'm Your Man'' and "If It Be Your Will" in the 1990 film '' Pump Up the Volume'' helped expose Cohen's music to a wider audience. He first introduced the song during his world tour in 1988. The song "Everybody Knows" also featured prominently in fellow Canadian
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan (; hy, Աթոմ Եղոյեան, translit=Atom Yeghoyan; born July 19, 1960) is a Canadian filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in the 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Egoyan m ...
's 1994 film, ''
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same name that was popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s with Americans who came of age during World War II. The term was coined by Simon "Si" Waronker, Liberty Records ...
''. In 1992, Cohen released '' The Future'', which urges (often in terms of
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and hope in the face of grim prospects. Three tracks from the album – " Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" – were featured in the movie ''
Natural Born Killers
''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American crime film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childho ...
'', which also promoted Cohen's work to a new generation of US listeners.
As with ''I'm Your Man'', the lyrics on ''The Future'' were dark, and made references to political and social unrest. The title track is reportedly a response to the
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
. Cohen promoted the album with two music videos, for "Closing Time" and "The Future", and supported the release with the major tour through Europe, United States and Canada, with the same band as in his 1988 tour, including a second appearance on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's ''
Austin City Limits
''Austin City Limits'' is an American live music television program recorded and produced by Austin PBS. The show helped Austin become widely known in the United States as the "Live Music Capital of the World", and is the only television show t ...
''. Some of the Scandinavian shows were broadcast live on the radio. The selection of performances, mostly recorded on the Canadian leg of the tour, was released on the 1994 '' Cohen Live'' album.
In 1993, Cohen also published his book of selected poems and songs, ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs'', on which he had worked since 1989. It includes a number of new poems from the late 1980s and early 1990s and major revision of his 1978 book ''Death of a Lady's Man''.
In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a
Rinzai
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...
Zen
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
monk and took the
Dharma
Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...
name ''Jikan'', meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant to
Kyozan Joshu Sasaki
, Roshi (April 1, 1907 – July 27, 2014) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen teacher who sought to tailor his teachings to westerners, he lived in Los Angeles, United States. Joshu Sasaki opened dozens of centres and was founder and head abbot of the Mou ...
Roshi.
In 1997, Cohen oversaw the selection and release of the '' More Best of Leonard Cohen'' album, which included a previously unreleased track, "Never Any Good", and an experimental piece "The Great Event". The first was left over from Cohen's unfinished mid-1990s album, which was tentatively called ''On The Path'', and slated to include songs like "In My Secret Life" (already recited as a song-in-progress in 1988) and "A Thousand Kisses Deep", both later re-worked with Sharon Robinson for the 2001 album ''
Ten New Songs
''Ten New Songs'' is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. ...
''.
Although there was a public impression that Cohen would not resume recording or publishing, he returned to Los Angeles in May 1999. He began to contribute regularly to The Leonard Cohen Files fan website, emailing new poems and drawings from ''Book of Longing'' and early versions of new songs, like "A Thousand Kisses Deep" in September 1998 and
Anjani
Anjani Thomas (born July 10, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist, best known for her work with singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, as well as Carl Anderson, Frank Gambale, and Stanley Clarke. She became a solo artist in 2000.
Life
...
Thomas's story sent on May 6, 1999, the day they were recording "Villanelle for our Time" (released on 2004's ''
Dear Heather
''Dear Heather'' is the 11th studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released by Columbia Records in 2004. It was dedicated "in memory of Jack McClelland 1922-2004."
Background
The album features Cohen experimenting with diffe ...
'' album). The section of The Leonard Cohen Files with Cohen's online writings has been titled "The Blackening Pages".
2000s
Post-monastery records
After two years of production, Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of ''
Ten New Songs
''Ten New Songs'' is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. ...
'', featuring a major influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. The album, recorded at Cohen's and Robinson's home studios – ''Still Life Studios'', includes the song "Alexandra Leaving", a transformation of the poem "
The God Abandons Antony "The God Abandons Antony" ( gr, Ἀπολείπειν ὁ θεὸς Ἀντώνιον) can also be translated as "The God Forsakes Antony" is a poem by Constantine P. Cavafy, published in 1911.
Story
The God Abandons Antony refers to Plutarch's sto ...
", by the Greek poet
Constantine P. Cavafy
Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gree ...
. The album was a major hit for Cohen in Canada and Europe, and he supported it with the hit single "In My Secret Life" and accompanying video shot by
Floria Sigismondi
Floria Sigismondi (, born 1965) is an Italian-Canadian film director, screenwriter, music video director, artist, and photographer.
She is best known for writing and directing '' The Runaways'', for directing music videos for performers includi ...
. The album won him four Canadian Juno Awards in 2002: Best Artist, Best Songwriter, Best Pop Album, and Best Video ("In My Secret Life"). And the following year he was invested with Canada's highest civilian honour, the
Companion of the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with ...
.
In October 2004, Cohen released ''
Dear Heather
''Dear Heather'' is the 11th studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released by Columbia Records in 2004. It was dedicated "in memory of Jack McClelland 1922-2004."
Background
The album features Cohen experimenting with diffe ...
'', largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and romantic partner)
Anjani
Anjani Thomas (born July 10, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist, best known for her work with singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, as well as Carl Anderson, Frank Gambale, and Stanley Clarke. She became a solo artist in 2000.
Life
...
Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returned to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, ''Dear Heather'' reflects Cohen's own change of mood – he said in a number of interviews that his depression had lifted in recent years, which he attributed to Zen Buddhism. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager.
'' Blue Alert'', an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released in 2006 to positive reviews. Sung by Anjani, who according to one reviewer "... sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman ... though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke."
Before embarking on his 2008–2010 world tour, and without finishing the new album that had been in work since 2006, Cohen contributed a few tracks to other artists' albums – a new version of his own "Tower of Song" was performed by him, Anjani Thomas and U2 in the 2006 tribute film ''Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man'' (the video and track were included on the film's soundtrack and released as the B-side of U2's single " Window in the Skies", reaching No 1 in the
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart was a chart compiled by the American-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan, which began publication in November 1996. It was published every Wednesday and also published on Thursday by '' Jam!''/Canoe. I ...
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
: Take Me to the Mardi Gras'' and "The Jungle Line" by
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
, accompanied by
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
on piano, on Hancock's Grammy-winning album '' River: The Joni Letters'', while in 2008, he recited the poem "Since You've Asked" on the album ''Born to the Breed: A Tribute to
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...
''.
Lawsuits and financial troubles
In late 2005, Cohen's daughter Lorca began to suspect his longtime manager, Kelley Lynch, of financial impropriety. According to Cohen biographer Sylvie Simmons, Lynch "took care of Leonard's business affairs ... he wasnot simply his manager but a close friend, almost part of the family."Simmons, Sylvie. I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen. NY: HarperCollins, 2012. Cohen discovered that he had unknowingly paid a credit card bill of Lynch's for $75,000, and that most of the money in his accounts was gone, including money from his retirement accounts and charitable trust funds. This had begun as early as 1996, when Lynch started selling Cohen's music publishing rights, despite the fact that Cohen had had no financial incentive to do so.
In October 2005, Cohen sued Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated over US$5 million from Cohen's retirement fund, leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events placed him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in the Canadian magazine ''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
''. In March 2006, Cohen won a
civil suit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the Civil law (common law), civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in re ...
and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch ignored the suit and did not respond to a
subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
issued for her financial records. ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' reported that Cohen might never be able to collect the awarded amount. In 2012, Lynch was jailed for 18 months and five years' probation for harassing Cohen after he dismissed her.
''Book of Longing''
Cohen published a book of poetry and drawings, ''
Book of Longing
''Book of Longing'' was the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's '' Book of Mercy''. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, ''Book of Longing'' contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written a ...
'', in May 2006. In March, a Toronto-based retailer offered signed copies to the first 1,500 orders placed online: all 1,500 sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. On May 13, Cohen made his first public appearance in 13 years, at an in-store event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3,000 people arrived, causing the streets surrounding the bookstore to be closed. He sang two of his earliest and best-known songs: "So Long, Marianne" and "
Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye
"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It was first released in November 1967, in a version by Judy Collins on her album '' Wildflowers''.
", accompanied by the
Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...
and
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has s ...
. Appearing with him was Anjani, promoting her new CD along with his book.
That same year,
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
composed music for ''Book of Longing''. Following a series of live performances that included Glass on keyboards, Cohen's recorded spoken text, four additional voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone), and other instruments, and as well as screenings of Cohen's artworks and drawings, Glass' label Orange Mountain Music released a double CD of the work, titled ''Book of Longing. A Song Cycle based on the Poetry and Artwork of Leonard Cohen''.
2008–2010 World Tour
2008 tour
To recoup the money his ex-manager had stolen, Cohen embarked on his first world tour in 15 years. He said that being "forced to go back on the road to repair the fortunes of my family and myself ... asa most fortunate happenstance because I was able to connect… with living musicians. And I think it warmed some part of my heart that had taken on a chill."
The tour began on May 11 in
Fredericton
Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...
, New Brunswick, and was extended until late 2010. The schedule of the first leg in mid-2008 encompassed Canada and Europe, including performances at The Big Chill, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and on the Pyramid Stage at the 2008
Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...
on June 29, 2008. His performance at Glastonbury was hailed by many as the highlight of the festival, and his performance of "Hallelujah" as the sun set received a rapturous reception and a lengthy ovation from a packed Pyramid Stage field. He also played two shows in London's
O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to:
*The O2 Arena (London)
*O2 Arena (Prague)
*The 3Arena
The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decem ...
.
In Dublin, Cohen was the first performer to play an open-air concert at
IMMA
''Imma'' is a large genus of moths in the obtectomeran " micromoth" family Immidae. This is the type genus of its family. They are widespread in the tropics, with most species occurring between the Himalayas and the Oceanian region; the genus is ...
(
Royal Hospital Kilmainham
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham ( ga, Ospidéal Ríochta Chill Mhaighneann) in Kilmainham, Dublin, is a former 17th-century hospital at Kilmainham in Ireland. The structure now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
History
A priory, founded in 11 ...
) ground, performing there on June 13, 14 and 15, 2008. In 2009, the performances were awarded Ireland's Meteor Music Award as the best international performance of the year.
In September, October and November 2008, Cohen toured Europe, including stops in Austria, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Italy, Germany, France and Scandinavia. In March 2009, Cohen released ''Live in London'', recorded in July 2008 at London's O2 Arena and released on DVD and as a two-CD set. The album contains 25 songs and is more than two and one-half hours long. It was the first official DVD in Cohen's recording career.
2009 tour
The third leg of Cohen's World Tour 2008–2009 encompassed New Zealand and Australia from January 20 to February 10, 2009. In January 2009, The Pacific Tour first came to New Zealand, where the audience of 12,000 responded with five standing ovations.
On February 19, 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in 15 years at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The show, showcased as the special performance for fans, Leonard Cohen Forum members and press, was the only show in the whole three-year tour that was broadcast on the radio (NPR) and available as a free podcast.
The North American Tour of 2009 opened on April 1, and included the performance at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...
on Friday, April 17, 2009, in front of one of the largest outdoor theatre crowds in the history of the festival. His performance of ''Hallelujah'' was widely regarded as one of the highlights of the festival, thus repeating the major success of the 2008 Glastonbury appearance.
In July 2009, Cohen started his marathon European tour, his third in two years. The itinerary mostly included sport arenas and open air Summer festivals in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Ireland (the show at O2 in Dublin won him the second Meteor Music Award in a row), but also performances in Serbia in the
Belgrade Arena
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mill ...
, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, and again in Romania.
On September 18, 2009, on the stage at a concert in
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
, Spain, Cohen suddenly fainted halfway through performing his song "Bird on the Wire", the fourth in the two-act set list; Cohen was brought down backstage by his band members and then admitted to local hospital, while the concert was suspended. It was reported that Cohen had stomach problems, and possibly food poisoning. Three days later, on September 21, his 75th birthday, he performed in Barcelona. The show, last in Europe in 2009 and rumoured to be the last European concert ever, attracted many international fans, who lighted the green candles honouring Cohen's birthday, leading Cohen to give a special speech of thanks for the fans and the Leonard Cohen Forum.
The last concert of this leg was held in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, Israel, on September 24 at
Ramat Gan Stadium
Ramat Gan Stadium ( he, אצטדיון רמת גן, ''Itztadion Ramat Gan'') is a football stadium in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. It served as the national stadium of Israel until 2014.
Overview
Completed in 1951 and serving ...
. The event was surrounded by public discussion due to a cultural boycott of Israel proposed by a number of musicians. Nevertheless, tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, Cohen's first performance in Israel since 1980, sold out in less than 24 hours. It was announced that the proceeds from the sale of the 47,000 tickets would go into a charitable fund in partnership with
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
and would be used by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups.
The sixth leg of the 2008–2009 world tour went again to the US, with 15 shows. The 2009 world tour earned a reported $9.5 million, putting Cohen at number 39 on ''Billboard'' magazine's list of the year's top musical "money makers".
On September 14, 2010, Sony Music released a live CD/DVD album, ''Songs from the Road'', showcasing Cohen's 2008 and 2009 live performances. The previous year, Cohen's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Music Festival was released as a CD/DVD combo.
2010 tour
Officially billed as the "World Tour 2010", the tour started on July 25, 2010, in
Arena Zagreb
The Arena Zagreb is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Zagreb, Croatia. The site also includes a building complex, the Arena Complex (Arena Center), making it one of the largest shopping-entertainment centers in the city. The arena is used fo ...
, Croatia, and continued with stops in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland, where on July 31, 2010, Cohen performed at
Lissadell House
Lissadell House is a neo-classical Greek revivalist style country house in County Sligo, Ireland.
The house was built between 1830 and 1835 for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Baronet (1784–1835) by London architect Francis Goodwin. Sir Robert ...
in County Sligo. It was Cohen's eighth Irish concert in just two years after a hiatus of more than 20 years. On August 12, Cohen played the 200th show of the tour in
Scandinavium
Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971.
Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...
,
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, Sweden. The third leg of the 2010 tour started on October 28 in New Zealand and continued in Australia.
2010s
In 2011, Cohen's poetical output was represented in Everyman's Library Pocket Poets, in a selection ''Poems and Songs'' edited by Robert Faggen. The collection included a selection from all Cohen's books, based on his 1993 books of selected works, ''Stranger Music'', and as well from ''Book of Longing'', with addition of six new song lyrics. Nevertheless, three of those songs, "A Street", recited in 2006, "Feels So Good", performed live in 2009 and 2010, and "Born in Chains", performed live in 2010, were not released on Cohen's 2012 album ''
Old Ideas
''Old Ideas'' is the twelfth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released in January 2012. It is Cohen's highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200, 44 years after the release o ...
'', with him being unhappy with the versions of the songs in the last moment; the song "Lullaby", as presented in the book and performed live in 2009, was completely re-recorded for the album, presenting new lyrics on the same melody.
A biography, ''I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen'', written by Sylvie Simmons, was published in October 2012. The book is the second major biography of Cohen (Ira Nadel's 1997 biography ''Various Positions'' was the first).
''Old Ideas''
Leonard Cohen's 12th studio album, ''
Old Ideas
''Old Ideas'' is the twelfth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released in January 2012. It is Cohen's highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200, 44 years after the release o ...
'', was released worldwide on January 31, 2012, and it soon became the highest-charting album of his entire career, reaching No. 1 positions in Canada, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, New Zealand, and top ten positions in United States, Australia, France, Portugal, UK, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland, competing for number one position with
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
's debut album '' Born to Die'', released the same day.
The lyrics for the song "Going Home" were published as a poem in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' magazine in January 2012, prior to the record's release. The entire album was streamed online by
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
on January 22 and on January 23 by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
The album received uniformly positive reviews from ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', and ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. At a record release party for the album in January 2012, Cohen spoke with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reporter
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.n this album" Pareles goes to characterize the album as "an autumnal album, musing on memories and final reckonings, but it also has a gleam in its eye. It grapples once again with topics Mr. Cohen has pondered throughout his career: love, desire, faith, betrayal, redemption. Some of the diction is biblical; some is drily sardonic."
2012–2013 World Tour
On August 12, 2012, Cohen embarked on a new European tour in support of ''Old Ideas'', adding a violinist to his 2008–2010 tour band, now nicknamed Unified Heart Touring Band, and following the same three-hour set list structure as in 2008–2012 tour, with the addition of a number of songs from ''Old Ideas''. The European leg ended on October 7, 2012, after concerts in Belgium, Ireland (Royal Hospital), France (Olympia in Paris), England (Wembley Arena in London), Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy (Arena in Verona), Croatia ( Arena in Pula), Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Romania and Turkey.
The second leg of the Old Ideas World Tour took place in the US and Canada in November and December, with 56 shows altogether on both legs.
Cohen returned to North America in the spring of 2013 with concerts in the United States and Canada. A summer tour of Europe happened shortly afterwards.
Cohen then toured Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2013. His final concert was performed at the
Vector Arena
Spark Arena (also known as Auckland City Arena, and formerly as Vector Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The venue is located at Quay Park, Parnell, very close to Britomart Transport Centre and The Strand Station. The ar ...
in Auckland.
''Popular Problems'' and ''You Want It Darker''
Cohen released his 13th album, ''
Popular Problems
''Popular Problems'' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on September 19, 2014 in Friday-release countries (such as France and Ireland) and on September 22, 2014 elsewhere.
Overview
Most of the ...
'', on September 24, 2014. The album includes "A Street", which he had previously recited in 2006, during promotion of his book of poetry
Book of Longing
''Book of Longing'' was the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's '' Book of Mercy''. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, ''Book of Longing'' contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written a ...
, and later printed twice, as "A Street" in the March 2, 2009, issue of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' magazine, and appeared as "Party's Over" in Everyman's Library edition of ''Poems and Songs'' in 2011.
Cohen's 14th and final album, ''
You Want It Darker
''You Want It Darker'' is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on October 21, 2016, by Columbia Records, 17 days before Cohen's death. The album was created at the end of his life and focuses on death ...
'', was released on October 21, 2016. Cohen's son Adam Cohen has a production credit on the album. On February 23, 2017, Cohen's son and his final album collaborator Sammy Slabbinck released a special, posthumous tribute video set to the album track "Traveling Light", featuring never before seen archival footage of Cohen from his career. The title track was awarded a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for s ...
in January 2018.
''Thanks for the Dance'' and other posthumous releases
Before his death, Cohen had begun working on a new album with his son
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
, a musician and singer-songwriter. The album, titled ''
Thanks for the Dance
''Thanks for the Dance'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released posthumously through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 22, 2019. It is the first release following Cohen's dea ...
'', was released on November 22, 2019. One posthumous track, "Necropsy of Love", appeared on the 2018 compilation album '' The Al Purdy Songbook'' and another track named "The Goal" was also published on September 20, 2019, on Leonard Cohen's official YouTube channel.
Cultural impact and themes
Writing for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, critic Bruce Eder assessed Cohen's overall career in popular music by asserting that "
e is
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
one of the most fascinating and enigmatic ... singer-songwriters of the late '60s ... Second only to
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
(and perhaps
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
), he commands the attention of critics and younger musicians more firmly than any other musical figure from the 1960s who continued to work in the 21st century." The
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...
commented more broadly, stating that "Cohen's successful blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear in ''
Stranger Music
''Stranger Music'' is a 1993 book by Leonard Cohen. It compiles many of his published poems, as well as the lyrics to his songs.
In the "A Note On The Text" section of the book it states: In some sections of this book, certain poem titles and t ...
: Selected Poems and Songs'', published in 1993 ... while it may seem to some that Leonard Cohen departed from the literary in pursuit of the musical, his fans continue to embrace him as a
Renaissance man
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
who straddles the elusive artistic borderlines." Bob Dylan was an admirer, describing Cohen as the 'number one' songwriter of their time (Dylan described himself as 'number zero'). "When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. ... Even the counterpoint lines--they give a celestial character & melodic lift to his songs. ... no one else comes close to this in modern music. ... I like all of Leonard's songs, early or late. ... they make you think & feel. I like some of his later songs even better than his early ones. Yet there's a simplicity to his early ones that I like, too. ... He's very much a descendant of
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russi ...
. ... Both of them just hear melodies that most of us can only strive for. ... Both Leonard & Berlin are incredibly crafty. Leonard particularly uses chord progressions that are classical in shape. He is a much more savvy musician than you'd think."
Themes of political and social justice also recur in Cohen's work, especially in later albums. In "Democracy", he both acknowledges political problems and celebrates the hopes of reformers: "from the wars against disorder/ from the sirens night and day/ from the fires of the homeless/ from the ashes of the gay/ Democracy is coming to the USA." He made the observation in "Tower of Song" that "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor/ And there's a mighty judgment coming." In the title track of ''The Future'' he recasts this prophecy on a pacifist note: "I've seen the nations rise and fall/ ... / But love's the only engine of survival." In that same song he comments on current topics (abortion, anal sex and the use of drugs): "Give me crack and anal sex. Take the only tree that's left and stuff it up the hole in your culture", "Destroy another fetus now, we don't like children anyhow". In "Anthem", he promises that "the killers in high places hosay their prayers out loud/ regonna hear from me."
War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work that—in his earlier songs and early life—he approached ambivalently. Challenged in 1974 over his serious demeanor in concerts and the military salutes he ended them with, Cohen remarked, "I sing serious songs, and I'm serious onstage because I couldn't do it any other way ... I don't consider myself a civilian. I consider myself a soldier, and that's the way soldiers salute."
Deeply moved by encounters with Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write "
Lover Lover Lover
''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'' is the fourth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1974. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other ...
". This song has been interpreted as a personal renunciation of armed conflict, and ends with the hope his song will serve a listener as "a shield against the enemy". He would later remark, Lover, Lover, Lover' was born over there; the whole world has its eyes riveted on this tragic and complex conflict. Then again, I am faithful to certain ideas, inevitably. I hope that those of which I am in favour will gain." Asked which side he supported in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Cohen responded, "I don't want to speak of wars or sides ... Personal process is one thing, it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins. The militarism I practice as a person and a writer is another thing. ... I don't wish to speak about war."
In 1991, playwright Bryden MacDonald launched ''Sincerely, A Friend'', a musical revue based on Cohen's music.Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, ''The Columbia encyclopedia of modern drama: M-Z, Volume 2'' (p. 843).
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
, 2007. .
Cohen is mentioned in the
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
song "
Pennyroyal Tea
"Pennyroyal Tea" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the ninth track on the band's third and final studio album, ''In Utero'', released in 1993.
The song was due to be released as th ...
" from the band's 1993 release, ''
In Utero
''In Utero'' is the third and final studio album by American rock band Nirvana. It was released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albin ...
''.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...
wrote, "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld/So I can sigh eternally." Cohen, after Cobain's suicide, was quoted as saying "I'm sorry I couldn't have spoken to the young man. I see a lot of people at the Zen Centre, who have gone through drugs and found a way out that is not just Sunday school. There are always alternatives, and I might have been able to lay something on him." He is also mentioned in the lyrics of songs by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions,
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were Marillion.
Cohen was one of the inspirations for Matt Bissonnette and Steven Clark's 2002 film '' Looking for Leonard''. Centred on a group of small-time criminals in Montreal, one of the film's characters idolizes Cohen as a symbol of her dreams for a better life, obsessively rereading his writings and rewatching ''Ladies and Gentlemen''. Bissonnette followed up in 2020 with '' Death of a Ladies' Man'', a film that uses seven Cohen songs in its soundtrack to illuminate key themes in the film's screenplay.
The Leonard Cohen song "
So Long, Marianne
"So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. It was featured on his debut album, '' Songs of Leonard Cohen''. Pitchfork Media placed it at number 190 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".
...
" is the title of the season 4, episode 9 episode of ''
This is Us
''This Is Us'' is an American family drama television series that aired on NBC from September 20, 2016, to May 24, 2022. The series follows the lives and families of two parents, and their three children, in several different time frames. It s ...
''. The song is played and its meaning is discussed as an important plot point of the episode.
In April 2022, author and journalist
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman ( he, מתי פרידמן) is a Canadian-Israeli journalist and author. He is an op-ed contributor for the New York Times, and columnist for Tablet magazine.
Biography
Matti Friedman was born to a Canadian Jewish family and gre ...
published ''"Who By Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen"'' the story of Leonard Cohen's 1973 tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War.
Susan Cain, author of '' Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole'' (2022), said that humorous references to Cohen as the "Poet Laureate of Pessimism" miss the point that Cohen's life suggests that "the quest to transform pain into beauty is one of the great catalysts of artistic expression". Cain dedicated the book "In memory of Leonard Cohen", quoting lyrics from Cohen's song "Anthem" (1992): "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
''New York Times'' critic A. O. Scott wrote that "Cohen wasn't one to offer comfort. His gift as a songwriter and performer was rather to provide commentary and companionship amid the gloom, offering a wry, openhearted perspective on the puzzles of the human condition". Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, creators of the 2022 documentary film '' Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song'', acknowledged that Cohen was initially perceived as a "monster of gloom"; but Goldfine described Cohen as "one of the funniest guys ever" with "a very droll, dry wit", and Geller remarking, "Almost everything (Cohen) said came out with a twinkle in his eye". Long before his death, Cohen said "I feel I have a huge posthumous career in front of me".
Personal life
Relationships and children
In September 1960, Cohen bought a house on the Greek island of Hydra with $1,500 that he had inherited from his grandmother. Cohen lived there with
Marianne Ihlen
Marianne Christine Stang Ihlen (; 18 May 1935 – 28 July 2016) was a Norwegian woman who was the first wife of author Axel Jensen and later the muse and girlfriend of Leonard Cohen for several years in the 1960s. She was the subject of Cohen's ...
, with whom he was in a relationship for most of the 1960s. The song "
So Long, Marianne
"So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. It was featured on his debut album, '' Songs of Leonard Cohen''. Pitchfork Media placed it at number 190 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".
...
" was written to and about her. In 2016, Ihlen died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
three months and nine days before Cohen. His farewell letter to her was read at her funeral, often misquoted by the media and others as "... our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine." This widely circulated version is based on an inaccurate verbal recollection by Ihlen's friend. The letter (actually an email), obtained through the Leonard Cohen estate, reads:
In the spring of 1968, Cohen had a brief relationship with musician
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
while staying at the Chelsea Hotel, and the song of the same name references this relationship.
In the 1970s, Cohen was in a relationship with artist Suzanne Elrod. She took the cover photograph for ''Live Songs'' and is pictured on the cover of the '' Death of a Ladies' Man''. She also inspired the "Dark Lady" of Cohen's book ''Death of a Lady's Man'' (1978), but is not the subject of one of his best-known songs, " Suzanne", which refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of a friend, the Québécois sculptor
Armand Vaillancourt
Armand J. R. Vaillancourt (born September 3, 1929) is a Canadian sculptor, painter and performance artist from Quebec. He is known for his public art fountain entitled Vaillancourt Fountain located in San Francisco. He lives in Montreal.
Biogr ...
. Cohen and Elrod separated in 1979; he later stated that "cowardice" and "fear" prevented him from marrying her. Their relationship produced two children: a son,
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
(b. 1972), and a daughter, Lorca (b. 1974), named after poet
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
. Adam is a singer–songwriter and the lead singer of pop-rock band Low Millions, while Lorca is a photographer. She shot the music video for Cohen's song "Because Of" (2004), and worked as a photographer and videographer for his 2008–10 world tour. Cohen had three grandchildren: grandson Cassius through his son Adam, and granddaughter Viva (whose father is musician
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded 10 studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical operas and set ...
) and grandson Lyon through Lorca.
Cohen was in a relationship with French photographer
Dominique Issermann
Dominique Issermann (born April 11, 1947) is a French photographer. She works primarily with black and white photography, and is noted for her works in portraits, fashion and advertising.
She has shot campaigns for Sonia Rykiel, Christian Dior, N ...
in the 1980s. They worked together on several occasions: she shot his first two music videos for the songs "
Dance Me to the End of Love
"Dance Me to the End of Love" is a 1984 song by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen. It was first performed by Cohen on his 1984 album '' Various Positions''. It has been recorded by various artists and in 2009 was described as "trembling on the brink ...
" and "
First We Take Manhattan
"First We Take Manhattan" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was originally recorded by American singer Jennifer Warnes on her 1986 Cohen tribute album ''Famous Blue Raincoat'', which consisted entirely of songs wr ...
" and her photographs were used for the covers of his 1993 book ''Stranger Music'' and his album '' More Best of Leonard Cohen'' and for the inside booklet of '' I'm Your Man'' (1988), which he also dedicated to her. In 2010, she was also the official photographer of his world tour.
In the 1990s, Cohen was romantically linked to actress Rebecca De Mornay. De Mornay co-produced Cohen's 1992 album '' The Future'', which is also dedicated to her with an inscription that quotes
Rebecca
Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...
's coming to the well from the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...
chapter 24 and giving drink to
Eliezer
Eliezer (, "Help/Court of El") was the name of at least three different individuals in the Bible.
Eliezer of Damascus
Eliezer of Damascus () was, according to the Targums, the son of Nimrod. Eliezer was head of the patriarch Abraham's househo ...
's camels, after he prayed for guidance; Eliezer ("God is my help" in Hebrew) is part of Cohen's Hebrew name (Eliezer ben Nisan ha'Cohen), and Cohen sometimes referred to himself as "Eliezer Cohen" or even "Jikan Eliezer".
According to Suzanne Vega, interviewed by The New Yorker, his relationship with women was one of seduction, accompanied by a "secret handshake".
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'': "Mr. Cohen keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen? '
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
asked me the same question many years ago,' he said. 'Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.'"
Cohen had a brief phase around 1970 of being interested in a variety of world views, which he later described as "from the Communist party to the Republican Party" and "from Scientology to delusions of me as the High Priest rebuilding the Temple".
Cohen was involved with
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
beginning in the 1970s and was ordained a
Rinzai
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by Myōan E ...
Buddhist monk in 1996; he continued to consider himself Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism." Beginning in the late 1970s, Cohen was associated with Buddhist monk and
rōshi
(Japanese: "old teacher"; "old master") is a title in Zen Buddhism with different usages depending on sect and country. In Rinzai Zen, the term is reserved only for individuals who have received ''inka shōmei'', meaning they have completed th ...
(venerable teacher)
Kyozan Joshu Sasaki
, Roshi (April 1, 1907 – July 27, 2014) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen teacher who sought to tailor his teachings to westerners, he lived in Los Angeles, United States. Joshu Sasaki opened dozens of centres and was founder and head abbot of the Mou ...
, regularly visiting him at
Mount Baldy Zen Center
Mount Baldy Zen Center (MBZC) is a Rinzai Zen monastery of the Nyorai-nyokyo sect, located in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest region on and founded in 1971 by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. The monastery — once a Boy Scout camp ...
and serving him as personal assistant during Cohen's period of reclusion at Mount Baldy monastery in the 1990s. Sasaki appears as a regular motif or addressee in Cohen's poetry, especially in his ''
Book of Longing
''Book of Longing'' was the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's '' Book of Mercy''. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, ''Book of Longing'' contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written a ...
'', and took part in a 1997 documentary about Cohen's monastery years, ''Leonard Cohen: Spring 1996''. Cohen's 2001 album ''
Ten New Songs
''Ten New Songs'' is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. ...
'' is dedicated to Joshu Sasaki.
Leonard also showed an interest in the teachings of
Ramesh Balsekar
Ramesh S. Balsekar (25 May 1917 – 27 September 2009) was a disciple and principle translator of the late Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a renowned Advaita master. From early childhood, Balsekar was drawn to Advaita, a nondual teaching, particularl ...
, who taught from the tradition of
Advaita Vedanta
''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hinduism, Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the Āstika and nāstika, orthodox Hindu school Ved ...
.
In a 1993 interview titled "I am the little Jew who wrote the Bible", he said: "At our best, we inhabit a biblical landscape, and this is where we should situate ourselves without apology. ..That biblical landscape is our urgent invitation ... Otherwise, it's really not worth saving or manifesting or redeeming or anything, unless we really take up that invitation to walk into that biblical landscape."
Cohen showed an interest in Jesus as a universal figure, saying, "I'm very fond of Jesus Christ. He may be the most beautiful guy who walked the face of this earth. Any guy who says 'Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek' has got to be a figure of unparalleled generosity and insight and madness ... A man who declared himself to stand among the thieves, the prostitutes and the homeless. His position cannot be comprehended. It is an inhuman generosity. A generosity that would overthrow the world if it was embraced because nothing would weather that compassion. I'm not trying to alter the Jewish view of Jesus Christ. But to me, in spite of what I know about the history of legal Christianity, the figure of the man has touched me."
Speaking about his religion in a 2007 interview for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's '' Front Row'' (partially re-broadcast on November 11, 2016), Cohen said: "My friend
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. He and the rest of the band were inducted into the Rock and Rol ...
said of me that I'd never met a religion I didn't like. That's why I've tried to correct that impression hat I was looking for another religion besides Judaismbecause I very much feel part of that tradition and I practice that and my children practice it, so that was never in question. The investigations that I've done into other spiritual systems have certainly illuminated and enriched my understanding of my own tradition."
At his concert in
Ramat Gan
Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...
on September 24, 2009, Cohen spoke Jewish prayers and blessings to the audience in Hebrew. He opened the show with the first sentence of
Ma Tovu
Ma Tovu (Hebrew for "O How Good" or "How Goodly") is a prayer in Judaism, expressing reverence and awe for synagogues and other places of worship.
The prayer begins with , where Balaam, sent to curse the Israelites, is instead overcome with awe a ...
. At the middle, he used Baruch Hashem, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing of
Birkat Kohanim
The Priestly Blessing or priestly benediction, ( he, ברכת כהנים; translit. ''birkat kohanim''), also known in rabbinic literature as raising of the hands (Hebrew ''nesiat kapayim'') or rising to the platform (Hebrew ''aliyah ledukhan'') ...
.
Death and tributes
Cohen died on November 7, 2016, at the age of 82 at his home in Los Angeles;
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
was a contributing cause. According to his manager, Cohen's death was the result of a fall at his home that evening, and he subsequently died in his sleep. His death was announced on November 10, the same day as his funeral, which was held in Montreal.
As was his wish, Cohen was laid to rest with a Jewish rite, in a simple pine
casket
A casket jewelry box is a container that is usually smaller than a chest, and in the past were typically decorated. Whereas cremation jewelry is a small container, usually in the shape of a pendant or bracelet, to hold a small amount of ashes.
...
, in a family plot in the
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim
Congregation Shaar Hashomayim () is an Ashkenazi synagogue in Westmount, Quebec. Incorporated in 1846, it is the oldest traditional Ashkenazi synagogue in Canada and the largest traditional synagogue in Canada.
History
Former building of Sha ...
cemetery on
Mount Royal
Mount Royal (french: link=no, Mont Royal, ) is a large intrusive rock hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is the ...
.
Tributes were paid by numerous stars and political figures. Citizens and officials in Montreal considered honouring him by naming a street and other locations, including a library, after him.
The city of Montreal held a tribute concert to Cohen in December 2016, titled "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" after a
prose poem
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...
in his novel ''
Beautiful Losers
''Beautiful Losers'' is the second and final novel by Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen. It was published in 1966, before he began his career as a singer-songwriter.
Set in the Canadian province of Quebec, the story of 17th-century ...
''. It featured a number of musical performances and readings of Cohen's poetry.
A memorial also took place in Los Angeles. Cohen was survived by his two children and three grandchildren.
After Cohen's death, two tribute murals were created in the city the following summer. Artist Kevin Ledo painted a nine-story portrait of him near Cohen's home on Montreal's
Plateau Mont-Royal
Le Plateau-Mont-Royal () is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The Plateau-Mont-Royal takes its name from its location on a plateau, on the eastern side of Mont-Royal and overlooking downtown Montreal, across ...
, and a 20-story
fedora
A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...
-clad likeness on Crescent Street, commissioned by the city of Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with Montreal artist Gene Pendon and L.A. artist El Mac, has dominated the city's downtown.
On November 6, 2017, the eve of the first anniversary of Cohen's death, the Cohen family organized a memorial concert titled "Tower of Song" at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Fans and artists from all over the globe came together for an evening of spoken word and song that included performances by
k.d. lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the s ...
,
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
Damien Rice
Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success i ...
,
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...
,
The Lumineers
The Lumineers are an American alternative folk band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing toge ...
,
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
and more. The star-studded tribute also included Canadian prime minister
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
and his wife
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (; born April 24, 1975), also known as Sophie Grégoire, is a Canadian retired television host. She is married to the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. She is involved in charity work, social work, and pub ...
, who appeared on stage to speak about their personal connection with Cohen's music.
An interactive exhibit dedicated to the life and career of Leonard Cohen opened on November 9, 2017, at Montreal's contemporary art museum (MAC) titled "Leonard Cohen: Une Brèche en Toute Chose / A Crack in Everything" and ran until April 9, 2018. The exhibit had been in the works for several years prior to Cohen's death, as part of the official program of Montreal's 375th anniversary celebrations and broke the museum's attendance record in its five-month run. The exhibit embarked on an international tour, opening in New York City at the
Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
List of Jewish museums
Notable Jewish museums include:
*Albania
** Solomon Museum, Berat
*Australia
** Jewish Mu ...
in April 2019. A bronze statue of Cohen was unveiled in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, on August 31, 2019.
Cohen is commemorated in the name of two species, both described in 2021: '' Loxosceles coheni'', a species of recluse spiders from
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
Alireza Zamani
Alireza Zamani (born 11 January 1994) is an Iranian arachnologist and taxonomist.
Life and career
Zamani has been interested in spiders since childhood, when he spent most of his time collecting and rearing different species that he could collec ...
weevils
Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small, less than in length, and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several families, ...
from
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
described by
entomologists
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
Songs of Leonard Cohen
''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' is the debut album by Canadian folk singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on December 27, 1967, on Columbia Records. Less successful in the US than in Europe, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' foreshadowed the kind of cha ...
'' (1967)
* ''
Songs from a Room
''Songs from a Room'' is the second album by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached No. 63 on the US ''Billboard'' Top LPs and No. 2 on the UK charts.
Background
The recording sessions for ''Songs From a Room'' began in H ...
'' (1969)
* ''
Songs of Love and Hate
''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records.
Recording and composition
Cohen reunited with produ ...
'' (1971)
* ''
New Skin for the Old Ceremony
''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'' is the fourth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1974. On this album, he begins to evolve away from the rawer sound of his earlier albums, with violas, mandolins, banjos, guitars, percussion and other ...
Recent Songs
''Recent Songs'' is the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Cohen alongside Henry Lewy, it was a return to his normal acoustic folk music sound after the Phil Spector-driven experimentation of '' Death of a Ladies' ...
'' (1979)
* ''
Various Positions
''Various Positions'' is the seventh studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in December 1984 (and February 1985). It marked not only his turn to the modern sound and use of synthesizers (particularly on the opening track), but also, after the ha ...
Ten New Songs
''Ten New Songs'' is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. ...
'' (2001)
* ''
Dear Heather
''Dear Heather'' is the 11th studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released by Columbia Records in 2004. It was dedicated "in memory of Jack McClelland 1922-2004."
Background
The album features Cohen experimenting with diffe ...
'' (2004)
* ''
Old Ideas
''Old Ideas'' is the twelfth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released in January 2012. It is Cohen's highest-charting release in the United States, reaching number 3 on the ''Billboard'' 200, 44 years after the release o ...
'' (2012)
* ''
Popular Problems
''Popular Problems'' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on September 19, 2014 in Friday-release countries (such as France and Ireland) and on September 22, 2014 elsewhere.
Overview
Most of the ...
'' (2014)
* ''
You Want It Darker
''You Want It Darker'' is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on October 21, 2016, by Columbia Records, 17 days before Cohen's death. The album was created at the end of his life and focuses on death ...
'' (2016)
* ''
Thanks for the Dance
''Thanks for the Dance'' is the fifteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released posthumously through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 22, 2019. It is the first release following Cohen's dea ...
Flowers for Hitler
''Flowers for Hitler'' is Canadian poet and composer Leonard Cohen's third collection of poetry, first published in 1964 by McClelland & Stewart.
Like other artworks regarding Adolf Hitler as a subject, it was somewhat controversial in its day.K ...
''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1964.
* ''Parasites of Heaven''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966.
* '' Selected Poems 1956–1968''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968.
* ''The Energy of Slaves''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972. New York: Viking, 1973.
* ''Death of a Lady's Man''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978. London, New York: Viking, Penguin, 1979. – reissued 2010
* '' Book of Mercy''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1984. – reissued 2010
* ''
Stranger Music
''Stranger Music'' is a 1993 book by Leonard Cohen. It compiles many of his published poems, as well as the lyrics to his songs.
In the "A Note On The Text" section of the book it states: In some sections of this book, certain poem titles and t ...
: Selected Poems and Songs''. London, New York, Toronto: Cape, Pantheon, McClelland & Stewart, 1993.
* ''
Book of Longing
''Book of Longing'' was the first new poetry book by Leonard Cohen since 1984's '' Book of Mercy''. First published in 2006 by McClelland and Stewart, ''Book of Longing'' contains 167 previously unpublished poems and drawings, mostly written a ...
''. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin, Ecco, McClelland & Stewart, 2006. (poetry, prose, drawings)
* ''The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen''. London: Omnibus Press, 2009.
* ''Poems and Songs''. New York: Random House (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets), 2011.
* ''Fifteen Poems''. New York: Everyman's Library/Random House, 2012. (eBook)
* '' The Flame''. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin, McClelland & Stewart, 2018. (poetry, prose, drawings, journal entries)
Novels
* '' The Favorite Game''. London, New York, Toronto: Secker & Warburg, Viking P, McClelland & Stewart, 1963. Reissued as ''The Favourite Game.'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart ew Canadian Library 1994.
* ''
Beautiful Losers
''Beautiful Losers'' is the second and final novel by Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen. It was published in 1966, before he began his career as a singer-songwriter.
Set in the Canadian province of Quebec, the story of 17th-century ...
Donald Brittain
Donald Code Brittain, (June 10, 1928 – July 21, 1989) was a film director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada.
Career
''Fields of Sacrifice'' (1964) is considered Brittain's first major film as director.
His other notable ...
* ''
Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
'' (1966), man – experimental
animated short
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
* ''Poen'' (1967), narrator – short film featuring four readings of a prose poem from his novel ''
Beautiful Losers
''Beautiful Losers'' is the second and final novel by Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen. It was published in 1966, before he began his career as a singer-songwriter.
Set in the Canadian province of Quebec, the story of 17th-century ...
''
* ''
The Ernie Game
''The Ernie Game'' is a 1967 Canadian drama film directed by Don Owen (filmmaker), Don Owen.
Plot
The film centres on Ernie Turner and his attempts to survive in the world after he's released from an insane asylum, asylum. He grows increasingly ...
'' (1967), singer – feature film directed by Don Owen
* '' Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire'' (1974) – documentary directed by
Tony Palmer
Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film direc ...
during Cohen's 20-city European tour that started on March 18, 1972, in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and ended on April 21, 1972, in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. The original film premiered in 1974 at the
Rainbow Theatre
The Rainbow Theatre, originally known as the Finsbury Park Astoria, is a Grade II*-listed building in Finsbury Park, London. The theatre was built in 1930 as a cinema. It later became a music venue. Today, the building is used by the Universa ...
and was for decades thought lost. A restored version from footage rediscovered in 2009 was released on DVD in 2010 and the film was re-released theatrically in 2017.
* ''Song of Leonard Cohen'' (1980) – documentary directed by Harry Rasky for CBC filmed on The Smokey Life Tour. After a phone call from Cohen in 2000, he and Rasky renewed their friendship and Rasky wrote based on his diary notes a book about the film: ''The Song of Leonard Cohen''.
* '' I Am a Hotel'' (1983), resident – 28 minutes
made for TV
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
musical film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...
, written by Cohen and directed by
Allan F. Nicholls
Allan F. Nicholls (born April 8, 1945) is a Canadian actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, composer and musician. He was nominated for both a BAFTA and WGA award for his writing on the 1978 film '' A Wedding''. He is often credite ...
* '' Night Magic'' (1985) - wrote all the lyrics to musical, screenplay credit.
* ''
Miami Vice
''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...
'' S2E17 "French Twist" (1986), François Zolan
* ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead Part I: A Way of Life'' and '' The Tibetan Book of the Dead Part II: The Great Liberation'' (both 1994), narrator – documentary on ''
Bardo Thodol
The ''Bardo Thodol'' (, "Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State"), commonly known in the West as ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', is a terma text from a larger corpus of teachings, the ''Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation t ...
'' directed by and produced by the National Film Board of Canada in co-operation with NHK Japan. Released on DVD in 2004.
* ''
Message to Love
''Message to Love'' is a feature documentary film of the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. Directed and produced by Murray Lerner, the film includes performances by popular rock acts, such as Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and the Doors, as well as folk an ...
'' (1995) - concert documentary on the
Isle of Wight Festival 1970
The Isle of Wight Festival 1970 was a music festival held between 26 and 31 August 1970 at Afton Down, an area on the western side of the Isle of Wight in England. It was the last of three consecutive music festivals to take place on the islan ...
including a live performance of his song '' Suzanne''.
* ''
The Favourite Game
''The Favourite Game'' is the first novel by Leonard Cohen. It was first published by Secker and Warburg in the fall of 1963.
In 1959, Cohen was awarded a $2,000 Canada Council grant, which he used to live cheaply in London and on the Greek isla ...
'' (1993) - novel credit for debut book adapted by Peter Putka, directed by Bernar Hébert.
* '' Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'' (2005) – documentary and concert film directed by
Lian Lunson
Lian Lunson (born 3 February 1959) is an Australian actress who became a filmmaker and author.
Biography
Lian Lunson was born in Victoria, outside Melbourne. After attending The Ensemble drama school in Sydney and working as an actor, she mov ...
.
* ''Portals'' (2011) - screenplay credit, directed by Kate Hackett and
Benjamin Millepied
Benjamin Millepied (; born 10 June 1977) is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also ...
.
* ''
Al Purdy Was Here
''Al Purdy Was Here'' is a Canadian documentary film, released in 2015.Brian D. Johnson
Brian D. Johnson is a Canadian journalist and filmmaker, best known as an entertainment reporter and film critic for ''Maclean's''."Return of the '70s: not very far out". ''Montreal Gazette'', November 19, 1994.
He first joined the magazine in 198 ...
Nick Broomfield
Nicholas Broomfield (born 1948) is an English documentary film director. His self-reflective style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. In the early 21st century, he began to use non-actors in scripted works, which he cal ...
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both ge ...
Culture of Quebec
The culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting predominantly from the shared history of the French-speaking North American majority in Quebec. Québécois culture, as a whole, constitutes all distinctive traits – spiri ...
*
List of Canadian musicians
This is a list of Canadian musicians. Only notable individuals appear here; bands are listed at List of bands from Canada.
0-9
*347aidan - rapper
A
* Lee Aaron – jazz and rock singer-songwriter, also known as "Metal Queen"
*Abdominal – hi ...
*
List of Canadian poets
This is a list of Canadian poets. Years link to corresponding " earin poetry" articles.
A
*Mark Abley (born 1955), poet, journalist, editor, and non-fiction writer.
*Milton Acorn (1923–1986), poet, writer, and playwright
* José Acqueli ...
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List of Quebec musicians
This is a list of singers, bands, composers and other musicians from the province of Quebec.
Blues
* Garou – also pop
* Okoumé – also néo-trad, rock and electronica
* Roxanne Potvin – singer, guitarist
* David Wilcox
Chanson
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Music of Canada
The music of Canada reflects the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Indigenous Peoples, the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has also subsequently been ...
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Music of Quebec
Like many cosmopolitan cities, Quebec is a home for all genres of music. From folk music to hip hop music, hip hop, music has always played an important role in Quebecer culture. In the 1920s and '30s singer/songwriter La Bolduc, Madam Bolduc pe ...
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Leap Manifesto
The Leap Manifesto is a Canadian political manifesto that was issued by a coalition of environmentalists, Indigenous, labour, and faith leaders, authors, and artists in September 2015 in the context of that year's Canadian federal election c ...
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Baal teshuva
In Judaism, a ''ba'al teshuvah'' ( he, בעל תשובה; for a woman, , or ; plural, , , 'master of return God]') is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed a Jewish secularism, secular lif ...
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...