Leonard Cohen (1934 - 2016) was a Canadian poet, novelist and singer-songwriter who established himself as a writer before turning to music in his thirties. [1] His songs, including Suzanne, Bird on the Wire and Hallelujah, combined plain melodies with dense, allusive lyrics drawn from religious and erotic imagery. [2] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature in 2011.
Early life and literary beginnings
Leonard Norman Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Montreal into a Jewish family of Lithuanian and Polish descent. His father died when he was nine. He attended Westmount High School and then McGill University, where he studied English and began writing verse, briefly enrolling in law before leaving to pursue literature; he later spent a period at Columbia University in New York. [1]
His first collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies, appeared in 1956, followed by The Spice-Box of Earth in 1961 and Flowers for Hitler in 1964. He also published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, the latter an experimental work that divided Canadian critics. [2] During these years he lived for long stretches on the Greek island of Hydra.
Turn to music
Finding that poetry paid poorly, Cohen moved to New York in the mid-1960s and entered the folk scene. Judy Collins recorded Suzanne before he did, and his own debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, was released in 1967. [1] It was followed by Songs from a Room, which introduced Bird on the Wire, and Songs of Love and Hate, records defined by minimal arrangements and a narrow, conversational vocal range.
His 1984 album Various Positions contained Hallelujah, a song that attracted little attention on release but was gradually taken up by other performers and became one of the most frequently covered compositions in modern popular music. [3] I'm Your Man in 1988 marked a shift to synthesiser textures and a deeper vocal register, and The Future followed in 1992.
Retreat and return
In the 1990s Cohen withdrew to the Mount Baldy Zen Center in California, where he lived for several years as an ordained Buddhist monk under the teacher Joshu Sasaki Roshi, while continuing to write. [2] He returned to recording with Ten New Songs in 2001.
After discovering that his retirement savings had been lost through mismanagement by a former business associate, Cohen resumed touring in 2008 at the age of seventy-three. [1] The resulting world tours, which ran intermittently until 2013, were widely praised and restored both his finances and his public profile.
Later work and death
Cohen released three late albums, Old Ideas, Popular Problems and You Want It Darker, the last issued three weeks before his death and preoccupied with mortality and reckoning. [4] He died in Los Angeles on 7 November 2016 and was buried in the family plot in Montreal.
His honours include Companion of the Order of Canada, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Glenn Gould Prize, induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. [3] He remains a rare figure whose work is studied as literature and performed as popular song.
