Leonard Cohen

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Leonard Cohen
Cohen in 2007
Cohen in 2007
Background information
Birth name Leonard Norman Cohen
Born September 21, 1934 (1934-09-21) (age 73)
Origin Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genre(s) Folk , Folk Rock , Pop , World Music
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Poet
Novelist
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active 1956 - Present
Label(s) Columbia

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies[citation needed] and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers.

His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.

Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen was inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a speech by Lou Reed on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Cohen was born to a middle-class Jewish family to a father of Polish ancestry and Lithuanian Jewish[2] mother, immigrant from Kaunas, in 1934 in Montreal, Quebec. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His father, Nathan Cohen, was the owner of a substantial Montreal clothing store, and died when Leonard was nine years old. Like many other Jews named Cohen, Katz, Kagan, etc., his family made a claim of descent from the Kohanim: "I had a very Messianic childhood," he told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."[3] He attended Herzliah High School, where he studied with poet Irving Layton. As a teenager he learned to play the guitar, subsequently forming a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided Leonard with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions.

[edit] Development as a poet

In 1951, Cohen enrolled at McGill University, where he was president of the McGill Debating Union. His literary influences during this time included Yeats, Whitman and Henry Miller.[4] His first poetry book, Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), was published under Louis Dudek as the first book in the McGill Poetry Series, while Cohen was an undergraduate. The Spice-Box of Earth (1961) made him well known in poetry circles, especially in his native Canada.

After graduation, Cohen spent a term in McGill's law school and a year (1956-7) at Columbia University, from which he dropped out.

Cohen applied a strong work ethic to his early and keen literary ambitions. He wrote poetry and fiction through much of the 1960s, and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances. After moving to Hydra, a Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection Flowers for Hitler (1964), and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966). The Favourite Game is an autobiographical bildungsroman about a young man finding his identity in writing.

[edit] Music

[edit] 1960s and 1970s

Leonard Cohen in 1969
Leonard Cohen in 1969

In 1967, Cohen relocated to the United States to pursue a career as a folk singer-songwriter. His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond (who signed artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Billie Holiday).

The sound of Cohen's first album Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) was too dark to be a commercial success, but was widely acclaimed by folk music buffs. He became a cult name in the UK, where the album spent over a year on the album charts. He followed up with Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the often recorded "Bird on the Wire"), Songs of Love and Hate (1971), Live Songs (1973), and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).

In 1971, Cohen's music was used to great effect in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Though pulled from the existing Cohen catalog, the songs melded so seamlessly with the story that many believed they had been written for the film.

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cohen toured the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1973, Cohen toured Israel and performed at army bases during the Yom Kippur War. Beginning around 1974, his collaboration with pianist/arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics, but which was never really captured on record. During this time, Cohen often toured with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer. Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums and she recorded an album of Cohen songs in 1987, Famous Blue Raincoat. Laura Branigan also sang back-up vocals with his band in the 1970s, but she never recorded with him.

In 1977, Cohen released Death of a Ladies' Man (note the plural possessive case; one year later in 1978, Cohen released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, Death of a Lady's Man). The album was produced by Phil Spector, well known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, in which pop music is backed with thick layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty; Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thinks the end result is "grotesque",[5] but also "semi-virtuous".[6]

In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs. Produced by Cohen himself and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer) the album included performances by a jazz-fusion band introduced to Cohen by Mitchell and oriental instruments (oud, Gypsy violin and mandolin). In 2001 Cohen released the live version of songs from his 1979 tour, Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979.

[edit] 1980s

In 1984, Cohen released Various Positions, including the often recorded "Hallelujah". Columbia declined to release the album in the United States, where Cohen's popularity had declined in previous years. Throughout his career, Cohen's music has sold better in Europe and Canada than in the U.S.; he once satirically expressed how touched he is at the modesty the American company has shown in promoting his records.

In 1986 he made a guest appearance in the episode French Twist of the TV series Miami Vice. In 1987, Jennifer Warnes' tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S., and the following year he released I'm Your Man, which marked a drastic change in his music. Synthesizers ruled the album and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humour. It was Cohen's most acclaimed and popular since Songs of Leonard Cohen, and "First We Take Manhattan" and the title song became two of his most popular songs.

[edit] 1990s

The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by Sharon Robinson) in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume helped to expose Cohen's music to a younger audience. In 1992, Cohen released The Future, which urges, (often in terms of biblical 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 controversial and violent movie Natural Born Killers.

In the title track, Cohen prophesies impending political and social collapse, reportedly as his response to the L.A. unrest of 1992: "I've seen the future, brother: It is murder." In "Democracy," Cohen, criticizes America but says he loves it: "I love the country but I can't stand the scene." Further, he criticizes the American public's lack of interest in politics and addiction to television: "I'm neither left or right/I'm just staying home tonight/getting lost in that hopeless little screen."

Nanni Moretti's film Caro Diario (1993) features "I'm Your Man", as Moretti himself rides his Vespa along the streets of Rome.

In 1994, following a tour to promote The Future, Cohen retreated to the Mount Baldy Zen Centre near Los Angeles, beginning what would become five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name Jikhan, meaning 'silence'. He left Mount Baldy in 1999.

[edit] 2000s

Portrait 2008
Portrait 2008

In 2001, following the five years' seclusion as a Zen Buddhist monk at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center (where he served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi), Cohen returned to music with Ten New Songs, featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. With this album, Cohen shed the relatively extroverted, engaged, and even optimistic outlook of The Future (the sole political track, “The Land of Plenty,” abandoning stern commandment for yearning but helpless prayer) to lament and seek acceptance of varieties of personal loss: the approach of death and the departure of love, romantic and even divine. Ten New Songs' cohesive musical style (perhaps absent from Cohen's albums since Recent Songs) owes much to Robinson’s involvement. The album includes the song "Alexandra Leaving," which is a striking transformation of the poem "The God Abandons Antony" by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. Although not Cohen’s bitterest album, it may rank as his most melancholic.

In October 2004, he released Dear Heather, largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current romantic partner) Anjani Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returns 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 has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributes to the neurological processes of aging. Dear Heather is perhaps his least cohesive, and most experimental and playful album to date, and the stylings of some of the songs (especially the title track) frustrated many fans. 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.

On October 8, 2005 Cohen alleged that his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, misappropriated over US$5 million from Cohen's retirement fund along with the publishing rights to his songs,[7] leaving Cohen with 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 Canada's Maclean's magazine. In March 2006, Cohen won the civil suit and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, ignored the suit and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records.[8] As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the cash.[9] Cohen has been under new management since April 2005.

Blue Alert, an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released on May 23, 2006 to positive reviews. The album is 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."[10] The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar," a poem originally published in The Spice-Box of Earth in 1961 and adapted by Spector into "True Love Leaves No Traces" on Death of a Ladies' Man.

Cohen's new book of poetry and drawings, Book of Longing, was published in May 2006; in March a Toronto-based retailer offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online, which saw the entire amount sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. On May 13, 2006, Cohen made his first public appearance for thirteen years, at an in store event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3000 people turned up for the event, 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", accompanied by the Barenaked Ladies and Ron Sexsmith. Also appearing with him was Anjani, the two promoting her new CD, along with his book.[11]

2008 promised to be an important year in his career. January 13, 2008, Cohen quietly announced to fans a long-anticipated concert tour [12]. The tour, Cohen's first in 15 years, began May 11th in Fredericton, NB to wide critical acclaim.[13]It will encompass Canada and Europe, including performances at The Big Chill (music festival), [14] the Montreal Jazz Festival, and headlining the 2008 Glastonbury Festival on 29 June 2008.[15]

On March 7, 2008, Jeff Buckley’s version of Cohen's “Hallelujah”, went to number 1 on the iTunes chart after being performed by Jason Castro on the seventh season of the television series American Idol.[16]

A few days later, Cohen was inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition of his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".[17]

[edit] Family life

In the 1960s, during his stay at Hydra, Cohen befriended the Scandinavian novelists Axel Jensen and Göran Tunström. He lived there with Axel's wife Marianne Jensen (now: Ihlen Stang) and their son Axel after they broke up. The song "So Long, Marianne" is about her. An alternative theory, however, which may be but a local Montréal urban myth, is that Marianne refers to rue Marie-Anne in the inner core of Montréal, a street on which Cohen lived many years and in whose little park at the corner of Boulevard St. Laurent he was known to sit on occasion. For a long time it was believed that the character Lorenzo in Jensen's novel Joacim (1961) was based on Cohen, but Axel told him it was influenced by Tunström.

According to biographer and filmmaker Harry Rasky, Cohen has been married once, to Los Angeles artist Suzanne Elrod, and although the two did have an important relationship in the 1970s, Cohen himself has said that 'cowardice' and 'fear' have prevented him from ever actually marrying [1] [2]. He has two children with Elrod: a son, Adam, was born in 1972 and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet Federico García Lorca, was born in 1974. Adam Cohen began his own career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1990s and currently fronts a band called Low Millions. Elrod took the cover photograph on Cohen's Live Songs album and is pictured on the cover of the Death of a Ladies' Man album.

Cohen and Elrod had split by 1979. Contrary to popular belief, "Suzanne", one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, rather than Elrod.[18] In 1990, Cohen was romantically linked to actress Rebecca De Mornay. He is now romantically involved with (and working with) Anjani Thomas.

[edit] Themes

Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love and sex, religion, psychological depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so. Love and sexuality are common themes in popular music, yet Cohen's background as a novelist and poet enabled him to bring a darker, deeper edge to these themes. "Suzanne" mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc." "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken (in exactly what degree is ambiguous in the song) by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend, to whom he writes, "I guess that I miss you/ I guess I forgive you … Know your enemy is sleeping/ And his woman is free", while "Everybody Knows" deals in part with the harsh reality of AIDS: "… the naked man and woman/ Are just a shining artifact of the past."

"Sisters of Mercy" evokes genuine love found in a hotel room encounter with two Edmonton women. Some[who?] have claimed that "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his affair with Janis Joplin rather unsentimentally and others that it reveals a much more complicated and mixed set of feelings than straightforward love. Cohen discusses the song in an interview filmed for the tribute-concert movie [[3]]. He confirms that the subject is indeed Janis with some evident embarrassment. "She wouldn't mind," he declares, "but my mother would be appalled." The title of "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" speaks for itself.

Cohen comes from a Jewish background, most obviously reflected in his song "Story of Isaac", and also in "Who by Fire," whose words and melody echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Broader Judeo-Christian themes are sounded throughout the album Various Positions: "Hallelujah", which has music as a secondary theme, begins by evoking the biblical king David composing a song that "pleased the Lord," and continues with references to Bathsheba and Samson.

In his early career as a novelist, Beautiful Losers grappled with the mysticism of the Catholic/Iroquois Catherine Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with Buddhism at least since the 1970s and in 1996 he was ordained a Buddhist monk. However, he still considers himself also a Jew: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."[19]

Having suffered from psychological depression during much of his life (although less so with the onset of old age), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and suicide. The wife of the protagonist of Beautiful Losers commits a gory suicide; "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is about a suicide; suicide is mentioned in the darkly comic "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to kill oneself; a general atmosphere of depression pervades such songs as "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine." As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah", music itself is the subject of many songs, including "Tower of Song", "A Singer Must Die", and "Jazz Police".

Social justice often shows up as a theme in his work, where he seems, especially in later albums, to expound a leftist politics, albeit with culturally conservative elements. In "Democracy" lamenting "the wars against disorder/ … the sirens night and day/ … the fires of the homeless/ … the ashes of the gay," he concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy. This is a specifically (and classically) leftist position, as is his 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 "Anthem," he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ … [are] gonna hear from me."

In "The Land of Plenty," he characterizes the United States (if not the opulent West in general) of benightedness: "May the lights in The Land of Plenty/ Shine on the truth some day."

War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work which in his earlier songs, as indeed in his early life, he approached ambivalently. In "Field Commander Cohen" he (perhaps metaphorically) imagines himself as a soldier/spy socializing with Fidel Castro in Cuba—where he had actually lived at the height of US-Cuba tensions in 1961, allegedly sporting a Che Guevara-style beard and military fatigues. This song was actually written immediately following Cohen's front-line stint with the Israeli air force, the "fighting in Egypt" documented in an (again perhaps metaphorical) passage of "Night Comes On:"

In 1973, Cohen, who had traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the Yom Kippur War, had instead been assigned to a USO-style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the Sinai Desert, at one of which he both came under fire and reportedly shared cognac with an unlikely self-professed fan, then-General Ariel Sharon. Disillusioned by encounters with dead and wounded Israeli soldiers, and having expressed explicit support for the Israeli side [20] [21], he wrote his song "Lover Lover Lover", where the ending line is: "May it be a shield for you, a shield against the enemy."

His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser." Whether recording "The Partisan", a French Resistance song by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier, or singing his own "The Old Revolution", written from the point of view of a defeated royalist, he has throughout his career through his music expressed his sympathy and support for the oppressed. Although Cohen's fascination with war is often as metaphor for more explicitly cultural and personal issues, as in New Skin for the Old Ceremony, by this measure his most "militant" album.

Cohen blends a good deal of pessimism about political/cultural issues with a great deal of humour and (especially in his later work) gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analyses, as his songs are often verbally playful and even cheerful: In "Tower of Song," the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was "… born with the gift/ Of a golden voice"; the generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" nonetheless contains playful lines "You were the whore at the Feast of Babylon/ I was Rin Tin Tin"; in concert, he often plays around with his lyrics (for example, "If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" will become "If you want a Jewish doctor …"); and he will introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem (for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria": "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love").

Cohen has also recorded such love songs as Irving Berlin's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by Marlena Shaw), chosen in part for their unlikely juxtaposition to his own work.

[edit] Titles and honours

[edit] Discography

All albums released on Columbia Records

[edit] Studio albums

Title Release date
Songs of Leonard Cohen December 27 1967
Songs from a Room April 1969
Songs of Love and Hate March 1971
New Skin for the Old Ceremony August 1974
Death of a Ladies' Man November 1977
Recent Songs September 1979
Various Positions December 1984
I'm Your Man February 1988
The Future November 1992
Ten New Songs October 9 2001
Dear Heather October 26 2004

[edit] Live albums

Title Release date
Live Songs 1973
Cohen Live: Leonard Cohen in Concert 1994
Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 2001

[edit] Compilation albums

Title Release date
The Best of Leonard Cohen 1975
So Long, Marianne 1991
More Best of Leonard Cohen 1997
The Essential Leonard Cohen 2002

[edit] Books

[edit] Cohen songs in other works

[edit] Soundtrack appearances

Cohen's music has often been used in film soundtracks.

  • Fata Morgana (1969) also uses songs from Cohen's first album to highlight the themes of post-apocalyptic ruin in the central section of Werner Herzog's desert-set documentary.
  • McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) uses three songs from his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen: "Stranger Song" is McCabe's theme, "Winter Lady" is Mrs. Miller's, and "Sisters of Mercy" is the theme of the prostitutes who work in their establishment. He also composed some incidental music for the movie.
  • Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (Beware of a Holy Whore) (1971), by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, uses Master Song, Sisters of Mercy, So Long, Marianne and Suzanne.
  • Fata Morgana (1971) uses the music of Leonard Cohen quite heavily.
  • TV film Angst vor der Angst (Fear of Fear) (1975), by Rainer Werner Fassbinder uses Lover, Lover, Lover and Why Don't You Try.
  • Bird on a Wire (1990) uses "Bird on the Wire" sung by The Neville Brothers.
  • Pump Up the Volume (1990) uses "Everybody Knows" frequently, as well as "If It Be Your Will". A Concrete Blonde recording of "Everybody Knows" is also heard in the film and appears on the CD of the soundtrack.
  • Love At Large (1990) uses "Ain't No Cure For Love".
  • Caro Diario (film), 1993, features "I'm Your Man."
  • Natural Born Killers (1994) uses "The Future," "Waiting for the Miracle," and "Anthem," all from the album The Future.
  • Exotica (movie) (1994) uses "Everybody Knows" from the album I'm Your Man.
  • Beautiful Girls (1995) uses "Be For Real" performed by Afghan Whigs.
  • When Night Is Falling (1995) uses "Hallelujah."
  • Basquiat (1996) uses "Hallelujah" performed by John Cale.
  • Breaking the Waves (1996) uses "Suzanne".
  • Love, etc. (1996) uses "Take this Waltz".
  • El tiempo de la felicidad (1997), a Spanish film by Manuel Iborra, uses Suzanne and Bird on the Wire.
  • Mr. Jealousy (1998) uses "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"
  • Kiss the Sky (1999) uses "I'm Your Man"
  • Wonder Boys (2000) uses "Waiting for the Miracle."
  • Shrek (2001) uses a Bowdlerized version of John Cale's recording of "Hallelujah." The soundtrack album, however, replaces this with a version by Rufus Wainwright.
  • The Good Thief (2002), directed by Neil Jordan, features "A Thousand Kisses Deep."
  • Secretary (2002) uses "I'm Your Man."
  • The Life of David Gale (2003) uses "The Future."
  • A Home at the End of the World (2004) uses "Suzanne" from Songs of Leonard Cohen.
  • Nathalie... (2004), a French movie by Anne Fontaine, uses "Boogie Street."
  • St. Ralph (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Gord Downie.
  • Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley.
  • Don't Move (2004) directed by Sergio Castellitto uses "If it be your Will" from the album "Various Positions"
  • Land of Plenty (2004) uses "Land of Plenty" and "The Letters", both written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, and performed by Cohen.
  • Lord of War (2005) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley.
  • Salvador (2006) uses "Suzanne."
  • The episode "Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves" of the TV show Veronica Mars (season 3) features "A Thousand Kisses Deep".
  • King of Kong (2007) uses "Everybody Knows".

[edit] Tribute albums

[edit] Renditions by other singers

Many of Cohen's songs and poems have been interpreted (and sometimes translated in other languages) by other artists, occasionally receiving more popular attention than Cohen's own, typically minimalistic arrangements. Some of Cohen's most recorded songs include:

As of May 11, 2008, the site www.leonardcohenfiles.com had counted a total of 1,477 released versions of Cohen's songs.

[edit] Reputation in Eastern Europe

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

In Eastern Europe, Cohen's songs enjoyed strong popularity from the very beginning of his career. The two countries of the old 'Eastern Bloc', where Leonard Cohen's songs met with undisputed critical recognition and acclaim, proved to be Hungary and Poland. In Hungary, Cohen's popularity spawned from Budapest's strong and influential core of artists and musicians, a great number of whom were of Jewish descent, born in post-World War II years (1946-1949): András Kern (1948- ), a highly popular comedian-singer-actor-filmmaker, has been the greatest interpreter of Cohen's songs, with the recording, in 1998, of a whole album giving a Hungarian version of more than a dozen Cohen songs, their text loosely adapted from the original by Hungarian songwriter and lyricist, Péter Fábri (title of the Hungarian album: "Engem vársz", meaning 'You're Waiting For Me'). In Poland, Cohen was made popular mostly thanks to poet and singer Maciej Zembaty, who translated and performed Cohen's work. Cohen was guest of Zembaty's radio show "Zgryz" in the 1980s.

[edit] Film

  • A film titled The Favourite Game / Le Jeu de l'ange was released in Canada in 2003 based on his novel of the same name.
  • In 1985, Leonard Cohen co-wrote and co-composed Night Magic (starring Carole Laure) with fellow Quebecer, Lewis Furey.
  • Leonard Cohen narrated a documentary called The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life.
  • Leonard Cohen makes a cameo appearance performing "The Stranger Song" in the Canadian fim The Ernie Game (1968) which is based on the stories of Bernard Cole Spencer.
  • Leonard Cohen is referenced in the Canadian film Looking for Leonard.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame press release, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Announces its Inductees for 2008," 12/13/07. http://www.rockhall.com/pressroom/2008-inductee-announcement
  2. ^ Leonard Cohen / May 24, 1985 Sydney: The Midday Show With Ray Martin
  3. ^ Williams, P. (n.d.) Leonard Cohen: The Romantic in a Ragpicker's Trade
  4. ^ Adria, Marco, "Chapter and Verse: Leonard Cohen," Music of Our Times: Eight Canadian Singer-Songwriters (Toronto: Lorimer, 1990), p. 28.
  5. ^ de Lisle, T. (2004)Hallelujah: 70 things about Leonard Cohen at 70
  6. ^ Fitzgerald, j. (2001) Beautiful loser, beautiful comeback. The National Post, 24 March 2001.
  7. ^ Glaister, D. (2005) "Cohen stays calm as $5m pension disappears", The Guardian. , 2005.
  8. ^ (2006) "Leonard Cohen awarded $9 million in civil suit," CTV.ca. Mar. 2 2006
  9. ^ (2006)"Leonard Cohen 'unlikely' to recover stolen millions: Funds taken by ex-manager going to be hard to recover" NME. March 3, 2006.
  10. ^ (n.d.) "blue alert 2006" - Reviews.
  11. ^ (2006) "Cohen returns to limelight with bestselling book" CBC Online. Sunday, May 14, 2006.
  12. ^ leonardcohenforum.com • View topic - Leonard Cohen: TOUR 2008
  13. ^ 2008 Tour schedule
  14. ^ Leonard Cohen reveals details of world tour | News | NME.COM
  15. ^ Glastonbury headliners revealed
  16. ^ The Idol Countdown: Five Essential Moments From Last Night's "American Idol". Rolling Stone. March 5, 2008. Retrieved on March 7, 2008.
  17. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame press release, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Announces its Inductees for 2008," 12/13/07. http://www.rockhall.com/pressroom/2008-inductee-announcement
  18. ^ (2006) "And she feeds you tea and oranges..." The Story of Suzanne CBC, the National. February 3, 2006.
  19. ^ "Who held a gun to Leonard Cohen's head?" The Guardian. September 17, 2004.
  20. ^ (1974)"Cohen: ...it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins." 1974 in Barcelona, Spain. Published in 'Leonard Cohen' by Alberto Manzano, published in 1978.
  21. ^ (2001) "Cohen: J'espère que ceux dont je suis partisan vont gagner." L'Express, France, 04 octobre 2001
  22. ^ GRAMMY.com
  23. ^ Indictees for 2008. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame official website (2007-12-13). Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
  24. ^ (n.d.) "Description of film, 'Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen' National Film Board (Canada)

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Leonard Cohen
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilations
Selected
tribute albums
Songs
Books
Let Us Compare Mythologies • The Spice-Box of Earth • The Favourite Game • Flowers for Hitler • Beautiful Losers • Parasites of Heaven • Selected Poems 1956–1968 • The Energy of Slaves • Death of a Lady's Man • Book of Mercy • Stranger Music • Book of Longing
Other
Persondata
NAME Cohen, Leonard Norman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Canadian singer-songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH