Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal, PQ in 1934. His father, an engineer who owned a clothing concern, died when Leonard Cohen was nine. He went on to attend McGill University, where at 17 he formed a country-western trio called the Buckskin Boys. He also began writing poetry and became part of the local boho-literary scene, a scene so "underground" that it was bereft of 'subversive intentions because even that would be beneath it." His first collection of poetry, ‘Let Us Compare Mythologies,’ was published in 1956, while he was still an undergraduate. ‘The Spice Box Of Earth’ (1961), his second collection, catapulted Leonard Cohen to international recognition.

After a brief stint at Columbia University in New York, Leonard Cohen obtained a grant and was able to escape the confines of North America. He traveled throughout Europe and eventually settled on the Greek island of Hydra, where he shared his life with Marianne Jenson, and her son Axel. Leonard Cohen stayed in Greece on and off for seven years. He wrote two more collections of poetry, the controversial ‘Flowers For Hitler’ (1964) and ‘Parasites of Heaven’ (1966); and two highly acclaimed novels, ‘The Favorite Game’ (1963), his portrait of the artist as a young Jew in Montreal, and ‘Beautiful Losers’ (1966), described on its dust jacket as "a disagreeable religious epic of incomparable beauty." Upon its publication, the Boston Globe declared, "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Leonard Cohen." To date, each book has sold more than a million copies worldwide.

But even the warmth of Hydra couldn’t contain Leonard Cohen ’s restless spirit. "For the writing of books, you have to be in one place," he told Musician magazine in 1988. "You tend to gather things around you when you write a novel. You need a woman in your life. It's nice to have some kids around, 'cause there's always food. It's nice to have a place that's clean and orderly. I had those things and then I decided to be a songwriter." Leaving behind his domestic scene, Leonard Cohen returned to America, intent on settling near Nashville and pursuing a musical career. He was championed by Judy Collins, who recorded both "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" on her 1966 album, ‘In My Life.’

In 1967, Leonard Cohen appeared at the Newport Folk Festival where he came to the attention of legendary Columbia A&R man John Hammond (who also recruited Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to the label). By Christmas, Columbia had released his first album, ‘The Songs of Leonard Cohen.’

It was a remarkable debut, as songs like "Suzanne," "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye," "So Long, Marianne," and "Sisters of Mercy" propelled Leonard Cohen to the top of the pop-confessional pantheon. The songs had such power that Robert Altman's 1971 film ‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller’ became, in effect, the first long-form video for Leonard Cohen 's soundtrack.

In 1968, Leonard Cohen published ‘Selected Poems: 1956-1968,’ an anthology of poems from the earlier books along with a section of new, previously unpublished poems. For this volume, Leonard Cohen was awarded the Governor-General’s Award, Canada’s highest literary distinction. He promptly declined the honor.

‘Songs From a Room’ (1969), his second album, and ‘Songs of Love and Hate’ (1971) further reinforced Cohen's standing as the master of mortification and the sentry of solitude. With "Bird On a Wire," "The Song of Isaac," "Joan of Arc," and "Famous Blue Raincoat," he continued to stretch the borders of the pop song landscape.

1972 marked the release of a new book of poems, ‘The Energy of Slaves’ and Leonard Cohen's first live album, ‘Live Songs,’ which featured an amazing 14-minute improvisation, "Please Don't Pass Me By," along with live versions of songs from his first three albums.

‘New Skin For the Old Ceremony’ (1973) was a bit of a stylistic departure. Featuring a more orchestrated sound (thanks to producer John Lissauer),Leonard Cohen continued his investigations into the hottest crucible of the human spirit -- the muffled battles in the boudoirs.

Leonard Cohen took a sabbatical from the musical wars for the next few years, releasing only a greatest hits album, ‘Best of Leonard Cohen (1975).

In 1977, he was back with what was certainly his most curious album, ‘Death of a Ladies' Man.’ It started as collaboration with famed producer Phil Spector, but ended with Leonard Cohen being excluded from the final stages of recording. "It was a catastrophe," he remembers. "Those are all scratch vocals, and Phil mixed it in secret under armed guard. I had to decide whether I was going to hire my own private army and fight it out on Sunset Boulevard, or let it go. I let it go." The following year Leonard Cohen published a collection of poems and prose-poems titled ‘Death of a Lady’s Man.’

‘Recent Songs’ (1979), the next album, was another stylistic departure from its predecessor. Gone was the Spectorian wall-of-sound, replaced with a more delicate musical patina partly due to the influence of co-producer Henry Lewy (who had previously worked with Joni Mitchell). The songs continued Leonard Cohen 's dissections of the vicissitudes of the male-female union, but also began to reflect his long-standing explorations into the religious arena.

1984 saw the publication of ‘The Book of Mercy,’ an amazingly beautiful and profound collection of poetic meditations. ‘Various Positions,’ a 1985 album, presented the full flowering of these religious concerns. Songs like "Hallelujah," "The Law," "Heart With No Companion," and "If It Be Your Will" are contemporary psalms, born of an undoubtedly long and difficult spiritual odyssey, so difficult that its conclusion left Cohen literally "wiped out." "I had a lot of versions of myself that I had used religion to support," Leonard Cohen told L.A. Style in 1988.

"If you deal with this material you can't put God on. I thought I could spread light and I could enlighten my world and those around me and I could take the Bodhisattva path, which is the path of service, of help to others. I thought I could, but I was unable to. This is a landscape in which men far stronger than you, far braver, nobler, kinder, more generous, men of extremely high achievements have burnt to a crisp on this road. Once you start dealing with sacred material you're gonna get creamed."

‘I'm Your Man’ (1988) was the culmination of Leonard Cohen 's professional and personal reintegration, an amazingly crafted work that speaks eloquently to the experience of one of our most respected wordsmiths. Buoyed by now-classic songs like "First We Take Manhattan," "Tower of Song," and "Ain't No Cure For Love," it was no surprise that the album went to #1 in several European countries.

Four years later, Leonard Cohen released ‘The Future,’ an amazing aural documentation of our cultural malaise. Scrutinizing both our boardrooms and our bedrooms, declaiming like an old testament prophet ("The Future") or begging like a penitent ("Be For Real") the bard always had his eyes on the prize: the healing power of love. ‘The Future’ featured "Democracy", one of Leonard Cohen ’s most ambitious songs ever, nothing less than an attempt at a new national anthem, the CNN of the soul, propelled by a memorable Whitmanesque chorus: "Sail on, sail on O mighty Ship of State! / To the Shores of Need/ Past the Reefs of Greed/ Through the Squalls of Hate/ Sail on, sail on, sail on…"

In 1993, Leonard Cohen edited a new collection of his writings, published as ‘Stranger Music.’ It contained song lyrics, poems and fragments from his journals.

Shortly after touring in support of ‘The Future, Leonard Cohen began spending more and more time at a Zen retreat high atop Mt. Baldy in Southern California. He spent most of his time meditating, working on koans and cooking for his teacher, Sasaki Roshi. While Leonard Cohen was residing at Mt. Baldy, Leanne Ungar and Bob Metzger produced a live album, ‘Leonard Cohen Live’ (1994), a collection culled from Leonard Cohen ’s 1988 and 1993 tours.

In 1999, after nearly five years at Mt. Baldy, during which time Leonard Cohen was ordained as a Zen monk and given the Dharma name of Jikan (Silent One), he came down from the mountain armed with hundreds of new poems and song lyrics. He immediately began working on the songs with Sharon Robinson, a former back-up singer who had also previously co-written two songs ("Everybody Knows" and "Waiting for the Miracle") with Leonard Cohen.

While anxiously anticipating a new studio release, Leonard Cohen fans were mollified when producer Leanne Ungar rescued some amazing tapes of Leonard Cohen ’s 1979 concert dates in England, released as ‘Field Commander Cohen – Tour of 1979’ (2001).

And now they have ‘Ten New Songs‘, an entrancing collection of (what else?) ten new songs born out of the collaboration with Robinson, the multi-talented songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist; midwifed by producer Ungar.

While Leonard Cohen's painstaking meticulousness has led to many long passages of time between albums, artists as diverse as Neil Diamond, Nick Cave, Diana Ross, Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, and Joe Cocker have kept Leonards Cohen 's music on the airwaves with their own interpretations of his songs. Long-time musical colleague Jennifer Warnes released the critically acclaimed ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ in 1986, an entire album of Leonard Cohen 's work.

In 1991, a number of contemporary recording artists collaborated on an evocative tribute to Cohen. ‘<b>I'm Your Fan’ was the brainchild of Christian Feuret, the editor of Les Inrockuptibles, the most popular rock magazine in France. Originally intended for release on the magazine's small offshoot label Oscar, the project mushroomed into an 18-song cover collection released by Atlantic, featuring such prominent alternative musicians as REM, John Cale, Nick Cave, Ian McCulloch, Pixies, the House of Love, and Lloyd Cole.

Another tribute album, ‘Tower of Song’ (1995), featured interpretations of Leonard Cohen songs by more mainstream artists such as Billy Joel, Sting, Elton John, Willie Nelson and Bono.

Leonard Cohen 's output does not exist solely on paper or on disc. He conceptualizes his own videos and, in 1984, scripted, directed and scored ‘I Am A Hotel,’ a half- hour short feature that won first prize at the Festival International de Television de Montreux (Switzerland) and was submitted for Academy Award consideration. He collaborated with singer/songwriter Lewis Furey on ‘Night Magic,’ a rock opera movie for which he won the Canadian Juno award for "Best Movie Score" of 1985. His work in front of the camera even included a memorable cameo as the head of Interpol on NBC's ‘Miami Vice.’

For a man who only "aspired to be a minor poet" early in his career, Leonard Cohen has produced a body of work that has withstood the passage of time. With the release of ‘Ten New Songs,’ his 14th album, he continues to bring to us, through the musical idiom, a documentation of maturity and survival. He has become an elder.

"If there is anything in my own work it's because how I cop to my own experience," Leonard Cohen told L.A. Style. "That's what I became. I became a writer and as my friend (Irving) Layton always said, a poet is deeply conflicted and it's in his work that he reconciles those deep conflicts. That place is the harbor. It doesn't set the world in order, you know, it doesn't really change anything. It just is a kind of harbor, it's the place of reconciliation, it's the conssolumentum, the kiss of peace." Jikan Leonard Cohen has taken us down to that place by the harbor and our world has become that much richer for the journey.