In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditionalRecent Songs, which blended his acoustic style withjazz, East Asian, and Mediterranean influences. Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah", was released on his seventh album,Various Positions (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 ofTen New Songs, a major hit in Canada and Europe. His eleventh album,Dear Heather, 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 (2012),Popular Problems (2014), andYou Want It Darker (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death. His fifteenth studio album,Thanks for the Dance, was released in November 2019.
Cohen attendedRoslyn Elementary School and completed grades seven through nine atHerzliah High School, where his literary mentor (and later inspiration)Irving Layton taught.[9] He then transferred in 1948 toWestmount High School, where he studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in theSpanish poetry ofFederico García Lorca.[10] During high school, he was involved in various extracurricular activities, including photography, yearbook, cheerleading, arts club, current events club, and theater. He also served as president of the Students' Council. During that time, he taught himself to play the acoustic guitar and formed acountry–folk group that he called the Buckskin Boys. After a young Spanish guitar player taught him "a few chords and someflamenco", he switched to a classical guitar.[10] 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."[11]
Cohen frequented Montreal'sSaint Laurent Boulevard for fun and ate at places such as theMain Deli Steak House.[12][13] According to journalistDavid Sax, he and one of his cousins would go to the Main Deli to "watch the gangsters, pimps, and wrestlers dance around the night".[14] When he left Westmount, he purchased a place on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in the previously working-class neighbourhood ofLittle 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.[13]
For six decades, Leonard Cohen revealed his soul to the world through poetry and song—his deep and timeless humanity touching our very core. Simply brilliant. His music and words will resonate forever.
In 1951, Cohen enrolled atMcGill University, where he became a brother ofZeta Beta Tau.[16] He was president of theMcGill Debating Union and won the Chester MacNaghten Literary Competition for the poems "Sparrows" and "Thoughts of a Landsman".[17] Cohen published his first poem in March 1954 in the magazineCIV/n. The issue also included poems by Cohen's poet–professors (who were also on the editorial board)Irving Layton andLouis Dudek.[17] Cohen graduated from McGill the following year with a B.A. degree.[10] His literary influences during this time includedWilliam Butler Yeats,Irving Layton (who taught political science at McGill and became both Cohen's mentor and his friend),[10]Walt Whitman,Federico García Lorca, andHenry Miller.[18] His first published book of poetry,Let Us Compare Mythologies (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.[10] The well-known Canadian literary criticNorthrop Frye wrote a review of the book in which he gave Cohen "restrained praise".[10]
After completing his undergraduate degree, Cohen spent a term in theMcGill Faculty of Law and then a year (1956–1957) at theColumbia University School of General Studies. Cohen described his graduate school experience as "passion without flesh, love without climax".[19] 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 companyMcClelland & Stewart. Cohen's first novella and early short stories were not published until 2022 (A Ballet of Lepers).[20] His father's will provided him with a modesttrust income sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions for the time, andThe 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, stated that "reaction to the finished book was enthusiastic and admiring...." The criticRobert Weaver found it powerful and declared that Cohen was "probably the best young poet in English Canada right now."[10]
Cohen continued to write poetry and fiction throughout the 1960s and preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances after he bought a house onHydra, a Greek island in theSaronic Gulf. While living and writing on Hydra, Cohen published the poetry collectionFlowers for Hitler (1964), and the novelThe Favourite Game (1963), an autobiographicalBildungsroman about a young man who discovers his identity through writing.
The 1966 novelBeautiful Losers received a good deal of attention from the Canadian press and stirred up controversy because of a number of sexually graphic passages.[10] RegardingBeautiful Losers,theBoston Globe stated: "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen." In 1966 Cohen also publishedParasites of Heaven, a book of poems. BothBeautiful Losers andParasites of Heaven received mixed reviews and sold few copies.[10]
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.[21]
Subsequently, Cohen published less, with major gaps, concentrating more on recording songs. In 1966 he wrote "Suzanne", which was performed the same year by The Stormy Clovers, and recorded by Judy Collins on her albumIn My Life.
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 titledDeath 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 theHebrew Bible andZen writings. Cohen himself referred to the pieces as "prayers".[22] In 1993 Cohen publishedStranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, and in 2006, after 10 years of delays, additions, and rewritings,Book of Longing.The Book of Longing is dedicated to the poetIrving 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).[23][24]
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."[25]
In 2011, Cohen was awarded thePrince of Asturias Award for literature.[26] His poetry collectionThe Flame, which he had been working on at the time of his death, appeared posthumously in 2018.
Cohen's books have been translated into several languages.
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 inAndy Warhol's "Factory" crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening toNico in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style.[27]
His song "Suzanne" became a hit forJudy Collins (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:
And then he played me "Suzanne" ... I said, "Leonard, you must come with me to this big fundraiser I'm doing" ... Jimi Hendrix was on it. He'd never sung [in front of a large audience] before then. He got out on stage and started singing. Everybody was going crazy—they loved it. And he stopped about halfway through and walked off the stage. Everybody went nuts. ... They demanded that he come back. And I demanded; I said, "I'll go out with you." So we went out, and we sang it. And of course, that was the beginning.[28]
People think Leonard is dark, but actually his sense of humour and his edge on the world is extremely light.
She first introduced him to television audiences during one of her shows in 1966,[30] where they performed duets of his songs.[31][32] Still new to bringing his poetry to music, he once forgot the words to "Suzanne" while singing to a different audience.[33] Singers such asJoan Baez have sung it during their tours.[34] 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 toldBill Moyers, during a television interview, that she felt Cohen's Jewish background was an important influence on his words and music.[29]
After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention ofColumbia Records producerJohn Hammond, who signed Cohen to a record deal.[35] Cohen's first album wasSongs of Leonard Cohen.[36][a] The album was released in the US in late 1967 to generally dismissive reviews,[37] but became a favourite in the UK on its release in early 1968, where it spent over a year on the album charts.[38] He appeared on BBC TV in 1968 where he sang a duet from the album withJulie Felix.[39] Several of the songs on that first album were recorded by other popular folk artists, includingJames Taylor[40] and Judy Collins.[41] Cohen followed up that first album withSongs from a Room (1969, featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire") andSongs of Love and Hate (1971).
In 1971, film directorRobert Altman featured the songs "The Stranger Song", "Winter Lady", and "Sisters of Mercy", originally recorded forSongs of Leonard Cohen, inMcCabe & Mrs. Miller. 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."[42] Tim Grierson wrote in 2016, shortly after Cohen's death, that "Altman's and Cohen's legacies would forever be linked byMcCabe. The movie is inextricably connected to Cohen's songs. It's impossible to imagine Altman's masterpiece without them."[43]
In 1970, Cohen toured for the first time, in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and appeared at theIsle of Wight Festival.[44] In 1972 he toured again in Europe and Israel, captured on film by Tony Palmer and eventually released in 2010 under the title 'Bird on a Wire'.[b] 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.[46][47]
A Jew remains a Jew. Now it's war and there's no need for explanations. My name is Cohen, no?
In 1973, whenEgypt and Syria attacked Israel on the Yom Kippur day, Cohen arrived in Israel. He had no guitar, and intended to volunteer in somekibbutz for the harvest, though he had no solid plan. He was spotted in a Tel Aviv Pinati Café by Israeli musiciansOshik Levi,Matti Caspi andIlana Rovina, who offered him to go together to Sinai to sing for Israeli soldiers.[49][48][50] Even though he reportedly voiced "pro-Arab political views" before the war, he said after the war "I am joining my brothers fighting in the desert. I don't care if their war is just or not. I know only that war is cruel, that it leaves bones, blood and ugly stains on the holy soil."[48] Cohen played his most-known songs to the troops: "Suzanne", "So Long Marianne", "Bird on the Wire", and his new song he called "Lover Lover Lover".[51] In Sinai, Cohen was introduced to the Major GeneralAriel Sharon, future Prime Minister of Israel.[48] Cohen later described the improvised concerts:[48]
"We would just drop into little places, like a rocket site and they would shine their flashlights at us and we would sing a few songs. Or they would give us a jeep and we would go down the road towards the front and wherever we saw a few soldiers waiting for a helicopter or something like that we would sing a few songs. And maybe back at the airbase we would do a little concert, maybe with amplifiers. It was very informal, and you know, very intense."
In 1974, Cohen released a new album,New Skin for the Old Ceremony, with songs inspired by the war. "Lover Lover Lover", was written and performed in Sinai. "Who By Fire", written reflecting on the war, takes its name from the Yom Kippur prayer theUnetaneh Tokef.[50][52][48] Other songs inspired by the war are "Field Commander Cohen" and "There is a War".[48] In 1976, Cohen said during the concert that his now famous song was written for "the Egyptians and the Israelis", though he wrote and performed the song for the Israeli soldiers during the war, and the song originally contained the lines "I went down to the desert to help my brothers fight".[51]
In 1973, Columbia Records released Cohen's first concert album,Live Songs. Then beginning around 1974, Cohen's collaboration with pianist and arrangerJohn Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. They toured together in 1974 in Europe, the US and Canada in late 1974 and early 1975, in support of Cohen's recordNew Skin for the Old Ceremony. 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'sBest Of release. The tour included new songs from an album in progress, co-written by Cohen and Lissauer and titledSongs 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 hisThe Best of Leonard Cohen release (in Europe retitled asGreatest Hits).Laura Branigan was one of his backup singers during the tour.[53] From April to July, Cohen gave 55 shows, including his first appearance at theMontreux Jazz Festival.
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 byPhil Spector.[54][c] One year later, in 1978, Cohen published a volume of poetry with the subtly revised titleDeath of a Lady's Man.
Leonard acknowledges that the whole act of living contains immense amounts of sorrow and hopelessness and despair; and also passion, high hopes, deep love, and eternal love.
In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditionalRecent Songs,[58] 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's sound engineer),Recent Songs included performances by Passenger,[59] an Austin-based jazz–fusion band that met Cohen through Mitchell. The band helped Cohen create a new sound by featuring instruments like theoud, the Gypsy violin, and themandolin. The album was supported by Cohen's major tour with the new band, andJennifer Warnes andSharon 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, titledField Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979.[60]
During the 1970s, Cohen toured twice withJennifer Warnes 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 albumVarious Positions (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.[61] 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."[57]
In the early 1980s, Cohen co-wrote (withLewis Furey) the rock musical filmNight Magic starringCarole Laure andNick Mancuso. Columbia declined to release his 1984 LPVarious Positions in the United States.[d] 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.[e] The band performed at theMontreux Jazz Festival, and theRoskilde Festival.
They also gave a series of highly emotional and politically controversial concerts in Poland, which had been undermartial law just two years before, and performed the song "The Partisan", regarded as the hymn of thePolish Solidarity movement.[62][f]
In 1987,Jennifer Warnes's tribute albumFamous Blue Raincoat helped restore Cohen's career in the US. The following year he releasedI'm Your Man.[g] 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 American television and radio stations, while Cohen performed for the first time in his career on PBS'sAustin City Limits show.[64][65][h]
"Hallelujah" was first released on Cohen's studio albumVarious Positions in 1984, and he sang it during his Europe tour in 1985.[66][67][68] The song had limited initial success but found greater popularity through a 1991 cover byJohn Cale, which formed the basis for a later cover byJeff Buckley.[69] "Hallelujah" has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages.[70][i]New York Times movie reviewerA. O. Scott wrote that "Hallelujah is one of those rare songs that survives its banalization with at least some of its sublimity intact".[72]
The song is the subject of the 2012 bookThe Holy or the Broken byAlan Light and the 2022 documentary filmHallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine.[73]Janet Maslin'sNew 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".[74]
The album track "Everybody Knows" fromI'm Your Man and "If It Be Your Will" in the 1990 filmPump Up the Volume helped expose Cohen's music to a wider audience. He first introduced the song during his world tour in 1988.[75] The song "Everybody Knows" also featured prominently in fellow CanadianAtom Egoyan's 1994 film,Exotica. In 1992, Cohen releasedThe Future, which urges (often in terms ofbiblical 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 movieNatural Born Killers, which also promoted Cohen's work to a new generation of US listeners.
As withI'm Your Man, the lyrics onThe Future were dark, and made references to political and social unrest. The title track is reportedly a response to the1992 Los Angeles riots. 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 onPBS'sAustin City Limits. 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 1994Cohen 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 bookDeath of a Lady's Man.[76]
In 1994, Cohen retreated to theMt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center.[61] In 1996, Cohen was ordained as aRinzai ZenBuddhist monk and took theDharma nameJikan, meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant toKyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi.
In 1997, Cohen oversaw the selection and release of theMore 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 calledOn 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",[77] both later re-worked withSharon Robinson for the 2001 albumTen New Songs.[78]
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 fromBook of Longing and early versions of new songs, like "A Thousand Kisses Deep" in September 1998[79] andAnjani Thomas's story sent on May 6, 1999, the day they were recording "Villanelle for our Time"[80] (released on 2004'sDear Heather album). The section of The Leonard Cohen Files with Cohen's online writings has been titled "The Blackening Pages".[24]
After two years of production, Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release ofTen New Songs, featuring a major influence from producer and co-composerSharon Robinson. The album – recorded at Cohen's and Robinson's home studios, Still Life Studios[81] – includes the song "Alexandra Leaving", a transformation of the poem "The God Abandons Antony", by the Greek poetConstantine P. Cavafy. 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 byFloria Sigismondi. The album won him four Canadian Juno Awards in 2002: Best Artist, Best Songwriter, Best Pop Album, and Best Video ("In My Secret Life").[78] In October 2003 he was named aCompanion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour.[78]
In October 2004, Cohen releasedDear Heather, largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and romantic partner)Anjani 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."[82][j]
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 andU2 in the 2006 tribute filmLeonard Cohen I'm Your Man[84] (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 theCanadian Singles Chart). In 2007 he recited "The Sound of Silence" on the albumTribute toPaul Simon: Take Me to the Mardi Gras and "The Jungle Line" byJoni Mitchell, accompanied byHerbie Hancock on piano, on Hancock's Grammy-winning albumRiver: The Joni Letters,[85] while in 2008, he recited the poem "Since You've Asked" on the albumBorn to the Breed: A Tribute toJudy Collins.[86][87]
In late 2005, Cohen's daughter Lorca began to suspect his longtime manager, Kelley Lynch, of financial impropriety. According to the Cohen biographerSylvie Simmons, Lynch handled Cohen's business affairs and was a close family friend.[88] 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.[88]
In October 2005, Cohen sued Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated more than US$5 million from his retirement fund, leaving only $150,000.[89][90] Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates.[89] The events drew media attention, including a cover feature with the headline "Devastated!" in the Canadian magazineMaclean's.[90] In March 2006, Cohen won acivil suit and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch ignored the suit and did not respond to asubpoena issued for her financial records.[91]NME reported that Cohen might never be able to collect the awarded amount.[92][k] In 2012, Lynch was jailed for 18 months and given five years' probation for harassing Cohen after he dismissed her.[99]
Cohen published a book of poetry and drawings,Book of Longing, 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", accompanied by theBarenaked Ladies andRon Sexsmith. Appearing with him was Anjani, promoting her new CD along with his book.[100]
That same year,Philip Glass composed music forBook 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, titledBook of Longing. A Song Cycle based on the Poetry and Artwork of Leonard Cohen.[101]
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 ... [was] a 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."[99]
Cohen at Edinburgh Castle, July 2008Cohen at Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, July 20082008 concert tour
The tour began on May 11 inFredericton, New Brunswick, and was extended until late 2010. The schedule of the first leg in mid-2008 encompassed Canada and Europe, including performances atThe Big Chill,[102] the Montreal Jazz Festival, and on the Pyramid Stage at the 2008Glastonbury Festival on June 29, 2008.[103] His performance at Glastonbury was hailed by many as the highlight of the festival,[104] and his performance of "Hallelujah" as the sun set received a rapturous reception and a lengthy ovation from a packed Pyramid Stage field.[105] He also played two shows in London'sO2 Arena.[106]
In Dublin, Cohen was the first performer to play an open-air concert atIMMA (Royal Hospital Kilmainham) ground, performing there on June 13, 14 and 15, 2008. In 2009, the performances were awarded Ireland'sMeteor 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.[107] In March 2009, Cohen releasedLive 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.[108]
Cohen in McLaren Vale, South Australia, January 2009
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.[l]
On February 19, 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in 15 years at theBeacon Theatre in New York City.[111] 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 theCoachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, April 17, 2009, in front of one of the largest outdoor theatre crowds in the history of the festival. His performance ofHallelujah 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 atO2 in Dublin won him the secondMeteor Music Award in a row), but also performances in Serbia in theBelgrade Arena, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, and again in Romania.
On September 18, 2009, on the stage at a concert inValencia, 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.[112] It was reported that Cohen had stomach problems, and possibly food poisoning.[113] 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 lit 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 inTel Aviv, Israel, on September 24 atRamat Gan Stadium. The event was surrounded by public discussion due to a cultural boycott of Israel proposed by a number of musicians.[114] Nevertheless, tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, Cohen's first performance in Israel since 1980, sold out in less than 24 hours.[115] It was announced that the proceeds from the sale of the 47,000 tickets would go into a charitable fund in partnership withAmnesty International and would be used by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups;[116] however, Amnesty later withdrew.[117][m] Cohen was scheduled to perform inRamallah two days later, but the organizers cancelled the show due to criticism of Palestinian activists. ThePACBI stated that: "Ramallah will not receive Cohen as long as he is intent on whitewashing Israel's colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel".[114][121]
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 onBillboard magazine's list of the year's top musical "money makers".[122]
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 Festivalwas released as a CD/DVD combo.
Officially billed as the "World Tour 2010", the tour started on July 25, 2010, inArena Zagreb, Croatia, and continued with stops in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland, where on July 31, 2010, Cohen performed atLissadell House in County Sligo. It was Cohen's eighth Irish concert in just two years after a hiatus of more than 20 years.[123] On August 12, Cohen played the 200th show of the tour inScandinavium,Gothenburg, Sweden.[citation needed] The third leg of the 2010 tour started on October 28 in New Zealand and continued in Australia.
Cohen at King's Garden, Odense, Denmark, August 17, 2013
In 2011, Cohen's poetical output was represented in Everyman's Library Pocket Poets, in a selectionPoems 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 fromBook 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 albumOld Ideas, 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.[citation needed]
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 biographyVarious Positions was the first).[124]
Leonard Cohen's 12th studio album,Old Ideas, 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 withLana Del Rey's debut albumBorn to Die, released the same day.[125]
The lyrics for the song "Going Home" were published as a poem inThe New Yorker magazine in January 2012, prior to the record's release.[126] The entire album was streamed online byNPR on January 22[127] and on January 23 byThe Guardian.[128]
The album received uniformly positive reviews fromRolling Stone,[129] theChicago Tribune,[130] andThe Guardian.[131] At a record release party for the album in January 2012, Cohen spoke withThe New York Times reporterJon Pareles who states that "mortality was very much on his mind and in his songs [on 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."[132]
On August 12, 2012, Cohen embarked on a new European tour in support ofOld 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 fromOld 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.[133]
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.[134]
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.[135]
Cohen then toured Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2013. His final concert was performed at theVector Arena in Auckland.[136][137]
Cohen released his 13th album,Popular Problems, on September 24, 2014.[138] The album includes "A Street", which he had previously recited in 2006, during promotion of his book of poetryBook of Longing, and later printed twice, as "A Street" in the March 2, 2009, issue ofThe New Yorker magazine,[139] and appeared as "Party's Over" in Everyman's Library edition ofPoems and Songs in 2011.
Cohen's 14th and final album,You Want It Darker, was released on October 21, 2016.[140] Cohen's sonAdam Cohen has a production credit on the album.[141] 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.[142] The title track was awarded aGrammy Award for Best Rock Performance in January 2018.
Thanks for the Dance and other posthumous releases
Before his death, Cohen had begun working on a new album with his sonAdam, a musician and singer-songwriter.[143] The album, titledThanks for the Dance, was released on November 22, 2019.[144] One posthumous track, "Necropsy of Love", appeared on the 2018 compilation albumThe Al Purdy Songbook and another track named "The Goal" was also published on September 20, 2019, on Leonard Cohen's official YouTube channel.[145]
Over a musical career that spanned nearly five decades, Mr. Cohen wrote songs that addressed—in spare language that could be both oblique and telling—themes of love and faith, despair and exaltation, solitude and connection, war and politics.[146] It's inevitable that Mr. Cohen will be remembered above all for his lyrics. They are terse and acrobatic, scriptural and bawdy, vividly descriptive and enduringly ambiguous, never far from either a riddle or a punch line.[147]
The New York Times: Obituary, Nov. 10, 2016, and "An Appraisal", Nov. 11, 2016
Writing forAllMusic, critic Bruce Eder assessed Cohen's overall career in popular music by asserting that "[he is] one of the most fascinating and enigmatic ... singer-songwriters of the late '60s ... Second only toBob Dylan (and perhapsPaul Simon), 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."[148] TheAcademy of American Poets commented more broadly, stating that "Cohen's successful blending of poetry, fiction, and music is made most clear inStranger Music: 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 aRenaissance man who straddles the elusive artistic borderlines."[149] 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 ofIrving Berlin. ... 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.[150]
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[citation needed] 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."[151] 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 ofThe 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".[152][153] In "Anthem", he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ [are] gonna 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."[154]
Itis a beautiful thing for us to be so deeply interested in each other. You have to write about something. Women stand for the objective world for a man, and they stand for the thing that you're not. And that's what you always reach for in a song.
Deeply moved by encounters with Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write "Lover Lover Lover". 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."[156] Asked which side he supported in theArab–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."[157]
In 1991, playwrightBryden MacDonald launchedSincerely, A Friend, a musical revue based on Cohen's music.[158]
Cohen is mentioned in theNirvana song "Pennyroyal Tea" from the band's 1993 release,In Utero.Kurt Cobain 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."[159] He is also mentioned in the lyrics of songs by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions,[160]Mercury Rev andMarillion.[161][162]
Cohen was one of the inspirations forMatt Bissonnette and Steven Clark's 2002 filmLooking 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 rewatchingLadies and Gentlemen.[163] Bissonnette followed up in 2020 withDeath of a Ladies' Man, a film that uses seven Cohen songs in its soundtrack to illuminate key themes in the film's screenplay.[164]
The Leonard Cohen song "So Long, Marianne" is the title of the season 4, episode 9 episode ofThis Is Us. The song is played and its meaning is discussed as an important plot point of the episode.
In April 2022, author and journalistMatti Friedman publishedWho By Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen,[165][166] the story of Leonard Cohen's 1973 tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War.[167] TV miniseries byYehonatan Indursky based on the book was expected in 2024.[168]
Susan Cain, author ofBittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole (2022), said that humorous references to Cohen as the "Poet Laureate of Pessimism"[169] 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".[170] Cain dedicated the book "In memory of Leonard Cohen", quoting lyrics from Cohen'ssong "Anthem" (1992): "There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."[171]
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".[72] Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, creators of the 2022 documentary filmHallelujah: 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",[172] and Geller remarking, "Almost everything (Cohen) said came out with a twinkle in his eye".[173] Long before his death, Cohen said "I feel I have a huge posthumous career in front of me".[174]
Suzanne Vega spoke of Leonard Cohen's admirers in a New Yorker interview, saying that knowing his work was like being part of a "secret society" among people of her generation.[175]
In September 1960, Cohen bought a house on the Greek island ofHydra with $1,500 that he had inherited from his grandmother.[176] Cohen lived there withMarianne Ihlen, with whom he was in a relationship for most of the 1960s.[35] The song "So Long, Marianne" was written to and about her. In 2016, Ihlen died ofleukemia three months and nine days before Cohen.[177][178] 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."[179] This widely circulated version is based on a verbal recollection by Ihlen's friend. The letter (actually an email), obtained through the Leonard Cohen estate, reads:
Dearest Marianne,
I'm just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up, just as yours has too.
I've never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. I don't have to say any more. Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Endless love and gratitude.
Commemorative plaque (2009) at New York'sChelsea Hotel, where Cohen had stayed in 1968 and had a relationship with Janis Joplin.[181][182]
In the spring of 1968, Cohen had a brief relationship with musicianJanis Joplin while staying at the Chelsea Hotel, and the song of the same name references this relationship.[181][182] Cohen also had well-known relationships with Canadian singer-songwriterJoni Mitchell and American actressRebecca De Mornay.[183]
In the 1970s, Cohen was in a relationship with artist Suzanne Elrod. She took the cover photograph forLive Songs and is pictured on the cover of theDeath of a Ladies' Man. She also inspired the "Dark Lady" of Cohen's bookDeath 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 sculptorArmand Vaillancourt.[184] Cohen and Elrod separated in 1979;[185] he later stated that "cowardice" and "fear" prevented him from marrying her.[186][187] Their relationship produced two children: a son,Adam (b. 1972), and a daughter, Lorca (b. 1974), named after poetFederico García Lorca. Adam is a singer–songwriter and the lead singer of pop-rock bandLow 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 musicianRufus Wainwright) and grandson Lyon through Lorca.[188][189]
Cohen was in a relationship with French photographerDominique Issermann 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" and "First We Take Manhattan" and her photographs were used for the covers of his 1993 bookStranger Music and his albumMore Best of Leonard Cohen and for the inside booklet ofI'm Your Man (1988), which he also dedicated to her.[190] In 2010, she was also the official photographer of his world tour.
In the 1990s, Cohen was romantically linked to actressRebecca De Mornay.[191] De Mornay co-produced Cohen's 1992 albumThe Future, which is also dedicated to her with an inscription that quotesRebecca's coming to the well from theBook of Genesis chapter 24 and giving drink toEliezer'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".[192][193]
Cohen was described as aSabbath-observant Jew in an article inThe New York Times: "Mr. Cohen keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during theYom Kippur War 1973. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen? 'Allen Ginsberg 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.'"[194]
Cohen was involved withBuddhism beginning in the 1970s and was ordained aRinzai Buddhist monk in 1996. However, he continued to consider himself Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."[196] Beginning in the late 1970s, Cohen was associated with Buddhist monk andrōshi (venerable teacher)Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, regularly visiting him atMount Baldy Zen Center 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 hisBook of Longing, and took part in a 1997 documentary about Cohen's monastery years,Leonard Cohen: Spring 1996. Cohen's 2001 albumTen New Songs and his 2014 albumPopular Problems are dedicated to Joshu Sasaki.
In a 1993 interview titled "I am the little Jew who wrote theBible", 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 inJesus 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 theJewish 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."[198]
Speaking about his religion in a 2007 interview forBBC Radio 4'sFront Row (partially re-broadcast on November 11, 2016), Cohen said: "My friendBrian Johnson said of me that I'd never met a religion I didn't like. That's why I've tried to correct that impression [that I was looking for another religion besides Judaism] because 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."[199]
At his concert inRamat Gan on September 24, 2009, Cohen spoke Jewish prayers and blessings to the audience in Hebrew. He opened the show with the first sentence ofMa Tovu. At the middle, he usedBaruch Hashem, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing ofBirkat Kohanim.[200]
Memorial in front of Cohen's residence in Montreal on November 12, 2016[28]
Cohen died in his Los Angeles home on November 7, 2016, at the age of 82;leukemia was a contributing cause.[201][202][203] 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.[204] His death was announced on November 10, the same day as his funeral, which was held in Montreal.[205]As was his wish, Cohen was laid to rest with a Jewish rite, in a simple pinecasket, in a family plot in theCongregation Shaar Hashomayim cemetery onMount Royal.[206][207]
The city of Montreal held a tribute concert to Cohen in December 2016, titled "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" after aprose poem in his novelBeautiful Losers. It featured a number of musical performances and readings of Cohen's poetry.[212][213]
According to Cohen's son Adam, he had requested a small memorial service in Los Angeles and had suggested a public memorial service in Montreal.[214] A memorial for friends and family took place at the Ohr HaTorah Synagogue in Los Angeles in December 2016.[215][216] 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. The event included performances byk.d. lang,Elvis Costello,Feist,Adam Cohen,Patrick Watson,Sting,Damien Rice,Courtney Love,The Lumineers,Lana Del Rey and others.[217][218] Additionally, Canadian prime ministerJustin Trudeau and his wifeSophie Grégoire Trudeau spoke about their personal connection with Cohen's music.[219]
After Cohen's death, two murals were created in Montreal the following summer. Artist Kevin Ledo painted a nine-story portrait of him near Cohen's home onPlateau Mont-Royal. Montreal artist Gene Pendon and L.A. artist El Mec painted a 20-storyfedora-clad likeness on Crescent Street.[220]
An interactive exhibit dedicated to the life and career of Leonard Cohen opened on November 9, 2017, atMontreal's contemporary art museum (MAC) titled "Leonard Cohen: Une Brèche en Toute Chose / A Crack in Everything" and ran until April 9, 2018.[221][222] The exhibit had been in the works for several years prior to Cohen's death,[223] as part of the official program of Montreal's 375th anniversary celebrations. After breaking the museum's attendance record in its five-month run,[224][225] the exhibit embarked on an international tour, opening in New York City at theJewish Museum in April 2019.[226]
A bronze statue of Cohen was unveiled in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, on August 31, 2019.[227]
Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire (1974) – documentary directed byTony Palmer during Cohen's 1972 European tour. The film premiered in 1974 at theRainbow Theatre in Cohen's cut;[235][236] a restored director's cut from footage discovered in 2009 was released on DVD in 2010[237] and re-released theatrically in 2017.[238]
Song of Leonard Cohen (1980) – documentary directed byHarry Rasky for CBC filmed during Cohen's 1979 European tour. Rasky also wrote a book about the film:The Song of Leonard Cohen.
Night Magic (1985), lyricist, screenplay – film musical
Miami Vice (1986), actor – S2E17, episode "French Twist"[240]
Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen (1988) – full-length concert of Royal Albert Hall 1988 performance intercut with interview footage. Produced by the BBC and CMV Enterprises. Released in VHS PAL and NTSC tapes and on laser-disc.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead Part I: A Way of Life;The Tibetan Book of the Dead Part II: The Great Liberation (1994), narrator – documentary onBardo Thodol directed byYukari Hayashi [nl]. Released on DVD in 2004.
Spring 96. Leonard Cohen Portrait (1996) – documentary directed by Armelle Brusq shot at theMount Baldy Zen Center. Released as home video by SMV Enterprises in VHS and DVD.
The Favourite Game (2003) – Canadian film adaptation of the novel directed by Bernar Hebert
Leonard Cohen. Under Review 1934-1977 (2007) andLeonard Cohen. Under Review 1978-2006 (2008) – documentary interviews with "an independent critical analysis". DVDs released by MVD Entertainment Group in the US and by Chrome Dreams Companies in the UK. First re-released asThe Early Years; the second asAfter the Gold Rush; both re-released asLeonard Cohen. Complete Review (2012, 151 mins) and re-cut asLonesome Heroes (110 mins). Unauthorised.
^Although Hammond was originally supposed to produce the record, he was ill and was replaced by the producerJohn Simon.[10] Simon and Cohen clashed over instrumentation and mixing; Cohen wanted the album to have a sparse sound, while Simon felt the songs could benefit from arrangements that included strings and horns. According to biographer Ira Nadel, although Cohen was able to make changes to the mix, some of Simon's additions "couldn't be removed from the four-track master tape."[10]
^The tour was filmed under the titleBird on a Wire, released in 2010.[45] Both tours were represented on theLive Songs LP.Leonard CohenLive at the Isle of Wight 1970, released in 2009.
^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 thought the end result "grotesque",[55] but also "semi-virtuous".[56]
^Lissauer produced Cohen's next record,Various Positions, which was released in December 1984 (and in January and February 1985 in various European countries). The LP included "Dance Me to the End of Love", which was promoted by Cohen's first video clip, directed by French photographer Dominique Issermann, and the frequently covered "Hallelujah".
^Columbia declined to release the album in the United States, where it was pressed in small number of copies by the independent Passport Records. Anjani Thomas, who would become Cohen's partner, and a regular member of Cohen's recording team, joined his touring band.
^During the 1980s, almost all of Cohen's songs were performed in the Polish language byMaciej Zembaty.[63]
^The album, self-produced by Cohen, was promoted by black-and-white video shot by Dominique Issermann at the beach of Normandy.
^The tour gave the basic structure to typical Cohen's three-hour, two-act concert, which he used in his tours in 1993, 2008–2010, and 2012. The selection of performances from the late 1980s was released in 1994 onCohen Live.
^The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar", a poem originally published inThe Spice-Box of Earth in 1961 and adapted byPhil Spector as "True Love Leaves No Traces" onDeath of a Ladies' Man album.Blue Alert also included Anjani's own version of "Nightingale", performed by her and Cohen on hisDear Heather, as well the country song "Never Got to Love You", apparently made after an early demo version of Cohen's own 1992 song "Closing Time". During the 2010 tour, Cohen was closing his live shows with the performance of "Closing Time" that included the recitation of verses from "Never Got to Love You". The title song, "Blue Alert", and "Half the Perfect World" were covered byMadeleine Peyroux on her 2006 albumHalf the Perfect World.[83]
^In 2007, US. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock dismissed a claim by Cohen for more than US$4.5 million against Colorado investment firm Agile Group, and in 2008 he dismissed a defamation suit that Agile Group filed against Cohen.[93] Cohen was under new management from April 2005.In March 2012, Sylvie Simmons notes that Lynch was arrested in Los Angeles for "violating a permanent protective order that forbade her from contacting Leonard, which she had ignored repeatedly. On April 13, the jury found her guilty on all charges. On April 18 she was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and five years probation."[88] Cohen told that court, "It gives me no pleasure to see my onetime friend shackled to a chair in a court of law, her considerable gifts bent to the services of darkness, deceit, and revenge. It is my prayer that Ms. Lynch will take refuge in the wisdom of her religion, that a spirit of understanding will convert her heart from hatred to remorse, from anger to kindness, from the deadly intoxication of revenge to the lowly practices of self-reform."[94][95]In May 2016, United States District JudgeStephen Victor Wilson ordered the dismissal of Lynch's "RICO" suit against Leonard Cohen and his lawyers Robert Kory and Michelle Rice of Kory & Rice, LLP as "legally and/or factually patently frivolous."[96]On December 6, 2016, a 16-count misdemeanor complaint against Lynch, alleging violations of the protective orders entered on behalf of Leonard Cohen and his attorneys Kory and Rice, was filed.[97] At a preliminary hearing, further counts of alleged violations were added. Lynch entered a plea of not guilty to 31 counts of violating the protective orders. Lynch's pretrial hearing is scheduled for September 8, 2017.[98]
^Simon Sweetman in TheDominion Post (Wellington) of January 21 wrote "It is hard work having to put this concert in to words so I'll just say something I have never said in a review before and will never say again: this was the best show I have ever seen."TheSydney Entertainment Centre show on January 28 sold out rapidly, which motivated promoters to announce a second show at the venue. The first performance was well-received, and the audience of 12,000 responded with five standing ovations. In response to hearing about the devastation to the Yarra Valley region of Victoria in Australia, Cohen donated $200,000 to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal in support of those affected by the extensiveBlack Saturday bushfires that razed the area just weeks after his performance at the Rochford Winery in theA Day on the Green concert.[109] Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported: "Tour promoter Frontier Touring said $200,000 would be donated on behalf of Cohen, fellow performerPaul Kelly and Frontier to aid victims of the bushfires."[110]
^Amnesty International withdrew from any involvement with the concert and its proceeds.[118] Amnesty International later stated that its withdrawal was not due to the boycott but "the lack of support from Israeli and Palestinian NGOs."[119] ThePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) led the call for the boycott, claiming that Cohen was "intent on whitewashing Israel's colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel."[120]
^Cohen, Leonard (May 24, 1985)."The Midday Show With Ray Martin".ABC (Interview). Interviewed byRay Martin. Sydney. Archived fromthe original on February 24, 2006. RetrievedOctober 1, 2008.My – my mother was from Lithuania which was a part of Poland and my great-grandfather came over from Poland to Canada.
^Johnson, Brian D. (August 22, 2005)."Up Close and Personal"(PDF).Maclean's. Ontario. pp. 48–49.Archived(PDF) from the original on January 25, 2016. RetrievedJanuary 19, 2016.
^abMacklem, Katherine; Gillis, Charlie; Johnson, Brian D. (August 22, 2005)."Leonard Cohen Goes Broke".Maclean's.Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. RetrievedSeptember 19, 2011,
^Geoff Pevere, "Leonard Cohen inspires movie with pauses that refresh".Toronto Star, November 29, 2002.
^Brad Wheeler, "What would Leonard Cohen say?"The Globe and Mail, March 12, 2021.
^Friedman, Matti (2022).Who by fire : war, atonement, and the resurrection of Leonard Cohen. Toronto, Ontario.ISBN978-0-7710-9626-6.OCLC1286840619.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Friedman, Matti (March 26, 2022)."How a war brought Leonard Cohen back to life".The Globe and Mail.Archived from the original on January 4, 2023. RetrievedJanuary 4, 2023.Matti Friedman's latest book is Who by Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen.
^abBoyd, Brian (2016)."Leonard Cohen: the key songs and what they mean".The Irish Times.Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. RetrievedJuly 2, 2022.It is a mysterious process, it involves perseverance and perspiration and sometimes, by some grace, something stands out and invites you to elaborate or animate it. These are sacred mechanics and you have to be careful analysing them as you would never write a line again. If you looked too deeply into the process you'd end up in a state of paralysis
^"The Story of Suzanne".BBC Radio 4 interview with Suzanne Verdal McCallister. leonardcohenfiles.com. June 6, 1998.Archived from the original on November 5, 2010. RetrievedNovember 19, 2010.
^The Online Jewish Book Community (JBooks.com) (June 2006)."Book of Longing (Review)".Reviews & Articles. leonardcohencroatia.com. Archived fromthe original on March 9, 2012. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2012.
^See Larry Rohter, "On the Road, for Reasons Practical and Spiritual." The New York Times, February 25, 2009. For an extended discussion of the Jewish mystical and Buddhist motifs in Cohen's songs and poems, see Elliot R. Wolfson, "New Jerusalem Glowing: Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen in a Kabbalistic Key",Kabbalah: A Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 15 (2006): 103–152.
^"Poen".National Film Board of Canada.Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. RetrievedDecember 19, 2016.
^Steve Gravestock; Toronto International Film Festival Group (2005).Don Owen: Notes on a Filmmaker and His Culture. Indiana University Press. pp. 69–.ISBN0-9689132-4-5.Ernie sits down in the living room to listen to Leonard Cohen playing the film's theme song, "The Stranger," to an entranced and silent group. The song ... Like the song's dreamer protagonist, he "wants to trade the game he knows for shelter.
^Jason Holt (2014).Leonard Cohen and Philosophy: Various Positions. Open Court. pp. 124–.ISBN978-0-8126-9882-4.who watches Leonard Cohen's I Am a Hotel cannot help but be struck by the range of emotional expression it presents, from the physical exuberance of the dancers in "Memories" to the melancholy questioning and selfdoubt in "The Gypsy's ...
^Deevoy, Adrian (1991)."Leonard Cohen: Porridge? Lozenge? Syringe?".Q. UK.Archived from the original on December 12, 2016. RetrievedDecember 19, 2016.In truth, I had a much bigger part. I went down there and did my first scene and the assistant director rang me up and said, You were really great, truly wonderful. And I said, OK, thanks a lot. Then the casting director from New York called me up and said, You were fantastic, truly wonderful! And I said, You mean I'm fired. And he said, "Yeah, we're cutting all your other scenes and giving them to another guy."
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