Leonard Cohen, R.I.P.

While traveling by bus from Boston to New York on Thursday evening I learned that poet and singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen had passed away at the age of 82. Cohen actually died the day before the election, but this information didn't become public until last night.

When Bob Dylan was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, it occurred to me that a better case could have been made for Cohen who was a master of both the written and spoken word. Before turning his attention to music, Cohen was an accomplished poet and writer. His notable poetry collections included Let Us Compare Mythologies, The Spice-Box of Earth and Flowers for Hitler. Cohen also wrote two novels during the mid-60's - The Favorite Game and Beautiful Losers. 

But Cohen is best remembered for his music. His 1967 debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen spawned "Suzanne" (which would become a hit for Judy Collins and has been covered by scores of artists) and "So Long, Marianne". Cohen would release 13 more albums over the next half century. His final album You Want It Darker was released only last month.

Some of Cohen's other notable songs include "Bird on the Wire", "Everybody Knows", "First We Take Manhattan" and "The Partisan". If you're under 40 the song you associate Cohen with is, of course, "Hallelujah" courtesy of the late Jeff Buckley's cover from his 1994 album Grace. The song took on new meaning after 9/11 and was a staple of American Idol and its imitators and helped make Cohen a viable concert attraction well into The Millennium and one of Canada's most enduring artistic exports.

Cohen had an aura of mystery about him that made him an appealing figure to younger people. I remember a high school classmate of mine who absolutely idolized Cohen and then met him by chance at a bar in Winnipeg. A former co-worker of mine told me about running into him on the streets of Montreal while attending McGill. Evidently Cohen was looking for a house in his old stomping grounds in the Jewish neighborhood of Westmount. I also once knew a girl named Suzanne who needless to say loved the song with her name.

Cohen was one of those songwriters that could be beautifully interpreted by an array of artists. Have a listen to Fairport Convention's version of "Suzanne", Tim Hardin's take of "Bird on a Wire", Jeff Buckley's classic cover of "Hallelujah" and Jennifer Warnes' resonant rendition of "First We Take Manhattan". Tonight, I heard former Cohen backup singer Perla Batalla's version of "Came So Far For Beauty" and it just made me want to sigh eternally. I sighed even more when I couldn't upload it, but you can listen to it here.