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Leonard Cohen
Canadian singer-songwriter and poet (1934–2016)
Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss.
He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine named Cohen the 103rd-greatest singer of all time.
genres: rock music, spoken word, folk rock, sophisti-pop, world music, soft rock, pop music, folk music
influenced by: Federico García Lorca
awards: Companion of the Order of Canada, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Glenn Gould Prize, Governor General's Literary Awards, Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec, Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Princess of Asturias Literary Prize
Leonard Norman Cohen was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the Montreal anglophone enclave of Westmount, Quebec, on September 21, 1934. His Lithuanian Jewish mother, Marsha ("Masha") Klonitsky, immigrated to Canada from Kaunas in 1927 and was the daughter of Talmudic writer and rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline. His paternal grandfather, who had emigrated from Suwałki, in Congress Poland, to Canada, was Canadian Jewish Congress founding president Lyon Cohen. His parents gave him the Hebrew name Eliezer, which means "God helps". His father, clothing store owner Nathan Bernard Cohen, died when Cohen was nine years old. The family attended Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, to which Cohen retained connections for the rest of his life. On the...
Leonard Norman Cohen was born September 21,1934, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and died November 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a Canadian poet, singer and songwriter. The father of and .
His first collection of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies, was published in 1956, followed by The Spice Box of Earth in 1961. After traveling throughout Europe, he settled on the Greek island of Hydra, where he stayed for seven years. There he wrote another collection of poetry, Flowers for Hitler (1964), and two novels, The Favorite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966). In 1967, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk musician. In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name "Jikan", meaning "silence".
During his lifetime he recorded 14 studio albums. A tribute album with 18 songs was released in 1991, featuring , , , , , and among others. John Cale's cover
Also known as: Coben, Cohen, Cohen L, Cohen Leonard, Cohen, L.
From Discogs (free to use). Their entry
Liner notes
Leonard Cohen, the records, oldest first
Songs of Leonard Cohen
1967 album
Songs From a Room
1969 album
Songs of Love and Hate
1971 album
New Skin for the Old Ceremony
1974 album
Death of a Ladies’ Man
1977 album
Recent Songs
1979 album
Various Positions
1984 album
I’m Your Man
1988 album
The Future
1992 album
Ten New Songs
2001 album
Dear Heather
2004 album
Book of Longing
2007 album
Old Ideas
2012 album
Popular Problems
2014 album
wanted
You Want It Darker
2016 album
Thanks for the Dance
2019 album
Because of You
year unknown album
Records from MusicBrainz; covers from the Cover Art Archive.
"Ain't No Cure for Love" is a song written by the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Theme and lyrics
As its title suggests, the theme of the song is a common and traditional one for a love song. However, the lyrics of Warnes' and Cohen's recorded versions of the song are significantly different from one another. At the length of 3:22, compared to Cohen's 4:50, Warnes' 1987 recording contains five verses, compared to Cohen's six, only the first two of which it shares with Cohen's recording of 1988.
"Bird on the Wire" is a song written by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen that became one of his signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album Songs from a Room.
A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, titled "Like a Bird", was added to the 2007 remastered CD. Judy Collins was the first to release the song on her 1968 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes.
Composition
In the liner notes to the 1975 compilation The Best of Leonard Cohen, Cohen wrote about the song:
Cover versions
Many artists have covered the song, often as "Bird on a Wire" (indeed, this variation appears in the compilation The Essential Leonard Cohen), including:
"Democracy" is a song by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen featuring Jeff Fisher, first released on Cohen's 1992 album The Future. The lyrics discuss the failings and the promise of democracy in the United States.
The song was written approximately during the fall of the Berlin Wall, which led Cohen to question where democracy came from. Cohen stated that it was "a song of deep intimacy and affirmation of the experiment of democracy" in the United States.
Composition and release
"Democracy" was released as the sixth song on Leonard Cohen's 1992 album The Future. It features American musician Jeff Fisher, who received multiple credits on the album. The song begins with drums played at a high tempo in the rhythm of a march, which persist through the song. It uses musical elements of heartland rock. The 1992 version of the song is 7:14 long. It appears on several subsequent Cohen compilations, including More Best of Leonard Cohen. The lyrics of the released version comprise a small subset of the more than eighty verses that Cohen wrote. The song was written a few years before its release, approximately during the fall of the Berlin Wall, at a time when Cohen said he found himself reflecting on what democracy meant...
Reception and analysis
The lyrics of "Democracy" discuss the failings and the promise of democracy in the United States of America. American Songwriter contrasted "Democracy" with "Born in the USA", writing that Cohen uses a similar musical style to express "clear-eyed optimism" about the country's future, despite his description of the US as "the cradle of the best and the worst". According to music scholar Jeffrey Spear, "Democracy" implies that democracy will come to the US when it has moved past "the Reefs of Greed / through the Squalls of Hate", learned to include the Other, and overcome a history of division and persecution. Cohen refers specifically to racial division, the "patriarchal family", and the treatment of the homeless, suggesting, according to...
"Everybody Knows" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and collaborator Sharon Robinson. It has often been covered and used in soundtracks.
Cover versions
Like many of Cohen's songs, "Everybody Knows" has been covered by several artists:
"First We Take Manhattan" is a song written by Canadian folk singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was originally recorded by American singer Jennifer Warnes on her sixth studio album Famous Blue Raincoat (1986), a tribute to Cohen which consisted entirely of songs written or co-written by Cohen.
Meaning
The song's oblique lyrics are suggestive of religious and end time themes, with references to prayer, meaningful birthmarks and signs in the sky. Writing for The Guardian in 2015, Ben Hewitt drew attention to the lyrics' apocalyptic nature, imagining Cohen "greedily eyeing world domination like a Bond villain". Rolling Stone magazine's Mikal Gilmore similarly described the song as a threatening vision of "social collapse and a terrorist's revenge". The Daily Telegraph's Robert Sandall likewise observed the prophetic character of the song, but emphasized the song's political statement, placing it in the context of the last days of the Soviet Union.
Music video
The music video for Warnes's version of "First We Take Manhattan" was directed by Paula Walker. Filmed in New York City, the video features Stevie Ray Vaughan playing his weathered "Number One" guitar (with its distinctive "SRV" logo) on the Brooklyn Bridge. Cohen also appears with Warnes in the video. The 20th anniversary edition of the music video contains a German intro about the West Berlin discotheque bombing.
Other cover versions
The song has been covered dozens of times. Most notably, American alternative rock band R.E.M. contributed a cover version for the Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan (1991). Their presence on the compilation led to a re-arranging of the I'm Your Fan track list. In the U.S. release of the tribute, R.E.M.'s cover appeared as the first track, rather than the House of Love's "Who by Fire" which was the starting track in all other countries. The song also appeared as a B-side on some versions of the single "Drive." Warren Zevon covered the song throughout 1992 during his tour with Odds; with later posthumous digital archive releases of concert recordings from the tour quoting the song's lyrics for their titles as "The Monkey and the Plywood...
"Hallelujah" is a song written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a new version recorded by John Cale in 1991.
Cale's version inspired a 1994 recording by Jeff Buckley which in 2004 was ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Musical composition and lyrical interpretation
"Hallelujah", in its original version, is in 128 time, which evokes both early rock and roll and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression of C, F, G, A minor, F matches those referenced in the song's famous first verse.
Cover versions
Since 1991, "Hallelujah" has been performed by more than 300 singers in many languages. Statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Australian Recording Industry Association, and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, show that, by late 2008, more than five million copies of the song sold in CD format. It has been the subject of a BBC Radio documentary, a book, and been in the soundtracks of numerous films and television programs. Different interpretations of the song may include different verses, out of the more than 80 verses Cohen originally wrote.
Critical reception
In 2004, Buckley's version was ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The same year Time called Buckley's version "exquisitely sung," observing "Cohen murmured the original like a dirge, but ... Buckley treated the ... song like a tiny capsule of humanity, using his voice to careen between glory and sadness, beauty and pain ... It's one of the great songs."
Other cover versions
Bob Dylan was among the first to perform Cohen's song in concert with his earliest noted performance being in Montreal on 8 July 1988. Other notable singers who have covered "Hallelujah" include Brandi Carlile, Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Susan Boyle, Tim Minchin, Myles Kennedy, and Bono. Bono's version, which is mostly spoken, was included in Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, an all-star tribute to Cohen in 1995. Bon Jovi has covered the song several times in concert, including on their 2008 Live at Madison Square Garden DVD.
"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It was first released in November 1967, in a version by Judy Collins on her album Wildflowers.
The following month, Cohen's own version was issued on his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen.
"I'm Your Man" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, which appeared on Cohen's 1988 album, I'm Your Man. Released as a single in 1988, it reached number 57 in the French charts after Cohen's death in 2016.
Reception
Rolling Stone said, "Set to a cheesy drum-machine beat and sotto voce horn riffs, with more than a little suggestion of a country ballad, Cohen conversationally throws himself at the feet of a woman he's done wrong. He'd never beg for her forgiveness, of course. But if he did: 'I'd crawl to you baby and I'd fall at your feet/And I'd howl at your beauty like a dog in heat....'"
"In My Secret Life" is a song written and performed by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson. Bob Metzger plays the guitar.
The song first appears on the album Ten New Songs, released in 2001.
Music video
The music video for "In My Secret Life" was filmed in Montreal at Habitat 67. This building is famous for its futuristic take on architecture and was built by Jewish architect Moshe Safdie, popular for Expo 67 in 1967 as his thesis at McGill University.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by Eric Burdon (on his 2004 album My Secret Life), Katie Melua (on her 2009 album Pictures), Dominique Eade, Till Brönner, Ariane Moffatt, Adan Jodorowsky (in Spanish on the documentary Hecho en México) and Tapani Kansa amongst others.
"So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. It was featured on his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen.
Background
The song was inspired by Marianne Jensen, born Marianne Ihlen, whom Cohen met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. She had recently been left by her husband, the Norwegian writer Axel Jensen, leaving her and their six-month-old son alone on the island. The two hit it off, and Cohen ultimately took her from Hydra back to her home in Oslo, Norway. He later invited her and her son to live with him in Montreal, an offer which she accepted. The two lived together throughout the 1960s, traveling between New York, Montreal, and Hydra.
Recording
The song was originally recorded by Cohen in Columbia Studios, New York, as part of his debut album in 1967. Other musicians on the track were backing singer Nancy Priddy, bassist Willie Ruff, drummer Jimmy Lovelace, and members of the band Kaleidoscope – Chester Crill, Chris Darrow, Solomon Feldthouse, and David Lindley – playing a variety of instruments.
Reception
Pitchfork Media placed "So Long, Marianne" at number 190 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s". Far Out and American Songwriter ranked the song number one and number four, respectively, on their lists of the 10 greatest Leonard Cohen songs.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by Beck, Noel Harrison, John Cale with Suzanne Vega, Straitjacket Fits, Brian Hyland, James, Bill Callahan, Russian Red, Courtney Barnett, and others, including Cohen's own son, Adam Cohen.
"Suzanne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen performed it as his debut single, from his debut studio album Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967).
Many other singers have recorded it, and it has become one of the most recorded songs in Cohen's catalogue.
Background
"Suzanne" was inspired by Cohen's platonic relationship with the dancer Suzanne Verdal. Its lyrics describe the rituals that they enjoyed when they met: Verdal would invite Cohen to visit her apartment by the harbour in Montreal, where she would serve him Constant Comment tea, and they would walk around Old Montreal past the church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, where sailors were blessed before heading out to sea.
Notable recordings
The song "Suzanne" was first performed by The Stormy Clovers in 1966 and then recorded by Judy Collins, appearing on her 1966 album In My Life.
"Take This Waltz" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, originally released as part of the 1986 Federico García Lorca tribute album Poets in New York and as a single.
Covers
Actor/singer Sven Wollter recorded a version of the song with lyrics translated into Swedish on his 1989 album Nån sorts man. The title of the song is "Tag min vals" ("Take My Waltz").
1943 song by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier, popularised by Leonard Cohen in 1969
"The Partisan" is an anti-fascist anthem about the French Resistance in World War II. The song was composed in 1943 by Russian-born Anna Marly (1917–2006), with lyrics by French Resistance leader Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie (1900–1969), and originally titled "La Complainte du partisan".
Marly performed it and other songs on the BBC's French service, through which she and her songs were an inspiration to the Resistance. A number of French artists have recorded and released versions of the song since, but it is better recognised globally in its significantly, both musically and in the meaning of its lyrics, different English adaptation by Hy Zaret (1907–2007), best known as the lyricist of "Unchained Melody".
Leonard Cohen's cover version
While living at a rented farm in Franklin, Tennessee, Leonard Cohen worked on his second album Songs from a Room with Bob Johnston, its producer. In the candlelit Columbia Studio A on Music Row, Nashville, Johnston created a relaxed atmosphere for, what Mike Evans, in his book Leonard Cohen: An Illustrated Record, calls "suitable, and non-intrusive, backing" by the assembled session musicians: Charlie Daniels on bass, fiddle and guitar, Ron Cornelius on guitars, Bubba Fowler on banjo, bass, fiddle and guitar, and Johnston himself playing keyboards. Ten songs were recorded in one eight-hour session, half of which ended up on the album.
Other cover versions
Luke Reilly, reporting for an article in IGN about the creation of Australian composer Mick Gordon's version of "The Partisan" for the closing credits of the 2015 video game Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, a game in a series depicting the events of a fictionalised World War II, refers to Cohen's "The Partisan" as being "perhaps" the most famous, and reports that the audio director on Wolfenstein, Nicholas Raynor, also called Cohen's version "a famous one"; according to Gordon, it was Raynor's idea to do a cover for the game. The Australian singer-songwriter Tex Perkins was Gordon's first choice to sing his version. Reilly says "the song itself is poignant and heartrending, yet incredibly stirring and motivational. A song that simultaneously...
"Tower of Song" is a song written by Leonard Cohen that appears on his 1988 album I'm Your Man. In a 2014 reader's poll, Rolling Stone listed it as the 8th favorite Cohen song.
Background
The genesis of "Tower of Song" is described in Ira Nadel's 1996 Cohen memoir Various Positions:
Cover versions
"Tower of Song" has been covered by many artists, notably on the tribute albums I'm Your Fan (separate covers by Robert Forster and by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (separate covers by Martha Wainwright and U2). The song was the first track on Tom Jones's UK top 10 charted album of covers, Spirit in the Room. In 2020 The Guardian ranked his version as N°2 in its list of 20 best Tom Jones songs.
"Who by Fire" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1970s. It explicitly relates to Cohen's Jewish roots, echoing the words of the Unetanneh Tokef prayer.
In synagogues, the prayer is recited during the High Holy Days. The song was written after Cohen's improvised concerts for Israeli soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula during the Yom Kippur War.
Background
On October 6, 1973, the Yom Kippur War started when an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, launched a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Amid high fatalities among Israeli soldiers and a sense of despair in the country, Cohen arrived in the country to perform on the battlefield in the Sinai Peninsula for small groups of soldiers. He said: “I am joining my brothers fighting in the desert,” adding “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.” He arrived to perform with a pickup band of four Israeli musicians. Cohen wrote and shelved a manuscript about the experience.
Cover versions
In 2021, First Aid Kit performed the song in their live concert of Cohen songs, and it was later featured on their album, Who by Fire.
