Leonard Cohen
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Leonard Cohen (born
September 21,
1934), a
Canadian poet,
novelist,
songwriter and
singer, was born in
Montreal, Quebec, where he attended
McGill University. His first poetry book,
Let Us Compare Mythologies (
1956) was published while he was an undergraduate. In
1961,
The Spice Box Of Earth made him widely famous.
After moving to
Greece, Cohen published
Flowers For Hitler in
1964, and the novels
The Favorite Game (
1963) and
Beautiful Losers (
1966).
The Favorite Game is an autobiographical '
Bildungsroman' about a young man finding his identity in writing. In contrast,
Beautiful Losers can be considered as an 'Anti-Bildungsroman' since it - in an early post-modern fashion - deconstructs the identity of the main characters by means of combining the sacred and the profane, religion and sexuality in a rich, lyrical language. For a good survey of Cohen's written works see
Leonard Cohen by Steven Scobie (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978).
Cohen went to the
United States and began to perform in folk festivals. His album
The Songs of Leonard Cohen (
1967 in music) was followed by
Songs From a Room,
Songs of Love and Hate (
1971 in music),
New Skin for the Old Ceremony,
Death of a Ladies' Man,
Recent Songs,
Various Positions,
I'm Your Man (
1988 in music),
The Future (
1992 in music), and
Ten New Songs (
2001 in music).
Cohen has continued to record intermittently since the sixties, his cryptic yet satisfying lyrics and evocative sound continuing to attract discerning music lovers of all ages.
Many of Cohen's songs have been interpreted by other artists, often receiving far more popular attention than Cohen's own, typically minimalistic arrangements. Examples include "First We Take Manhattan" (
Joe Cocker,
Jennifer Warnes,
REM), "Bird On A Wire" (
The Neville Brothers,
Fairport Convention,
Judy Collins), and "Hallelujah" (
Bob Dylan,
John Cale,
Rufus Wainwright,
Jeff Buckley). As of December 31, 2002, the site
www.leonardcohenfiles.com had counted a total of 759 published cover versions of Cohen's songs.
Memorable quotes
- "I'm guided by a signal in the heavens/ I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin/ I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons/ first we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin" -from First We Take Manhattan (1986)
- "From the homicidal bitchin', that goes down in every kitchen/ to determine who will serve and who will eat... democracy is coming to the USA." -from Democracy (1992)
- "So the great affair is over/ but whoever would have guessed/ it would leave us all so vacant/ and so deeply unimpressed/ It's like our visit to the moon/ or to that other star/ I guess you go for nothing/ if you really want to go that far" -from Death of a Ladies' Man (1977)
- "I needed so much/ To have nothing to touch/ I've always been greedy that way..." -from The Night Comes On (1984)
- "The ponies run, the girls are young/ The odds are there to beat/ You win a while, and then it’s done/ —Your little winning streak/ And summoned now to deal / With your invincible defeat/ You live your life as if it’s real/ A Thousand Kisses Deep." -from A Thousand Kisses Deep (2001)
- "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ It's how the light gets in." -from Anthem (1992)
- "With Annie gone, Whose eyes to compare With the morning sun? Not that I did compare, But I do compare Now that she's gone." - Leonard Cohen Poems 1956 - 1968
External links
\n*news://alt.music.leonard-cohen\n*http://www.leonardcohennights.org\n*http://leonardcohen.meetup.com\n* class="external">http://www.serve.com/cpage/LCohen/lyrics/\n*http://www.leonardcohen.com/\n*http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/\n*news://alt.music.leonard-cohen\n*http://www.leonardcohennights.org\n*http://leonardcohen.meetup.com\n* HREF="http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/side.html" class="external">Abstraction and Ambiguity in the Lyrics of Leonard Cohen\n
