Leonard Cohen Canadian Singer Born 1934 in Montreal

Early life

Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal on 21 September 1934 into an Orthodox Jewish family. His father, who owned a clothing business, died when Leonard was nine. His paternal grandfather, Lyon Cohen, had been the first president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and the family attended the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Westmount, a connection Cohen kept throughout his life.

He went to Roslyn Elementary School and then to Herzliah High School, where the poet Irving Layton taught. In 1948 he moved to Westmount High School, studying music and poetry, and served as president of the students' council. He taught himself acoustic guitar and led a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys, later switching to a classical guitar.

At McGill University, which he entered in 1951, he led the debating union and won a literary competition for his poems. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1955, then spent a term in the law faculty before a year at Columbia University in New York in 1956 and 1957. Layton remained an important influence.

Career

Cohen began as a writer of books. His first poetry collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies, appeared in 1956 as the opening title of the McGill Poetry Series. The Spice-Box of Earth (1961), his first book with McClelland & Stewart, widened his readership in Canada. In the early 1960s he lived on the Greek island of Hydra, where he produced the novel The Favourite Game (1963) and the poems of Flowers for Hitler (1964). His second novel, Beautiful Losers, followed in 1966 and drew controversy for its explicit passages, while Parasites of Heaven, a poetry book, came out the same year.

In 1966 he decided to concentrate on songwriting. The song "Suzanne" was recorded by Judy Collins that year, and she encouraged him to perform in public. After moving to the United States in 1967, he signed with Columbia Records through the producer John Hammond. His debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), sold modestly at home but stayed on the UK album charts for more than a year. Songs from a Room (1969) and Songs of Love and Hate (1971) followed. Cohen first toured in 1970, appearing at the Isle of Wight Festival, and in 1973 he performed for Israeli troops in the Sinai. New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974) contained songs connected with that period.

His 1977 album Death of a Ladies' Man was co-written and produced by Phil Spector and departed from his earlier spare style. Recent Songs (1979) returned to acoustic arrangements with jazz and Mediterranean touches, and from then on he co-produced his own records. Various Positions (1984) included "Hallelujah", which attracted little attention at first and gained a wide audience after a 1991 cover by John Cale. Almost 200 artists have since recorded it. I'm Your Man (1988) introduced a synthesizer-based sound, and The Future (1992) took on darker political themes.

In 1994 Cohen withdrew to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles for about five years. He was ordained a Rinzai Zen monk in 1996 and received the Dharma name Jikan. He resumed recording with Ten New Songs (2001), made with Sharon Robinson, and followed it with Dear Heather (2004). In 2005 he found that most of his savings had been taken by his former manager; a Los Angeles court awarded him US$9 million in 2006. He published Book of Longing the same year, and toured the world from 2008 to 2013, partly to rebuild his finances. Old Ideas (2012), Popular Problems (2014) and You Want It Darker (2016) came out in his final years. He died on 7 November 2016. A poetry collection, The Flame, appeared in 2018, and the album Thanks for the Dance in 2019.

Recognition

Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1991, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010. His book Selected Poems 1956–1968 received the Governor General's Award in 1968. He won four Juno Awards in 2002 for Ten New Songs and its single, and further Junos in 1993, 1994 and 2013. He became a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003 and a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2008. In 2010 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2011 he was given the Glenn Gould Prize and the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. A 2007 Grammy for Album of the Year went to Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters, on which Cohen appeared.

Personal life

Cohen had two children, including the musician Adam Cohen.