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Leonard Cohen Biography
Review The Artist (12)
Source: http://www.leonardcohen.com
Words by Larry "Ratso" Sloman
"What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think that it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His course is the caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock.
Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance. Far from flying with angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape. His house is dangerous and finite, but he is at home in the world. He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."
L. Cohen, "Beautiful Losers" (1966).
From a mountain in Montreal to an island off the coast of Greece, through an endless succession of sterile hotel rooms, by way of a small cabin in a monastery high above a mountain southeast of the city of angels, and then back to a modest house in a decidedly unfashionable section of Los Angeles, Leonard Cohen has explored that "remote human possibility," with an appetite that is sometimes swollen and sometimes spartan. For the last forty-odd years, over the course of nine volumes of poetry, two novels, and now fourteen record albums, Cohen has shared his vision with those among us who realize that the mysteries of the interior life is a project never fathomed by the latest round of contestants on "Survivor."
Leonard Norman Cohen was born in Montreal, PQ in 1934. His father, an engineer who owned a clothing concern, died when Leonard was nine. He went on to attend McGill University, where at 17 he formed a country-western trio called the Buckskin Boys. He also began writing poetry and became part of the local boho-literary scene, a scene so "underground" that it was bereft of 'subversive intentions because even that would be beneath it." His first collection of poetry, ‘Let Us Compare Mythologies,’ was published in 1956, while he was still an undergraduate. ‘The Spice Box Of Earth’ (1961), his second collection, catapulted Leonard Cohen to international recognition.
After a brief stint at Columbia University in New York, Leonard Cohen obtained a grant and was able to escape the confines of North America. He traveled throughout Europe and eventually settled on the Greek island of Hydra, where he shared his life with Marianne Jenson, and her son Axel. Cohen stayed in Greece on and off for seven years. He wrote two more collections of poetry, the controversial ‘Flowers For Hitler’ (1964) and ‘Parasites of Heaven’ (1966); and two highly acclaimed novels, ‘The Favorite Game’ (1963), his portrait of the artist as a young Jew in Montreal, and ‘Beautiful Losers’ (1966), described on its dust jacket as "a disagreeable religious epic of incomparable beauty." Upon its publication, the Boston Globe declared, "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen." To date, each book has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
But even the warmth of Hydra couldn’t contain Cohen’s restless spirit. "For the writing of books, you have to be in one place," he told Musician magazine in 1988. "You tend to gather things around you when you write a novel. You need a woman in your life. It's nice to have some kids around, 'cause there's always food. It's nice to have a place that's clean and orderly. I had those things and then I decided to be a songwriter." Leaving behind his domestic scene, Cohen returned to America, intent on settling near Nashville and pursuing a musical career. He was championed by Judy Collins, who recorded both "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" on her 1966 album, ‘In My Life.’
In 1967, Cohen appeared at the Newport Folk Festival where he came to the attention of legendary Columbia A&R man John Hammond (who also recruited Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to the label). By Christmas, Columbia had released his first album, ‘The Songs of Leonard Cohen.’
It was a remarkable debut, as songs like "Suzanne," "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye," "So Long, Marianne," and "Sisters of Mercy" propelled Cohen to the top of the pop-confessional pantheon. The songs had such power that Robert Altman's 1971 film ‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller’ became, in effect, the first long-form video for Cohen's soundtrack.
In 1968, Cohen published ‘Selected Poems: 1956-1968,’ an anthology of poems from the earlier books along with a section of new, previously unpublished poems. For this volume, Cohen was awarded the Governor-General’s Award, Canada’s highest literary distinction. He promptly declined the honor.
‘Songs From a Room’ (1969), his second album, and ‘Songs of Love and Hate’ (1971) further reinforced Cohen's standing as the master of mortification and the sentry of solitude. With "Bird On a Wire," "The Song of Isaac," "Joan of Arc," and "Famous Blue Raincoat," he continued to stretch the borders of the pop song landscape.
1972 marked the release of a new book of poems, ‘The Energy of Slaves’ and Cohen's first live album, ‘Live Songs,’ which featured an amazing 14-minute improvisation, "Please Don't Pass Me By," along with live versions of songs from his first three albums.
‘New Skin For the Old Ceremony’ (1973) was a bit of a stylistic departure. Featuring a more orchestrated sound (thanks to producer John Lissauer), Cohen continued his investigations into the hottest crucible of the human spirit -- the muffled battles in the boudoirs.
Cohen took a sabbatical from the musical wars for the next few years, releasing only a greatest hits album, ‘Best of Leonard Cohen’ (1975).
In 1977, he was back with what was certainly his most curious album, ‘Death of a Ladies' Man.’ It started as collaboration with famed producer Phil Spector, but ended with Cohen being excluded from the final stages of recording. "It was a catastrophe," he remembers. "Those are all scratch vocals, and Phil mixed it in secret under armed guard. I had to decide whether I was going to hire my own private army and fight it out on Sunset Boulevard, or let it go. I let it go." The following year Cohen published a collection of poems and prose-poems titled ‘Death of a Lady’s Man.’
‘Recent Songs’ (1979), the next album, was another stylistic departure from its predecessor. Gone was the Spectorian wall-of-sound, replaced with a more delicate musical patina partly due to the influence of co-producer Henry Lewy (who had previously worked with Joni Mitchell). The songs continued Cohen's dissections of the vicissitudes of the male-female union, but also began to reflect his long-standing explorations into the religious arena.
1984 saw the publication of ‘The Book of Mercy,’ an amazingly beautiful and profound collection of poetic meditations. ‘Various Positions,’ a 1985 album, presented the full flowering of these religious concerns. Songs like "Hallelujah," "The Law," "Heart With No Companion," and "If It Be Your Will" are contemporary psalms, born of an undoubtedly long and difficult spiritual odyssey, so difficult that its conclusion left Cohen literally "wiped out." "I had a lot of versions of myself that I had used religion to support," Cohen told L.A. Style in 1988.
"If you deal with this material you can't put God on. I thought I could spread light and I could enlighten my world and those around me and I could take the Bodhisattva path, which is the path of service, of help to others. I thought I could, but I was unable to. This is a landscape in which men far stronger than you, far braver, nobler, kinder, more generous, men of extremely high achievements have burnt to a crisp on this road. Once you start dealing with sacred material you're gonna get creamed."
‘I'm Your Man’ (1988) was the culmination of Cohen's professional and personal reintegration, an amazingly crafted work that speaks eloquently to the experience of one of our most respected wordsmiths. Buoyed by now-classic songs like "First We Take Manhattan," "Tower of Song," and "Ain't No Cure For Love," it was no surprise that the album went to #1 in several European countries.
Four years later, Cohen released ‘The Future,’ an amazing aural documentation of our cultural malaise. Scrutinizing both our boardrooms and our bedrooms, declaiming like an old testament prophet ("The Future") or begging like a penitent ("Be For Real") the bard always had his eyes on the prize: the healing power of love. ‘The Future’ featured "Democracy", one of Cohen’s most ambitious songs ever, nothing less than an attempt at a new national anthem, the CNN of the soul, propelled by a memorable Whitmanesque chorus: "Sail on, sail on O mighty Ship of State! / To the Shores of Need/ Past the Reefs of Greed/ Through the Squalls of Hate/ Sail on, sail on, sail on…"
In 1993, Cohen edited a new collection of his writings, published as ‘Stranger Music.’ It contained song lyrics, poems and fragments from his journals.
Shortly after touring in support of ‘The Future,’ Cohen began spending more and more time at a Zen retreat high atop Mt. Baldy in Southern California. He spent most of his time meditating, working on koans and cooking for his teacher, Sasaki Roshi. While Cohen was residing at Mt. Baldy, Leanne Ungar and Bob Metzger produced a live album, ‘Cohen Live’ (1994), a collection culled from Cohen’s 1988 and 1993 tours.
In 1999, after nearly five years at Mt. Baldy, during which time Cohen was ordained as a Zen monk and given the Dharma name of Jikan (Silent One), he came down from the mountain armed with hundreds of new poems and song lyrics. He immediately began working on the songs with Sharon Robinson, a former back-up singer who had also previously co-written two songs ("Everybody Knows" and "Waiting for the Miracle") with Cohen.
While anxiously anticipating a new studio release, Cohen fans were mollified when producer Leanne Ungar rescued some amazing tapes of Cohen’s 1979 concert dates in England, released as ‘Field Commander Cohen – Tour of 1979’ (2001).
And now they have ‘Ten New Songs‘, an entrancing collection of (what else?) ten new songs born out of the collaboration with Robinson, the multi-talented songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist; midwifed by producer Ungar.
While Cohen's painstaking meticulousness has led to many long passages of time between albums, artists as diverse as Neil Diamond, Nick Cave, Diana Ross, Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge, and Joe Cocker have kept Cohen's music on the airwaves with their own interpretations of his songs. Long-time musical colleague Jennifer Warnes released the critically acclaimed ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ in 1986, an entire album of Cohen's work.
In 1991, a number of contemporary recording artists collaborated on an evocative tribute to Cohen. ‘<b>I'm Your Fan’ was the brainchild of Christian Feuret, the editor of Les Inrockuptibles, the most popular rock magazine in France. Originally intended for release on the magazine's small offshoot label Oscar, the project mushroomed into an 18-song cover collection released by Atlantic, featuring such prominent alternative musicians as REM, John Cale, Nick Cave, Ian McCulloch, Pixies, the House of Love, and Lloyd Cole.
Another tribute album, ‘Tower of Song’ (1995), featured interpretations of Cohen songs by more mainstream artists such as Billy Joel, Sting, Elton John, Willie Nelson and Bono.
Cohen's output does not exist solely on paper or on disc. He conceptualizes his own videos and, in 1984, scripted, directed and scored ‘I Am A Hotel,’ a half- hour short feature that won first prize at the Festival International de Television de Montreux (Switzerland) and was submitted for Academy Award consideration. He collaborated with singer/songwriter Lewis Furey on ‘Night Magic,’ a rock opera movie for which he won the Canadian Juno award for "Best Movie Score" of 1985. His work in front of the camera even included a memorable cameo as the head of Interpol on NBC's ‘Miami Vice.’
For a man who only "aspired to be a minor poet" early in his career, Leonard Cohen has produced a body of work that has withstood the passage of time. With the release of ‘Ten New Songs,’ his 14th album, he continues to bring to us, through the musical idiom, a documentation of maturity and survival. He has become an elder.
"If there is anything in my own work it's because how I cop to my own experience," Cohen told L.A. Style. "That's what I became. I became a writer and as my friend (Irving) Layton always said, a poet is deeply conflicted and it's in his work that he reconciles those deep conflicts. That place is the harbor. It doesn't set the world in order, you know, it doesn't really change anything. It just is a kind of harbor, it's the place of reconciliation, it's the conssolumentum, the kiss of peace." Jikan Leonard Cohen has taken us down to that place by the harbor and our world has become that much richer for the journey. |
Would you please submit the latest Leonard Cohen biography to me? Thank You.
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Review about Leonard Cohen
'In My Secret Life - Lilly Rose | Reviewer: Anonymous | 7/10/2008I was 17 when I first listened to Leonard Cohen -I was deeply in love with a young guy from California who came on holiday every year to Ireland - he was my first love and it was he who introduced me to Leonard's music - No we did not marry - I grew up and he went off to 'find himself' - I remember when he would return home after the long summers together I would put on an album by Leonard - I never stopped listening or loving either of them. I had one wish to go to a Leonard Cohen concert but it was not until 35 years later my wish came through.
I travelled from Cork to Dublin to see my idol for the first time last month - - words cannot describe how happy this made me feel - 'take this longing from my heart' springs to mind - the years slipped away, when Leonard recited the words of Ten thousand Kisses deep to music, I watched my son of 24 by my side, wipe the tears from his eyes - the silence was unreal - thank you Mr Leonard Cohen for one of the happiest nights of my life - God how I wish I could meet him personally - I have over the years bought all his albums - When I listen to him, Im still that 17 year old in love all those years ago - Guess you are wondering what happened to my American love - well he did come back the night, however it was the night before I married my now husband of 30 years, but he neednt worry hes still with me 'in my secret life' - From 'Lilly Rose'
'In My Secret Life - Lilly Rose | Reviewer: Anonymous | 7/10/2008
I was 17 when I first listened to Leonard Cohen -I was deeply in love with a young guy from California who came on holiday every year to Ireland - he was my first love and it was he who introduced me to Leonard's music - No we did not marry - I grew up and he went off to 'find himself' - I remember when he would return home after the long summers together I would put on an album by Leonard - I never stopped listening or loving either of them. I had one wish to go to a Leonard Cohen concert but it was not until 35 years later my wish came through.
I travelled from Cork to Dublin to see my idol for the first time last month - - words cannot describe how happy this made me feel - 'take this longing from my heart' springs to mind - the years slipped away, when Leonard recited the words of Ten thousand Kisses deep to music, I watched my son of 24 by my side, wipe the tears from his eyes - the silence was unreal - thank you Mr Leonard Cohen for one of the happiest nights of my life - God how I wish I could meet him personally - I have over the years bought all his albums - When I listen to him, Im still that 17 year old in love all those years ago - Guess you are wondering what happened to my American love - well he did come back the night, however it was the night before I married my now husband of 30 years, but he neednt worry hes still with me 'in my secret life' - From 'Lilly Rose'
Wow. | Reviewer: Brooke | 4/1/2008
This man is awesome. I was never a serious fan of anyone before, but I think he has taken my "fan virginity". I am a twenty three year old senior undergraduate in English from Minnesota, and I like to write poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, but I also LOVE to write tunes, lyrics and even rap. I also draw and have put together music videos and am working with my dear twin on a movie script. Before hearing of Leonard Cohen, I thought there was not another soul in the universe who was interested in doing as many things artistically as I was, much less anyone who could integrate them into a coherant and sucessful career and with such consistent quality. Then I learn this man can write great poetry, great novels, draw (as he does is his poem books),and even create good movies. Wow. Now I have hope that artistic omniscience can be accomplished, and I am not afraid to be someone who cannot be labelled. Long live Leonard Cohen. His lyrics are so sexy and poetic and his voice has got that rocky sound. If he and I had been born in the same time and place, I would probably have stalked him like Diana the Huntress. Dear Lord, luckily for him he has escaped me. Well, perhaps there are other lives.....?
Blessing from Heven | Reviewer: lucie di angeli | 12/17/2007
Leonard Cohen is the greatest singer and prophet of 21-rst century! If we would take one of his songs to be an american anthem we would have much better society right now!I am thrilled that after long "20 years of boredom" his coming back as a victor! Leonard! I am admiring you " et je tirre le chappeau" devant Vous! Lady X
everybody knows Hallelujah will be your man | Reviewer: Lane | 9/7/2007
To review L Cohen might ensure that should I ever have the chance to meet him I couldn't.
I never had much trouble understanding the messenger but the message only recently caught up to me. His personae and ideal are perhaps the best example of the serious professional who happens to write so concisely that post war children listen. To hear his poems made lyric for song compels blues, rock, beat, folk, country and punk listeners to conclude that the Cohen sound is machine language for the musical brain. More and more people have admitted to having the musical brain because of Leonard Cohen. But still, to have a conversation with him..the brain runneth over.
Jesus was a sailor | Reviewer: Bob | 8/25/2007
I heard Suzanne when it came out in the late 60s. I was in college and very much the rebel agnostic. His words touched a deep place in my heart that I had forgotten over the years. A few days ago that song came floating back into my consciousness as I sat in front of my screen working on a Christian poem. It still touches me deeply.
IN MY SECRET LIFE | Reviewer: jenny | 8/1/2007
This is my frist listen Cohen's song,I fall in love his voice at first,I will listen more his songs,I think it's will give me more feeling.
The name Leonard Cohen was spoken frequently with reference | Reviewer: Jay G | 7/20/2007
I lent Clemma my Leonard Cohen albums in 1980,
But she broke my heart and I didn't ask to get that vinyl back,
Just picked up the pieces that I could find and left.
She said I was an arrogant son of a bitch who thought he
Knew everything, thought he was better than everyone,
But I never thought I was as better than Leonard,
When he sensuously touched everything, my soul felt touched.
His words carved reality like no words I could slice.
I haven't seen her for 27 years, but I've heard
Clemma is a doctor and heals bodies now,
Leonard still touches souls.
Painter/Poet/Saint | Reviewer: Dixie | 7/17/2007
First, a thank you to the writer of this biography. Leonard Cohen's poetry is equal to that of any saint in the canon of English literature: Sexton, Coleridge, Yeats, to name a very few. His life is as wild as that of Rimbaud but he does not seem hampered by viciousness. Cohen's words, for me, conjure up visions of gold & cerulean impasto paintings, as if van Gogh & Magritte had joined forces to create mural upon mural of surrealistic/impressionistic dreamscaopes. This is babble because I cannot express the fullness of my joy in living during the same 2 centuries that Leonard Cohen has inhabited. Blessings upon his head!
Dixie in Colorado
gift | Reviewer: lucy | 5/3/2007
critically respond to the poem,you tell me that silence is nearer to peace than poems but if for my gift i brought you silence (you for i know silence )you would say this is not silence this is another poem and you would hand it back to me.
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