Leonard Cohen, US singersongwriter whose lyrics captivated generations, dies at age 82
LOS ANGELES: Leonard Cohen, rock music’s man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, earning him critical and popular acclaim, has died at age 82, said a statement on his Facebook page.
“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,” a statement on the Facebook page said.
“We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries.”
The statement did not provide further details on Cohen’s death, and representatives for the singer could not immediately be reached for comment. It said a memorial was planned in Los Angeles, where Cohen had lived for many years.
Cohen, a native of Quebec, was already a celebrated poet and novelist when he moved to New York in 1966 at age 31 to break into the music business.
Before long, critics were comparing him to Bob Dylan for the lyrical force of his songwriting.
Although he influenced many musicians and won many honors, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada, Cohen rarely made the pop music charts with his sometimes moody folk-rock.
But Cohen’s most famous song, Hallelujah, in which he invoked the biblical King David and drew parallels between physical love and a desire for spiritual connection, has been covered hundreds of times since he released it in 1984.
Hallelujah’s long road to mass appeal was matched by Cohen’s own painstaking approach to writing it. He spent five years penning drafts, at one point banging his head on the floor of a hotel room in frustration.
Many of Cohen’s songs became hits for other acts, including Judy Collins, who helped Cohen gain fame by recording some of his early compositions in the 1960s.
Cohen’s most ardent admirers compared his works to spiritual prophecy. He sang about religion, which included references to Jesus Christ and Jewish traditions, as well as love and sex, political upheaval, regret and what he once called the search for “a kind of balance in the chaos of existence.”
His lyrics were deeply personal and at times took on an element of prayer, as in 1969’s Bird on the Wire in which he sang: “I swear by this song/ And by all that I have done wrong/I will make it all up to thee.”
Cohen’s other well-known songs include Suzanne, So Long, Marianne, Famous Blue Raincoat and The Future, an apocalyptic 1992 recording in which he darkly intoned: “I’ve seen the future, brother/It is murder.”
The inspiration for So Long, Marianne was Cohen’s longtime romantic partner and muse Marianne Ihlen, a Norwegian woman he met while living on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s.
A New Yorker profile of Cohen last month recounted how after being told in July she had only a few days left to live, he emailed her: “Well Marianne, it’s come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon.”
Two days later, he learned in an email she had died after reading his note.