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| The Cohen family plot in Montreal's Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery. |
By the time we learned of Leonard Cohen’s death in Los Angeles on
Thursday evening, he had already been laid to rest in his family’s Montreal
plot after a traditional Jewish ceremony at Congregation Shaar
Hashomayim, an Orthodox synagogue in the Westmount neighborhood where he “was a beloved
and revered member.” Apt and
fitting. Cohen lived in a modest California
home mostly for the sake of his career. In the great spiritual journey of
his long life, the odyssey that informed his fiction,
poetry, and songs, he had immersed himself in mystical Catholicism
and contemplative Buddhism. He
had learned much from both. But in
his heart he was always a Jew and forever the son of that cosmopolitan
Old World city in Canada.
When Cohen died on Monday, November 7, just a week ago, at the age of 82
he was at peace with himself and ready to go. He had been in declining health for
some time despite remaining creatively active, touring internationally in
2014, and continuing to make occasional appearances. He released a new album, You Want It Darker this summer to universal
critical acclaim and the most robust sales he had enjoyed in a while—it
was not a hit exactly—Cohen never had a hit performing his own songs—but
a treasure savored by longtime fans and an unexpected introduction to new
listeners.
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| Leonard Cohen's final album. |
Last summer he learned that that Marianne Ihlen, one of his many
lovers and the muse who inspired some of his most famous and
beloved songs—Bird on the Wire,
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,
and So Long, Marianne—was in
the stages of a final illness in Norway. He
e-mailed her a final message that went publicly viral
after her death two days later.
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. Know that I
am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach
mine. And you know that I’ve always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom,
but I don’t need to say anything more about that because you know all about
that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend.
Endless love, see you down the road.
In September Cohen gave a series of long valedictory interviews to
David Remnick for the New
Yorker. He described the process
of making his final album mostly from home as he grew physically weaker.
In a certain sense, this particular predicament is filled with many fewer
distractions than other times in my life and actually enables me to work with a
little more concentration and continuity than when I had duties of making a
living, being a husband, being a father.
Those distractions are radically diminished at this point. The only
thing that mitigates against full production is just the condition of my body…For
some odd reason I have all my marbles, so far. I have of many resources, some
cultivated on a personal level, but circumstantial, too: my daughter and her
children live downstairs, and my son lives two blocks down the street. So I am
extremely blessed.
If Cohen was equanimous about his eminent
departure, his many admirers were devastated. It has been a tough year for the passing
of beloved cultural icons—Prince and David Bowie
spring to mind—each of whom were deeply meaningful in the lives
of their contemporaries. Cohen’s
mourners may have been fewer and more eclectic but the
loss was just as visceral.
In an odd way the announcement of his
death was the final punctuation on a miserable week for many of
his old fans coming just days after the triumph of neo-fascism in the
American elections. Cohen was the least
political and most intensely personal and spiritual of the folk
music singer/songwriters of his generation.
Yet in the end his most famous song became a gut-wrenching but
healing balm when Kate McKinnon opened Saturday Night Live as Hillary Clinton singing a breathtakingly
heartfelt Hallelujah.
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| Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton performing Cohen's beloved anthem Hallelujah. |
Last year on Cohen’s birthday, I posted
the following entry which I am recycling now with appropriate edits.
For most Americans Leonard Cohen was a raspy
voiced singer-song writer best known for the many covers of his compositions. Judy
Collins introduced him to the audience
in 1967 when she recorded Suzanne.
His other early and widely recorded songs included Sisters
of Mercy, So Long, Marianne, Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,
and Bird
on the Wire. Later Hallelujah,
a powerful, haunting song became almost
ubiquitous with more than 150 recorded
versions by artists as diverse at Jeff
Buckley, Ruffus Wainwright, Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake, and k. d.
lang, who sang it at the opening
ceremonies of the 2010 Winter
Olympic Games in Vancouver,
before a world-wide TV audience
estimated at 3 billion viewers. Cohen
himself has made successful tours
presenting his words and music to increasingly adoring crowds.
But to Canadians Cohen is something more—a renaissance man recognized as virtually
the national poet and the author
of brilliant post-modern novels as
well as a musician and song writer. He has been called a national treasure and the most
significant Canadian cultural figure of all time.
Leonard Cohen was born on September
21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec to two Jewish emigrants. His mother was Lithuanian and his father, Polish.
His father, who died when the boy was only 9, had owned successful men’s clothing stores and left a trust fund for his son which, though
modest, enabled him to pursue studies
and then a career in the arts.
As a child Cohen felt the weight of being in the lineage of the High Priests of the Temple. He attended Herzliah High School, a Jewish
day school. Despite the traditional
European education, young Cohen was drawn to North American folk music and began to play the guitar and sing
with his own group, the Buckskin Boys.
In 1951 Cohen enrolled in Canada’s
most prestigious school, McGill University and also began
exploring the bohemian coffee houses and bars that were nurturing experimental
young poets. He excelled at school and became captain
of McGill’s renowned Debating Union. His first collection of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies was
published as the first book in the
new McGill Poetry Series in 1956
while Cohen was still an undergraduate. After graduating he went on to one semester of McGill Law School, and then studied at Columbia University in New
York City.
Cohen’s second book, The
Spice-Box of Earth published in 1961 when he was 27 years old, won considerable attention
in Canada as well as notice in Britain.
Many of its poems have become staples of Canadian poetry
anthologies and literature texts.
Following its publication he retreated
for several years to the island of
Hydra in Greece, where worked on the sharper, darker poems collected in Flowers for Hitler published in
1964.
During the same period of self-imposed exile, Cohen turned his
attention to the novel. His autobiographical The Favourite Game about a young man discovering himself
through writing and sexual adventures was published in England
and the U.S. after being rejected by his Canadian publisher. Even then, the manuscript was cut
nearly in half. The book was not a
success, although due to his popularity as a poet attracted some
attention. It was a bitter experience.
None-the-less, Cohen pressed forward and in
1966 published Beautiful Losers, a highly experimental novel of
an unusual love triangle among devotees of the Mohawk Catholic Kateri Tekakwitha who has officially been beatified and is a candidate for sainthood. The book is widely considered a masterpiece.
In the late 1960’s Cohen tuned much
of his attention to music. He relocated
to the Untied States in 1967 to pursue a career as a song writer and with the encouragement of Judy Collins and his then love interest Joni Mitchell and got a
contract with Columbia for an album,
The
Songs of Leonard Cohen. It
became a cult record in the U.S.,
not achieving Gold Record status for
nearly twenty years. But it was a major hit in Canada, Britain, and in
Europe. The songs on the album became
known by the covers by Collins, Fairport
Convention, Roberta Flack, Johnny Cash and many other artists.
Cohen concentrated on his music
career, but continued to issue new poetry every few years. Selected Poems 1956-1968 which
included previously un-collected pieces,
work from his earlier books, and song lyrics became the kind of battered paperback book stuffed into
the back pocked of jeans worn by
aspiring poets across the globe. In 1978
Death of a Lady’s Man, a major collection of poetry
and prose came out. After years of study
of Zen Buddhism, Book of Mercy 1984, the winner
of the Canadian Author's Association
Literary Award for Poetry was published containing 50 prose poems
influenced by the Bible, Torah, and Zen writings which have been
categorized as psalms or prayers. 1993 saw Stranger
Music: Selected Poems and Songs,
the Book of Longing came out
in 2006, Poems and Songs in
2011, and Fifteen Poems in 2012.
 |
| Beautiful Losers in the American paperback edition that became a cult classic. |
None-the-less, Cohen pressed forward and in
1966 published Beautiful Losers, a highly experimental novel of
an unusual love triangle among devotees of the Mohawk Catholic Kateri Tekakwitha who has officially been beatified and is a candidate for sainthood. The book is widely considered a masterpiece.
In the late 1960’s Cohen tuned much
of his attention to music. He relocated
to the Untied States in 1967 to pursue a career as a song writer and with the encouragement of Judy Collins and his then love interest Joni Mitchell and got a
contract with Columbia for an album,
The
Songs of Leonard Cohen. It
became a cult record in the U.S.,
not achieving Gold Record status for
nearly twenty years. But it was a major hit in Canada, Britain, and in
Europe. The songs on the album became
known by the covers by Collins, Fairport
Convention, Roberta Flack, Johnny Cash and many other artists.
Cohen concentrated on his music
career, but continued to issue new poetry every few years. Selected Poems 1956-1968 which
included previously un-collected pieces,
work from his earlier books, and song lyrics became the kind of battered paperback book stuffed into
the back pocked of jeans worn by
aspiring poets across the globe. In 1978
Death of a Lady’s Man, a major collection of poetry
and prose came out. After years of study
of Zen Buddhism, Book of Mercy 1984, the winner
of the Canadian Author's Association
Literary Award for Poetry was published containing 50 prose poems
influenced by the Bible, Torah, and Zen writings which have been
categorized as psalms or prayers. 1993 saw Stranger
Music: Selected Poems and Songs,
the Book of Longing came out
in 2006, Poems and Songs in
2011, and Fifteen Poems in 2012.
 |
| Leonard Cohen performing in the 70's before trimming his hair and adopting the dark suits and fedora that became his performing uniform. |
But the bulk of the 70’s and 80’s were consumed by Cohen’s active
musical career which included active
touring of Canada, Europe, and the U.S. and more than half a dozen albums
recorded in a variety of musical styles.
He even collaborated with producer Phil Spector on Death of a
Ladies’ Man, but it was an unhappy
project and the notoriously unstable
Spector threatened Cohen with a cross bow after one row.
Cohen also collaborated with other artists on scores for short films,
a rock opera, and other projects.
In 1994 Cohen interrupted his career to enter the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles for what became five years
of solitude and study culminating in
his ordination as a Rinzai Zen monk. His Buddhism did not
constitute an abandonment of his
Jewish faith, however. He remained an
observant Jew. Cohen pointed out that
there was neither petitionary prayer nor a god
figure in his Zen practice and that the two were not incompatible.
After leaving the monastery, Cohen
resumed writing poetry, sending new material to be posted on a fan website. By 2001 he was back in the studio recording Ten New Songs which
became a phenomenal international hit.
After 2004’s Dear Heather album which
reflected a lifting of years of depression due to his Zen
practice, Cohen became embroiled in dispute
with his long time manager, who he
accused of embezzling more than five million dollars in funds supposed
to be invested for his retirement. After long court battles including counter
suits, Cohen was vindicated, but
unable to force his manager to repay the money.
He was forced into bankruptcy
in 2005.
Cohen launched a hugely successful
world tour in 2008 that continued intermittently for two years. With the success of cover versions of Hallelujah he
drew big crowds in the U.S. as well as with his established international
audience.
In recent years honors have been
heaped on Cohen including Companion of
the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor in 2003; Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in
2006; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
2008; Grand Officer of the National
Order of Quebec the same year; a Grammy
Life Time Achievement Award and the Songwriter’s
Hall of Fame in 2001; the PEN Award
for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence; and three Juno Awards—a top Canadian music award for his most recent work in
2013 and ’15.
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| Cohen at King's Garden, Odense, Denmark, August 2013. |
Tower Of Song
Well my friends are gone and my hair is
grey
I ache in the places where I used to
play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not
coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
I said to Hank Williams: how lonely
does it get?
Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the Tower of Song
I was born like this,
I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden
voice
And twenty-seven angels from the Great
Beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the Tower of Song
So you can stick your little pins in
that voodoo doll
I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like
me at all
I’m standing by the window where the
light is strong
Ah they don’t let a woman kill you
Not in the Tower of Song
Now you can say that
I’ve grown bitter but of this you may
be sure
The rich have got their channels in the
bedrooms of the poor
And there's a mighty judgement coming,
but I may be wrong
You see, you hear these funny voices
In the Tower of Song
I see you standing on the other side
I don’t know how the river got so wide
I loved you baby, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that we
might have crossed
But I feel so close to everything that
we lost
We’ll never have to lose it again
Now I bid you farewell,
I don't know when I’ll be back
There moving us tomorrow to that tower
down the track
But you’ll be hearing from me baby, long
after I'm gone
I’ll be speaking to you sweetly
From a window in the Tower of Song
Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is
grey
I ache in the places where I used to
play
And I’m crazy for love but
I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
Oh in the Tower of Song
—Leonard
Cohen
