Erik Visits an Non-American Grave, Part 1,934

This is the grave of the one and only Leonard Cohen.

Born in 1934 in Westmount, Quebec, Cohen grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Montreal. But it didn’t really stick with him, not religiously anyway though he always embraced his Jewish identity. He certainly imbibed learning though and was a very talented child. His mother was a big music person who sang a lot and she imparted that to her son. Leonard was far from a talented singer, as he would later sardonically mention in “Tower of Song,” when he wrote “I was born with the gift of the golden voice,” rasping out those lines to the amusement of anyone who saw him live, which sadly does not include me. But that hardly meant he wasn’t going to try.

Moreover, Cohen was an extremely ambitious young man who wanted to be a big star. He went to McGill for college and was an active student, including becoming president of its debating society. He read very deeply in poetry and decided to become a poet himself. He published his first book of poetry in 1956, titled Let Us Compare Mythologies. But what made Cohen different than many poets is that he was media friendly. He was not interested in locking himself in a room to work, though he certainly worked hard. He wanted to be on TV and often was. He also wanted to enjoy wine and women and he most certainly did. He did try both law school and graduate school briefly, hating both and dropping out. When he published The Spice Box of Earth, in 1961, he got a ton of attention. The Canadian critic Robert Weaver wrote that Cohen was “probably the best young poet in English Canada right now.”

Well, that was a lot. Cohen was a media hound, but also suffered from lifelong depression and always had to balance these things. So he decamped to Greece, where he escaped people. He still wanted fame but it was hard for someone who was depressed all the time to really pursue that. But he wrote a lot and met a lot of women. He started writing fiction as well as poetry, publishing in both genres. In 1965, he was the subject of a documentary called Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen, which I’ve seen and is an interesting look at this media-friendly and ambitious poet before he became a famous musician. He wrote a novel in 1966 called Beautiful Losers that had a lot of sex scenes in it and became something of a sensation in Canada. But through all of this, Cohen was looking for ways to express himself and also make more money. So he decided to write songs instead of poetry. He would still occasionally write poetry, but he didn’t publish another book of it until 1978, by which time he was a legend of music.

Songs of Leonard Cohen is an absolute miracle of a debut, a set of songs that represent a very specific Bohemian place and time, a moment when men are still wearing ties and women nice dresses while also doing a lot of drugs and having threesomes and the like, as represented quite specifically in “Sisters of Mercy.” 1967 was a hell of a year, soon to be ruined by the inevitable hippies that this bohemianism created. Cohen was already engaged in his spiritual searching, so “The Master Song” is about some of that. Think of the songs on this album–“Sisters of Mercy,” “So Long Marianne,” “Suzanne,” “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” I mean, my God.

But honestly, the next albums are more fine than great. I happen to like Songs from a Room quite a bit, but a lot of that is because it’s the first Cohen album I bought. Sure it has “Bird on a Wire” and that’s an all-timer, but the rest of the album feels like a bit of a retreat from the honesty and personal confessions that made Songs of Leonard Cohen such a marvel. “The Partisan” happens to be a great song about a very specific kind of thing, but who can imagine Cohen as a partisan? Not me. And other than “Bird on a Wire,” I don’t think he ever returned to this album in his later in life great comeback. Songs of Love and Hate is even more shrugging; there are some fine songs on this but it’s a minor album. Cohen realized that moving toward a fuller sound of New Skin for the Old Ceremony would be wise for commercial reasons. He wrote about sex with Janis Joplin on “Chelsea Hotel #2,” though he later regretted letting out that this was about Joplin. Great song though. “Who By Fire” is a fantastic track. I kinda like “Field Commander Cohen.” The album remains basically fine.

Cohen continuing expanding his sound in the late 70s ,but he was also recording less, spending time in monasteries and becoming reclusive while dealing with his depression. Death of a Ladies’ Man was produced by Phil Spector, who Cohen found terrifying at times for good reason. It’s not so good. He retreated back to his acoustic guitar with Recent Songs in 1979, which is kind of minor but OK. So if you look at Cohen’s work by 1980, there’s one great album, some pretty good work, and a couple of whatever albums. But the 80s would see Cohen move to legend status. Now, the fact is that “Hallelujah” is the most overrated song in the modern musical canon. I mean, to be fair, it’s like the 6th best song on Various Positions, so it’s not like it’s terrible, but the covers by John Cale and Jeff Buckley made it an all-timer for a lot of people. Well, whatever, it’s not that great of a song. But “Dance Me to the End of Love,” now that’s a great song off that album.

1988’s I’m Your Man is one of the best albums ever recorded, and that includes the highly unfortunate “Jazz Police,” which is a genuinely horrible track. But every other song is great. Cohen embracing dance music and electronics and backup singers sure was a different move, but my god…what a collection of tracks. “Take This Waltz,” “First We Take Manhattan,” “Everybody Knows,” “Ain’t No Cure for Love,” I mean, wow! He followed that with The Future in 1992, which isn’t quite as good but is still a very good album, topped by “Democracy.”

Cohen wanted to disappear from music mostly after this. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk and spent most of his time in monasteries. He recorded a bit from time to time. But then he lost all his money when his manager stole it. She spent some time in prison for this, but he didn’t get the money back. This completely destroyed his idyllic life. So he hit the road to make money. His late 2000s and early 2010s tours were beloved. I wish I had seen them. He was a senior beloved figure, part musician and part mystic. He also did one last album, 2016’s You Want It Darker, which pretty much said it all about that year and ever since. Shortly after its release, on November 7, 2016, the day before Donald Trump was elected, Cohen died in Los Angeles. He was 82 years old. You Want It Darker, indeed.

Leonard Cohen is buried in Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

There’s really much more to say about Cohen, but at 1250 words, I need to move on with my day. So have at it.

Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. If you would like this series to visit other members of the RRHOF, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Bo Diddley is in Bronson, Florida and Dusty Hill from ZZ Top is in The Woodlands, Texas. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.