History Music / LeonardCohen

* ForWantOfANail: His music saved Creator/RogerEbert's life. Ebert was in the hospital for cancer treatment, and it looked like the surgery had been a success. He and his wife were getting ready to leave, but Cohen's song "I'm Your Man" starting playing on his iPod and Ebert chose to linger for a bit so he could listen to his song. Just after it ended, though, Ebert's carotid artery burst and he collapsed in the room. Lucky for him, he was already in the hospital, so his life was saved. Had he not waited to listen to Cohen, Ebert would have been a car bleeding profusely, with a much slimmer chance of reaching his doctors again.

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was a Canadian poet and singer-songwriter. He was known for his wry, melancholic and frequently beautiful lyrics, his ever-present cluster of angelic back-up singers, his fascination with religion and spirituality, and that ''voice'', good lord. Cohen began his career as a writer, with two collections of poetry that received good reviews, but his later material didn't do as well, so he became a singer-songwriter due to his lack of financial success. His first album, the snappily titled ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', was released in 1967; it met with critical acclaim, mediocre sales and a lasting cult status, something that could be said to hold true for the rest of his career. After a decline in popularity from the mid-1970s onward, he released the incisive, satirical ''I'm Your Man'' in 1988. Widely considered one of his best albums, it effectively rebooted his career and cemented his status as a cult figure.

* BadassLongCoat: Wore one in the music video for "First We Take Manhattan".

* BassoProfundo: One of the best-known examples, though it only started to set in during the eighties; his voice on his seventies records is noticeably higher. He remarked that when he started recording 1984's ''Various Positions'' after a five year break, his voice had deepened almost an octave, and it only got deeper.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Leonard didn't have women falling at his feet or anything, but it's hard to deny that he had some [[http://blog.careco.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Leonard-Cohen-2.jpg pretty]] [[https://www.room-digital.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-4-Photograph-by-Jack-Robinson-Jack-Robinson-Archive-LLC.jpg rugged]] looks in his younger days.

* NiceHat: He can rock a charcoal fedora.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cohen_0f4e9e7f_f4f7_4565_adde_2190b1f1cf06.jpg]]

[[index]]

* ''Various Positions'' (1984)

[[/index]]

* ''Various Positions'' (1984) [[note]]a.k.a. ''TheOneWith "Hallelujah" On It''[[/note]]

----

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was a Canadian poet and singer-songwriter. He was known for his wry, melancholic and frequently beautiful lyrics, his ever-present cluster of angelic back-up singers, his fascination with religion and spirituality, and that ''voice'', good lord. Cohen began his career as a writer, with two collections of poetry that received good reviews, but his later material didn't do as well, so he became a singer-songwriter due to his lack of financial success. His first album, the snappily titled ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', was released in 1967; it met with critical acclaim, mediocre sales and a lasting cult status, something that could be said for his entire career to date. After a decline in popularity from the mid-1970s onward, he released the incisive, satirical ''I'm Your Man'' in 1988. Widely considered one of his best albums, it effectively rebooted his career and cemented his status as a cult figure.

-->''I've seen the future, baby; it is murder''

--> ''Everybody knows that the war is over''\\

---> '''Cohen''': Do you have your band put together yet?
---> '''Vega''': No.
---> '''C''': Can I play in it?
---> '''V''': What would you like to play?
---> '''C''': I don't know.
---> '''V''': You could sing; you could be a back-up singer.
---> '''C''': Congas!
---> '''V''': It's like I always go see you perform, you always have two very beautiful women standing by you.
---> '''C''': I could be one of the beautiful women standing beside you.

---> ''Oh, I want you, I want you, I want you''
---> ''On a chair with a dead magazine''
---> ''In [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the cave at the tip of the lily]]''
---> ''In [[NatureAdoresAVirgin some hallway where love's never been]]''...

---> ''I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel ''
---> ''You were talking so brave and so sweet''
---> ''Giving me head on the unmade bed''
---> ''While the limousine is waiting in the street''

---> ''I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean''
---> ''I love the country, but I can't stand the scene''
---> ''And I'm neither left nor right, I'm just staying home tonight''
---> ''Getting lost in that hopeless little screen.''
---> ''But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay'',
---> ''I'm junk, but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet.''
---> ''Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.''

--> ''I don't like your fashion business, mister''
--> ''I don't like these drugs that keep you thin.''
--> ''I don't like what happened to my sister.''
--> ''First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.''

--> ''So I greet you from the other side''
--> ''Of sorrow and despair!''

--> ''Well, your faith was strong but you needed proof''
--> ''You saw her bathing on the roof''
--> ''Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya''

-->''But I swear by this song''
-->''And by all that I have done wrong''
-->''I will make it all up to thee.''

---> ''Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows.''

Cohen was private and something of a hermit (he spent many years living in a Zen commune atop Mount Baldy, where he was known as ''Jikan,'' "The Silent One"), but after 2005, where his manager, Kelley Lynch, almost completely emptied his pension account and ran away with the money, Cohen started touring again in 2008 at age 73. He continued to do so through 2012. In 2016, he released ''You Want it Darker'' in October 21, 2016. Three weeks later, he passed away.

* BassoProfundo: One of the best-known examples.

* CoolOldGuy: Among other things, he skips on and off-stage at concerts and donated $200,000 to the Australian bushfire appeal.

* VocalEvolution: He started out as a middling nasally tenor. His earlier records sound positively soprano when compared to his later ones; over forty years, his voice has dropped to a distinctive rumble, and it seems to be getting deeper with every album. ''Dear Heather'' was positively subsonic. He claims that he has one more album left in him; presumably, only dogs will be able to hear it.

* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: "Bird on the Wire" uses "thee" a couple times, as IronicEcho of the line "Like a knight from some old fashioned book".

* ThisIsASong: "Hallelujah" spells out its own chord progression (see the page quote).

* MindScrew: Cohen's lyrics are usually near impossible to decipher but ''Music/SongsOfLoveAndHate'' is probably the worst offender, "Avalanche" in particular.

* ForWantOfANail: His music saved Creator/RogerEbert's life. Ebert was in the hospital for cancer treatment, and it looked like the surgery had been a success. He and his wife were getting ready to leave, but Cohen's song "I'm Your Man" starting playing on his iPod and Ebert chose to linger for a bit so he could listen to his song. Just after it ended, though, his cartoid artery burst and Ebert collapsed in the room. Lucky for him, he was already in the hospital, so his life was saved. Had he not waited to listen to Cohen, Ebert would have been a car bleeding profusely, with a much slimmer chance of reaching his doctors again.

Something of an acquired taste due to his minimalistic approach to music, often dark tone and average-to-middling ability to actually sing in tune, Cohen is nevertheless regarded as one of the finest and most influential songwriters alive today. His songs have been frequently covered by other artists, with "Hallelujah" - most famously covered by Music/JeffBuckley on ''Music/{{Grace}}'' - being the most prominent example, and he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

Cohen is private and something of a hermit (he spent many years living in a Zen commune atop Mount Baldy, where he was known as ''Jikan,'' "The Silent One"), but after 2005, where his manager, Kelley Lynch, almost completely emptied his pension account and ran away with the money, Cohen started touring again in 2008 at age 73. He continued to do so through 2012. In 2016, he released ''You Want it Darker'' in October 21, 2016. Three weeks later, he passed away.

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) is a Canadian poet and singer-songwriter. He is known for his wry, melancholic and frequently beautiful lyrics, his ever-present cluster of angelic back-up singers, his fascination with religion and spirituality, and that ''voice'', good lord. Cohen began his career as a writer, with two collections of poetry that received good reviews, but his later material didn't do as well, so he became a singer-songwriter due to his lack of financial success. His first album, the snappily titled ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', was released in 1967; it met with critical acclaim, mediocre sales and a lasting cult status, something that could be said for his entire career to date. After a decline in popularity from the mid-1970s onward, he released the incisive, satirical ''I'm Your Man'' in 1988. Widely considered one of his best albums, it effectively rebooted his career and cemented his status as a cult figure.

Cohen is private and something of a hermit (he spent many years living in a Zen commune atop Mount Baldy, where he was known as ''Jikan,'' "The Silent One"), but after 2005, where his manager, Kelley Lynch, almost completely emptied his pension account and ran away with the money, Cohen started touring again in 2008 at age 73. He has continued to do so through 2012, and does not show signs of stopping any time soon. In 2016, he released ''You Want it Darker'' in October 21, 2016. Three weeks later, he passed away.

'''Leonard Cohen''' is a Canadian poet and singer-songwriter. He is known for his wry, melancholic and frequently beautiful lyrics, his ever-present cluster of angelic back-up singers, his fascination with religion and spirituality, and that ''voice'', good lord. Cohen began his career as a writer, with two collections of poetry that received good reviews, but his later material didn't do as well, so he became a singer-songwriter due to his lack of financial success. His first album, the snappily titled ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', was released in 1967; it met with critical acclaim, mediocre sales and a lasting cult status, something that could be said for his entire career to date. After a decline in popularity from the mid-1970s onward, he released the incisive, satirical ''I'm Your Man'' in 1988. Widely considered one of his best albums, it effectively rebooted his career and cemented his status as a cult figure.

Cohen is private and something of a hermit (he spent many years living in a Zen commune atop Mount Baldy, where he was known as ''Jikan,'' "The Silent One"), but after 2005, where his manager, Kelley Lynch, almost completely emptied his pension account and ran away with the money, Cohen started touring again in 2008 at age 73. He has continued to do so through 2012, and does not show signs of stopping any time soon.

* ''Various Positions'' (1984) a.k.a. ''TheOneWith "Hallelujah" On It''