Line #9 Trivia/LeonardCohen


1	* BeamMeUpScotty: Shortly before past lover and muse Marianne Ihlen's death, three months prior to his own, Leonard wrote a heartfelt farewell letter to her. The letter that was widely shared in the media, however, was not his own but an altered version shared in an interview by mutual friend Jan Mollestad. The original is as below:
2	-->Dearest Marianne,\
3	I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up, just as yours has too, and the eviction notice is on its way any day now.\
4	I’ve never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. I don’t have to say any more. Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Love and gratitude. Leonard
5	* ColbertBump: "Hallelujah" saw a massive boost in popularity after Music/JohnCale and Music/RufusWainwright's covers of it were featured in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' and its soundtrack album, respectively, leading it to become a popular choice for covers and parodies by other artists.
6	* CreatorBacklash:
7	** His stated opinions of ''Death of a Ladies Man'' were more positive in his latter years than they used to be, but he would still refer to it as a "noble travesty" (direct quote). His fans are inclined to agree. It wasn't his fault entirely, though. Music/PhilSpector apparently abducted the tapes at gunpoint and did his own thing with them; reports vary as to what actually happened, but there was definitely a gun involved, as well as [[HoYay a declaration of love]]. His daughter, on the other hand, apparently loves it.
8	** Another example is the above quoted song "Chelsea Hotel #2" from ''Music/NewSkinForTheOldCeremony''. In his younger days, he always dedicated the song to Music/JanisJoplin, making it clear that it was her he was singing about. This was rather bold, due to the song's highly [[IntercourseWithYou sexual and erotic content]]. He later regretted ever having done this.
9	* CreatorBreakdown: Cohen spent his entire career struggling with clinical depression. It comes to the forefront more than once on his discography.
10	** His darkest album, ''Music/SongsOfLoveAndHate'', came out of an especially troubled time; it is considered one of his best offerings by critics, but is not popular with the general public because it's just so dark. (Cohen himself stated that he had trouble listening to it, and it is under-represented on his Best Of album, which he chose the songs for himself.)
11	** ''Music/TheFuture'' is a similar case; a fairly dark album, released in 1992, which was right in the middle of what Cohen would later reflect on as a time of "disorder in my life, of chaos and depression, of distress," citing the Revolutions of 1989, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and his son's car accident, which left him comatose for four months.
12	* DiedDuringProduction: Cohen died 17 days after the release of 2016's ''You Want It Darker'' but recorded enough material during production for two albums. According to his son, Adam, he was planning on making a follow-up with those tracks, which were mere "sketches" at the time of his death. Adam would eventually piece them together with a bevy of session musicians and release the results as ''Thanks for the Dance'' in 2019, two weeks after the third anniversary of Leonard's death.
13	* HitlessHitAlbum: Most of Cohen's albums are acclaimed and have fan favorite material, like "Bird on the Wire" and "The Partisan" from ''Music/SongsFromARoom'', but have never been hits in the charts.
14	* MoneyDearBoy: The reason he started touring again. Justified as his former manager stole all his money and left him nearly destitute. [[LaserGuidedKarma However, his live shows were acclaimed, his manager was arrested and sentenced to prison, and he did very well financially in his last years.]]
15	** Could be said of his entire career. Cohen saw himself as a poet first; songwriting and recording paid better.
16	* ReclusiveArtist: During his second serious CreatorBreakdown around the release of ''The Future'', Cohen went into self-imposed exile in a Zen monastery for a few years.
17	* ReferencedBy:
18	** Music/{{REM}} were long influenced by Cohen's work, covering and paying homage to it repeatedly over the years. Their 1998 song [[Music/UpREMAlbum "Hope"]] meanwhile directly interpolates the melody and meter of "Suzanne", resulting in Cohen receiving a writing credit on it.
19	** The cover to Music/{{Ween}}'s ''Music/ThePod'' is an edited version of the cover photo for Cohen's first GreatestHitsAlbum, with Mean Ween's head pasted over Cohen's.
20	** The fact the Cohen died a day before the 2016 US presidential election led to a double reference a few days later in the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' cold open, with Creator/KateMcKinnon as UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton performing a somber version of "Hallelujah".
21	* ScrewedByTheLawyers:
22	** Cohen unknowingly signed away the rights to his first major song, "Suzanne", thanks to a deceptive contract that he didn't read. He only ever made money from his performances of the song, and a performance by Ron Sexsmith of the song at a tribute concert a year after Cohen's death was cut from the later CBC broadcast.
23	** More a case of Screwed by the Accountants: his financial manager infamously emptied his bank account while he was at the above-mentioned Zen monastery, forcing him to go back on tour.
24	* ThrowItIn: The cover photo of ''I'm Your Man'' shows Cohen in a sharp suit and sunglasses, casually eating a banana. This came about because Jennifer Warnes, his sometime backing singer, was making a video for her version of one of his songs, and Cohen showed up on the set to see what was going on and generally give the whole thing his blessing. A photographer on the set happened to snap a picture of him eating the banana and, months later, Cohen was looking for an image for the cover of his new (and what would prove to be his CareerResurrection) album, when he came across that informal photo. He decided that it was the perfect image.

Context Trivia / LeonardCohen