You Want It Darker, the album released only weeks ago, won rave reviews, including from the Observer, which gave it five stars. Reviewer Kitty Empire said it was:
an album of killer couplets, even the bleakest delivered with a half-smile. Finality is a theme.
Throughout, he sounds wise and honest, and – despite the occasional lyrical protestations of weariness – full of life. Last week in LA, Cohen talked about making two more albums, about following the musical path sketched out on the album’s finale, String Reprise/Treaty.
It’s hard not to hope it works out that way – the man behind You Want It Darker does not seem like someone running short on inspiration – but if circumstances dictate otherwise, there are worse ways to bow out than this.
Marianne Ihlen, Cohen’s most famous muse, died in July this year.
Jan Christian Mollestad, a documentary maker and friend of Ihlen, shared a letter Cohen had written to her shortly before she died:
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.
Two days after the letters was read to her, Ihlen, immortalised by Cohen in So Long, Marianne and Bird on a Wire, died. She was 81.
I was just on NPR radio, giving the most moronic answers to questions I’ve ever given anyone about Leonard Cohen, because I didn’t want to talk. It’s still sinking in. My brain is numb. In this year of losses, so many losses, in this black week for the world, this tops them all.
I’m writing this with constant interruptions, calls and texts from radio and newspapers wanting to know this and that. Everyone wants details, how and where and why he died. Well, he went out in a blaze of glory. Died with his boots on – or his suit on – having delivered a masterpiece before he left. You Want It Darker is one of his richest, deepest and most beautiful albums in a lifetime of rich, deep and beautiful work.
He sang himself back home in that album, to Montreal, where they held the memorial today. When at the age of 15 Leonard first encountered the poetry of Lorca he heard the music of the synagogue his ancestors founded.
So many stories about musicians and poets have an unhappy ending but not Leonard, he was ready, and he didn’t linger once his work was done. He knew darkness, looked right into its eyes, could even see the funny side.
“This world is full of conflicts and things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments,” he said, “when we can embrace the whole mess.”
God, I am going to miss this man.
Everything.
The whole mess.
I’m so very grateful to have known him, to have had his support and friendship.
So grateful to have his words and music to go back to again and again.
Hey that’s no way to say goodbye, but it’s the best I can do for now.
Leonard Cohen, one of Canada and the world’s greatest singer-songwriters, has died.
A post on his official Facebook page broke the news and said a memorial service would take place at a later date in Los Angeles. It did not say when or how Cohen had died.
My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles with the knowledge that he had completed what he felt was one of his greatest records. He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humour.
Tributes have poured in from musicians, writers, poets and politicians. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose father Pierre was a longtime friend of the singer, said:
His ability to conjure the vast array of human emotion made him one of the most influential and enduring musicians ever.
A woman places a candle in front of the home of Leonard Cohen in Montreal. Photograph: Paul Chiasson/AP
Fans have left messages and candles at the Chelsea Hotel in New York and outside Cohen’s Montreal home.
In an interview last month, Cohen said he was “ready to die”.He told the New Yorker:
I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me.
Agence France-Presse posts these 10 key moments from Leonard Cohen’s life:
21 September 1934: Cohen is born in Montreal to a Jewish family of Polish origin. His father dies when he is nine years old.
1956-1961: After studying history at McGill University, Montreal, and spending a year at Columbia University in New York, he publishes his first poetry volumes – Let Us Compare Mythologies then The Spice-Box of Earth - before heading to Europe on a scholarship.
1963: During a seven-year spell living on the Greek island of Hydra, he writes Flowers for Hitler, one of his most controversial poetry collections; his first novel, The Favorite Game; and Beautiful Losers, a book about religion and sexuality that prompts the Boston Globe to compare him to fellow novelist James Joyce.
Early 1968: His musical career begins with his first album Songs of Leonard Cohen, a year after the success of Suzanne performed by American singer Judy Collins.
1970: He begins his first tour of the United States, Canada and Europe, participating in the Isle of Wight music festival.
Leonard Cohen at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970. Photograph: Tony Russell/Redferns
1988: The huge success of I’m Your Man, an album in a new style using synthesisers and more sombre lyrics, is recorded in Los Angeles where Cohen is now living.
1994: Cohen retires to a Buddhist monastery on Mount Baldy, California, and in August 1996 is ordained as a Zen monk with the name Jikan, meaning “The Silent One”.
1999: Defrauded and almost bankrupted by his former manager, he begins performing again and releases a new album, Ten New Songs.
2010: Already firmly established in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York, Cohen receives a Grammy lifetime achievement award. He is also made a Companion to the Order of Canada (2003) and given the Prince of Asturias award for letters (2011).
2016: For his 82nd birthday, he makes his 14th album together with his son Adam and the choir of Montreal synagogue, adding to the intensity of his voice that is now darker than ever as he sings “Hineni, hineni, my Lord”, meaning “I’m ready, my Lord” in Hebrew.
“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist Leonard Cohen has passed away. We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries,” the post said.
Twitter was soon awash in tributes from singers, writers, poets and public figures mourning the loss of a musical giant.
Musicians across all genres, from hip-hop to pop to rock, tweeted out their condolences, including Ben Folds, Peter Hook from Joy Division and New Order, KD Lang, Slash, Lily Allen and Bette Midler.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has published a longer statement on Cohen’s death. The singer was a longtime friend of Trudeau’s father, Pierre, also a former Canadian PM:
It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of the legendary Leonard Cohen.
A most remarkable Montrealer, Leonard Cohen managed to reach the highest of artistic achievement, both as an acclaimed poet and a world-renowned singer-songwriter. He will be fondly remembered for his gruff vocals, his self-deprecating humour and the haunting lyrics that made his songs the perennial favourite of so many generations.
Leonard Cohen is as relevant today as he was in the 1960s. His ability to conjure the vast array of human emotion made him one of the most influential and enduring musicians ever. His style transcended the vagaries of fashion.
A woman places a candle in front of the home of Leonard Cohen in Montreal. Photograph: Paul Chiasson/AP
Leonard Cohen was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003 and received many artistic honours during his lifetime, including being inducted into the Canadian Music hall of fame, the Canadian Songwriters hall of fame, and the American Rock and Roll hall of fame.
He received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2010 and was awarded the Glenn Gould prize for lifetime achievement in the arts in 2011. In 2013, with a career already spanning more than fifty years, he won Junos as Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for his 2012 album Old Ideas. His music had withstood the test of time.
On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I wish to express our deepest sympathies to Leonard Cohen’s family, friends, colleagues and many, many fans.
Leonard, no other artist’s poetry and music felt or sounded quite like yours. We’ll miss you.
