Image copyright Getty Images Leonard Cohen was called “the high priest of pathos” and the “godfather of melancholy”.
The influence and the attractive of this poet, novelist, composer and womanizer -died on Thursday at 82 years of age – has endured throughout his career.
Your propensity to depression during almost all his life, and his charming wit and self-criticism was reflected in many of his letters.
And although he had a period of retirement in the 1990s, re-emerged with his creativity intact.
literary Career
Leonard Norman Cohen was born in Westmount, an area well-to-do of Montreal, the 21 of September 1934.
His mother had emigrated from Lithuania to Canada and his father Nathan, whose ancestors came from Poland, was the owner of a prosperous clothing store.
His father died when Cohen was only nine years old, but he left his son a trust fund that would allow him to continue the literary career which he had chosen.
The young Cohen attended a jewish school, where he learned to play the guitar and formed a group called the Buckskin Boys.
“The guitarists impress the girls”, was the reasoning he gave.
In 1951, he enrolled in the McGill University of Montreal to study English Literature, and he published his first collection of poems Let us compare mythologies, in 1956.
His poetry was well received and after a year at Columbia University in New York, in 1961 he wrote his second book of poetry entitled “The spice box of the Earth”.
The book established the reputation of Cohen as a poet seriously and became his most popular work.
The poem You Have the Lovers he captured its fascination for the human relations.
Cohen then moved to the small Greek island of Hydra, where he wrote your first novel “The favorite game”, in 1963.
he Lived there with the norway Marianne Jensen, which inspired the theme “forever, Marianne”.
“The beautiful losers”, the second novel by Cohen was published in 1966 and was the last of his writings before leaving Hydra to move to the United States.
Volatile
Came to New York in 1967, decided to pursue a career as a composer and musician.
debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, although he was far from being a commercial success, became a kind of cult classic for lovers of the folk.
The song “Suzanne”, based on his poem Suzanne Takes You Down, became a hit for Judy Collins and has been sung by a variety of artists over the years.
In the next seven years he recorded three more albums -Songs From a Room, Songs of Love and Hate and New Skin for the Old Ceremony- all of whom sang in a tour of concerts in the united States, Canada, and Europe, in which he embarked during the 1970s.
In 1973, Cohen went to Israel to volunteer for active service in the war of Yom Kippur.
But the task was assigned to entertain the troops in a tank division where once there was a low fire in the wilderness of Sinai.
The music of Cohen fell in a pothole in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but recovered in 1985 with the release of the album “Various positions”.
This was the song “Hallelujah“, which became in the composition of the career of Cohen’s most sung by other artists.
Absent
The popular singer Jennifer Warnes appeared on that album and on its release in 1988, I’m your man, the album that made him go back to the top of popularity.
In 1991, a tribute album I’m your fan, a collection of his songs recorded by artists such as REM, the Pixies and John Cale, again pushed to Leonard Cohen to the reflectors.
however, by this time Cohen had begun to spend time in a retreat in California and eventually moved there to become a buddhist monk in 1996.
Resurfaced in 1999 with a large amount of new material, part of which appeared on her album of 2001 titled Ten New Songs.
At that time was the mood introspective and relaxed Cohen, who perhaps contemplated death with lyrics like “the night is getting more cool.”
At the age of 73 years in 2006, Cohen was forced to return to the concert when he discovered that your manager (and ex-lover) Kelley Lynch had misappropriated over$ 5 million of accounts.
Two years later, he embarked on a concert tour massive in 2008 that lasted 18 months and included a performance on the stage Pyramid the festival Glastonbury, a moment seen by many as the highlight of that event.
The 2012 launched Old Ideas who became her album most successful of all time.
Leonard Cohen was, without a doubt, one of the poets and composers most enigmatic of his generation.
While many themes in his work which gave you your depression, he always felt it was more of a keen observer of the realities of life.
“it Is serious, instead of depression, the feature of my work,” he once told an interviewer.
“I like a good laugh, but I think they enjoy it more if it comes from the seriousness”.
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