MONTREAL — Leonard Cohen — writer, poet, composer, singer, renowned seducer and, for many, the epitome of cool — has died at the age of 82.
His sonorous, tobacco-painted baritone was once described as "the musical equivalent of rotgut whisky" and his lyrics and texts studied spirituality, sex, power and love.
A statement released Thursday by his son Adam confirmed Cohen's death.
"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 said.
"He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humor."
Cohen's biographer, Sylvie Simmons, said the singer died Monday.
"Leonard Cohen seems to have always been there," Simmons said in an interview from California. "From a poet in the '50s, he's been there moving me and making fantastic art. I just expected him to last forever — as you do with your heroes."
Just weeks ago Cohen released a new album, "You Want It Darker." Cohen was still performing to sellout crowds and drawing new generations of fans at an age when most people would have settled back in their rocking chairs to reflect on their life's accomplishments.
Now all that's left is his prodigious body of work, which includes the oft-covered "Hallelujah," which was sung by k.d. lang during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Pointing to W.B. Yeats, Walt Whitman and Canadian poet Irving Layton among his literary influences, Cohen himself had fans among some of music's top names, including U2, REM, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
In a recent New Yorker profile on Cohen, Dylan expressed deep admiration for his work.
"I like all of Leonard's songs, early or late," Dylan said. "'Going Home,' 'Show Me the Place,' 'The Darkness.' These are all great songs, deep and truthful as ever and multidimensional, surprisingly melodic, and they make you think and feel. I like some of his later songs even better than his early ones. Yet there's a simplicity to his early ones that I like, too."
In reviewing his 2008-10 world tour, Britain's Independent newspaper declared that "to hear him sing is still an experience to truly make young women and romantics shiver and sweat."
Cohen's compositions endlessly entranced audiences, who usually treated the reclusive performer with awe. However, his poetic songs were far from being toe-tappers, with some clocking in at seven minutes long and dealing more in substance than sass.
His songs prompted him to be dubbed the "godfather of gloom," the "poet laureate of pessimism," the "grocer of despair" and the "prince of bummers." One reviewer in the 1970s described his songs as "music to slit your wrists to."
But he was hailed for his intelligence, humility, curiosity and generosity.
Cohen was an honorary pallbearer at the state funeral of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau — a fellow Montrealer — in September 2000, along with U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Cuban President Fidel Castro and the Aga Khan.
Kurt Cobain paid tribute to Cohen in a song off Nirvana's final album "In Utero."
"Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld," Cobain moaned in "Pennyroyal Tea." "So I can sigh eternally."
Dylan also defended the criticism that Cohen's lyrics were relentlessly bleak.
"I see no disenchantment in Leonard's lyrics at all," Dylan told the New Yorker.
"There's always a direct sentiment, as if he's holding a conversation and telling you something, him doing all the talking, but the listener keeps listening."
The 2003 Order of Canada inductee is said to have had a fantastic sense of humour and loved to crack jokes.
He wasn't averse to poking fun at himself, as he did before a sold-out crowd at Montreal's Bell Centre during a 2012 concert.
"Sometimes, I stumble out of bed, look at myself in the mirror and say to the mirror, 'Lighten up, Cohen'," he said to laughter.
Compared to some entertainers who march through their famous lives with brass-band personalities, Cohen glided along unassumingly, although any tidbit of news or sighting was almost treated with second coming-type excitement.
He could show up in the darndest places other than the sun-drenched streets of Los Angeles, where he often recorded. Cohen was so taken with the Greek island of Hydra that he bought a house there in 1960 for $1,500 and lived in it even though it had no electricity or running water.
He also stayed in a Zen Buddhist monastery on Mount Baldy near Los Angeles for five years and popped up in his Montreal hometown where he strolled around the city. The singer once left a TV reporter doing man-in-the-street interviews gobsmacked when the journalist unknowingly tapped him for an opinion. Cohen shyly declined.
He also liked to slide into a booth at the fabled Montreal deli The Main for a smoked-meat sandwich.
"A lovely man," recalled Diane Bass, whose husband owns the restaurant.
But the 2008 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame struggled to define the location of the creative well that spawned his offerings.
"If I knew where the songs came from, I'd go there more often," he said in a 1992 interview with The Canadian Press.
"Some people write great tunes in the back of taxicabs but it takes me endless amounts of writing and rewriting to come up with something I can wrap my voice around."
Another time he compared it to being like a "bear stumbling into a beehive."
The ever-dapper Cohen, who favoured black suits, fedoras and tweed caps, was born in Montreal on Sept. 21, 1934, to a middle-class family. His father, who ran a well-known clothing store, died when he was nine.
He pursued undergraduate studies at McGill University and became president of the debating union. He flirted with a legal career and attended McGill law school for a year after completing his bachelor's degree. He also went to Columbia University for a year.
But literature had a stronger call than litigation.
"Let Us Compare Mythologies," his first book of poetry, was published in 1956 when he was an undergrad. The "Flowers For Hitler" poetry collection and the novels "The Favourite Game" and "Beautiful Losers" followed in the 1960s.
But as eloquent as he could be on the printed page, establishing himself as a poet and novelist of renown by the age of 32, Cohen decided that songwriting might pay better.
It was a career change that raised a few eyebrows and agents in New York reportedly asked him, "Aren't you a little old for this game?"
It didn't stop him.
A big break came in 1966 when Judy Collins recorded his standard "Suzanne," and he came out with his first album "Songs of Leonard Cohen" the same year.
That was followed up with "Songs from a Room" in 1969, which included the popular "Bird on the Wire."
He had a fairly steady output although his popularity dipped in the 1970s as disco, not doom, was deemed to be the treat for consumers' ears. But Cohen began a comeback in 1984 with "Various Positions," which included "Hallelujah."
Ironically, "Hallelujah," was on the only Cohen album ever rejected by his record company and was little noticed when it did come out on an independent label. But it has become modern standard after hundreds of cover versions, high-profile performances and use in TV and movie soundtracks.
It's played at weddings, funerals — including the 2011 state ceremony for then NDP leader Jack Layton — school concerts and religious services. It was repeatedly played on VH1 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and at a telethon for relief efforts after the Haitian earthquake in 2010.
But the Grammy- and Juno-winning Cohen, who once starred as head of Interpol in an episode of TV's "Miami Vice," seems to have been defined almost as much by his libido as his music and his words.
Actress Anjelica Huston once summed him up as "part wolf and part angel."
"Death of a Ladies' Man," a 1977 collaboration with Phil Spector and his famous "wall of sound" style, traded on Cohen's love life, although the singer described the final product as "grotesque."
Cohen was generally discreet about the women he dated, with the tally mainly being taken by the media.
"I never discuss my mistresses or my tailors," he told an interviewer, although he has broken that rule a few times, describing an encounter with Janis Joplin in the song "Chelsea Hotel No. 2."
As well, one of his signature tunes, "Suzanne" is based on another lover he knew in Montreal.
The 1991 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee's love life served to fuel a standing quip in his hometown that his Montreal conquests alone could fill a small phone book. His prowess even rated a tip of the hat in Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 album guide.
"For all his poetic angst and folkie sorrow, Cohen could never hide the fact that he was getting more rock-star booty than any other Canadian, before or since," wrote Rob Sheffield.
"Whispering in his glamorously tattered voice, he still makes all his songs sound like sinful confidences shared over bottles of bloody-red wine."
At the height of his popularity in France in the 1960s, it was said that if a French woman owned one album, it was likely to be by Cohen.
But he dismissed it all with a resigned shrug.
"No one masters love and I don't seem to ever master the song," he said. "You have to struggle with it, like it was the first time you ever did it."
In the New Yorker profile dated Oct. 17, Cohen hinted he was feeling unwell and struggling to finish songs he had been working on.
"I don't think I'll be able to finish those songs. Maybe, who knows? And maybe I'll get a second wind, I don't know. But I don't dare attach myself to a spiritual strategy. I don't dare do that. I've got some work to do. Take care of business. I am ready to die. I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me."
REACTION TO THE DEATH OF LEONARD COHEN
Tributes to poet and musical legend Leonard Cohen flooded the web shortly after his death was announced on Thursday:
"No other artist's music felt or sounded like Leonard Cohen's. Yet his work resonated across generations. Canada and the world will miss him."
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
"Leonard Cohen's passing is a lost for us all. He was a unique voice and poet of our time, loved around the world. Thoughts with the family."
- Gov. Gen David Johnston
"Thank you Leonard Cohen. Swift rebirth my friend."
- k.d. lang
"A brilliant Canadian artist passed today. Leonard Cohen, rest in peace. Hallelujah."
- Kiefer Sutherland
"One of our greatest artists left us today. A great poet, a musical genius. My condolences to his family and loved ones."
- Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly
"Leonard Cohen define so well our cultural diversity and duality representing the true definition of living together in Montreal."
-Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre
"He was punk before it was a thing, and the pride of anglo MTL. His whole life was a thesis statement on being cool. Rest in peace."
- Jay Baruchel
"I've experienced the loss of many legends but never have I seen so many of their works quoted in their passing."
- Rob Lowe
"One of my favourite singer-poets. RIP Legendary Musician Leonard Cohen Dead At 82"
- Ron Howard
"Leonard Cohen gone? I didn't think this week could get any worse."
- Molly Ringwald
"Hail Hail A Genius Has Vacated This Realm: Rip Leonard Cohen!"
- Roseanne Barr
"RIP Leonard Cohen. Thank you for you dedication to music, & writing one of my favorite songs to sing 'Hallelujah.'"
- Jennifer Hudson
"Leonard Cohen has died. Another magical voice stilled."
- Bette Midler
"Devastating news...My life was forever changed by his music and words. He'll will never be forgotten."
- Ron Sexsmith
"'Hallelujah' has been a defining song in our career. We are grateful for the time we spent with him and for the gift of his music which we will continue to share with the world."
- The Tenors
"This is heartbreaking. Can't help but feel grateful for the tower of song he leaves behind."
- Lin-Manuel Miranda
"A spirit and soul beyond compare."
- Justin Timberlake
'THE BEST WORDSMITH IN CONTEMPORARY SONG:' CANADIAN MUSICIANS PAY TRIBUTE TO COHEN
For many Canadian musicians who grew up listening to and being inspired by Leonard Cohen, his death announced on Thursday hit the saddest of notes.
"An elegant practitioner of the senses. Fully engaged in the realm of desire and yet fully dedicated to the spiritual," remarked k.d. lang, who covered his beloved song "Hallelujah" during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
"The quintessential renaissance man who will never be matched."
Bruce Cockburn called Cohen "a beautiful romancer of the darkness in our souls."
"Hands down, the best wordsmith in contemporary song," Cockburn said in a statement. "Sail on older brother!"
Singer-songwriter Steven Page, former frontman for the Barenaked Ladies, said Cohen "probably had more meaning to me ... than any other writer ever."
"His poetry and his music has been with me at every step of my life," said Page, "from the age of 15 onward."
Asked to relate a favourite memory of Cohen, both Page and singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith recalled the same story: an event where they had been asked to perform at the launch of Cohen's "Book of Longing," a collection of poetry.
Sexsmith said a group of them, including Page's then-band the Barenaked Ladies, were in the basement of the bookstore getting ready for the show, chatting with Cohen and singing a few tunes.
Cohen was not scheduled to sing at the event itself, but Page said when he got on stage he asked Cohen if he wanted to sing a song.
"He said, 'No, but I'd be happy to share a microphone with you.' So he came up on stage with us and sang 'So Long, Marianne' with us," recalled Page.
"He stared right into my eyes as I was singing this with him. At first I thought, with those piercing green eyes of his, he was saying, 'Don't worry, everything's going to be OK.' And then I realized he was looking at me because he was trying to remember the words. He's staring at my mouth, and trying to get some guidance on what the lyrics of the song were."
Page said he appreciated how Cohen infused his often-dark music with humour.
"He spoke of the pain and difficulty of being an artist, and then also talked about that with great derision, in the sense that being an artist is one of the least of things we can complain about."
Sexsmith added that Cohen raised the bar "pretty high for all us mortals."
Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics said that rather than shed tears he preferred to raise a glass for "a life lived to the hilt."
While Bidini only briefly shook hands with him at the Juno Awards, he says Cohen's career left a strong impression.
"He was a totally cool dude," Bidini added.
"He was one of those sustaining forces whose power and influence strengthened the older he became."
Gordon Lightfoot said in a statement that he was "deeply saddened by the passing of my contemporary, colleague, fellow Canadian and my dear friend."
Myles Goodwyn of April Wine said Cohen "was so unique and extraordinary and so loved, that words fail to describe the loss we feel at the sad news of his passing. Tonight he will be singing 'Hallelujah' with a choir of angels at his side."
Dozens of fans gathered at a park across from Cohen's Montreal home late Thursday. They placed candles, a felt hat and roses in front of his home.
One woman who gave her name as Myriam said she did not want to live the moment alone.
"He was such an elegant man. I met him in the corner, always in costume," she said.
Countless others around the world also paid tribute to Cohen, including soul and R&B singer Aaron Neville, who said he was glad to have both met the poet and recorded several of his songs, including "Bird on a Wire," featured on the soundtrack to the 1991 film starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn.
"I'm sure he'll fit right in the heavenly band," Neville said in a statement through his management.
"He left goodness here for all."
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LEONARD COHEN'S WRITTEN WORKS
Leonard Cohen, who died at the age of 82, is being mourned around the world as a hugely influential singer and songwriter, as well as a poet and author. Here are some of Cohen's written works:
"Let Us Compare Mythologies" (poetry, 1956)
"The Spice-Box Of Earth" (poetry, 1961)
"The Favourite Game" (novel, 1963)
"Flowers For Hitler" (poetry, 1964)
"Beautiful Losers" (novel, 1966)
"Parasites Of Heaven" (poetry, 1966)
"The Energy Of Slaves" (poetry, 1972)
"Death Of A Lady's Man" (poetry and prose, 1978)
"Stranger Music" (poetry, 1993)
"Book Of Longing" (poetry, 2006)
"Poems and Songs" (poetry, 2011)
LEONARD COHEN LEAVES BEHIND RICH LITERARY LEGACY WITH NOVELS AND POETRY
As the world reflects on the musical legacy of the late Leonard Cohen, the Canadian icon is also being remembered for his literary contributions.
Cohen published two novels, "The Favourite Game" and "Beautiful Losers," as well as 11 books of poetry over the course of his lengthy artistic career.
His most recent works of poetry were "Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs," "Book of Longing," and "Leonard Cohen: Poems and Songs."
McClelland & Stewart publisher Jared Bland described Cohen as "a poet of transcendent beauty and wisdom" and "a novelist of moral urgency and insight."
Award-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje says Cohen was "a hero for our generation and for the next" and describes him as a great writer who become a great songwriter.
Queen's University English professor Robert May says Cohen's debut collection "Let Us Compare Mythologies" published in 1956 contains some of the work for which the late artist is best known — and many of the poems were written when he still in his teens.
It wasn't until the late 1950s and early 1960s that Cohen came under the influence of some of the avant-garde writers in Canada — like the late Montreal-born poet Louis Dudek — and started writing more highly experimental forms of poetry, May noted.
"In his subsequent books of poetry, you begin to see a real expansion of form and content and subject matter. He begins to abandon traditional forms and themes and he begins to embrace a broader range of issues," May said in a phone interview from Kingston, Ont.
"For example, in 'Let Us Compare Mythologies,' there are a lot of love lyrics. And while they're some of the best known love lyrics that Cohen wrote, when you get into some of his later books of poetry, you begin to see him exploring issues of spirituality, issues of religion, issues of politics.
"There's just a real expansion of subject matter and preoccupation in the later books of poetry, such as 'Flowers for Hitler,' 'Parasites of Heaven' you begin to see a rapid expansion of the kinds of things he wants to explore and talk about."
Writer Pico Iyer called Cohen "the rare poet who wrote with the rapt devotion of a monk, and the rare monk who knew how to charm every last part of the world."
"No one could combine the language of the street with the high elevation of scriptures, and no one could be as funny, in part because he took so much seriously, as the droll, intense, original Zen rabbi who was Leonard," said Iyer.
"There'll never be another singer like Leonard Cohen, and there'll never be another poet who figures out that the best way to make his words last forever is by making them as hummable as that hymn you first heard when young. Thank heavens — or something — that the words will never die."
Cohen died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 82, according to a statement released Thursday by his son Adam.
