History Music / LeonardCohen

* 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.
-->'''Cohen:''' My voice really started to change around 1982. It started to deepen and I started to cop to the fact that it was deepening.

* NoodleImplements: “First We Take Manhattan” veers into the surreal at one point:

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

* NotChristianRock: Scriptural and religious imagery appears often in Cohen's lyrics, but not always as a statement of faith. The best-known example is "Hallelujah," which dwells on the biblical stories of David and Samson [[LoveIsLikeReligion but is really more of a]] BreakupSong.

* NiceHat: As the page image shows, he could sure rock a charcoal fedora.
--> ''"It was the hat, after all."''

A native of UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, Cohen started his career as a writer of poetry and fiction. His first two poetry collections 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 debut 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, Cohen 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.

Born and raised in UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, Cohen started his career as a writer of poetry and fiction. His first two poetry collections 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, Cohen 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.

Leonard Cohen [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CC]] (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 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.

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 of his time. 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 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. The event triggered a new creative period for Cohen, who would continue touring into the early 2010s, and release three new albums two years apart, starting in 2012, with ''Old Ideas''. On October 21, 2016, he released what would turn out to be his last album, ''You Want it Darker'', which appropriately enough had acceptance of mortality as a central theme. Three weeks later, on November 7, he passed away.

Leonard Cohen [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CC]] (September 21, 1934 - November 7, 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.

* AuthorCatchPhrase / AuthorVocabularyCalendar: He had a penchant for the word "naked", which features in at least a dozen of his recorded songs--including the opening line of "Light as the Breeze" (''Music/TheFuture'') and the refrain of "Memories" (''Music/DeathOfALadiesMan''). "Beauty" shows up frequently as well.

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