Leonard Cohen

A limited guitar player at best, and with a voice that hardly spans a couple of octaves, Leonard Cohen has nonetheless fashioned a legacy of gorgeously realized songs that reach deep into the heart of lust, ill- and well-fated romance, hope, and redemption, and if he doesn't sing like an angel, he could certainly mesmerize one with the melody, lilt, and power of his songs…

On August 31, 1970, Leonard Cohen was scheduled to play the third Isle of Wight Festival. The conditions were not optimal. While 100,000 or so tickets had been sold, there were nearly 600,000 in attendance. Fans overran the island to see and hear the Who, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, and many others over five days…

Beautiful 2008 five CD box containing digitally remastered editions of a quintet of seminal Leonard Cohen albums: Songs of Leonard Cohen (1968), Various Positions (1985), I'm Your Man (1988), The Future (1992) and Ten New Songs (2001). 46 tracks including 'Suzanne', 'Tower Of Song', 'Sisters Of Mercy' and 'First We Take Manhattan'. Columbia.

Leonard Cohen seems singularly determined to document his adventures in live performances which began when he returned to the concert stage in 2008, and Live in Dublin is the third live album Cohen has released in just five years. Given how satisfying 2009's Live in London was, one might reasonably wonder how badly one would need another concert souvenir, especially in such a short period of time, but comparing Live in Dublin with Live in London and 2010's Songs from the Road, one can readily see how Cohen's live show has seasoned since he returned to duty…

On 13th October 1979, Leonard Cohen began his most extensive tour to date in support of his sixth studio album, 'Recent Songs', with a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. Entitled 'The Smokey Life Tour', this 48-concert European leg of what would eventually become a world tour (ultimately encompassing too Australia, the USA, and in November 1980, Israel) progressed through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, England and Ireland. This concert, from Bonn's prestigious 2,000 capacity Beethovenhalle, was recorded towards the end of the European extravaganza on 3rd December, and, as is evident, the cast were performing superbly by this juncture.

You Want It Darker is the fourteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on October 16, 2016, by Columbia Records, nineteen days before Cohen's death. The album was created towards the end of his life and focuses on death, God, and humor. It was released to critical acclaim. The title track was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance in January 2018. After touring extensively between 2008 and 2013, Leonard Cohen began to suffer "multiple fractures of the spine" among other physical problems, according to his son Adam Cohen. Due to Leonard Cohen's mobility issues, You Want It Darker was recorded in the living room of his home in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles and then sent by e-mail to his musical collaborators.

Canadian poet Leonard Cohen sings with great weight and authority and his lyrics are among the most elegant and scripted of the rock era. This collection is culled from his past three albums (1988's I'm Your Man, 1992's The Future, and 1994's Cohen Live) and shows a man whose voice has deepened to the point of grim, foreboding death with lyrics sharpened to masterful precision.

Leonard Cohen, who liked to call himself a 'chansonnier,' grew up in French‐speaking Montreal, Canada. He is appreciated both as a poet and for his sensitivity to combining words and music. This project connects Cohen musically and poetically with previous generations of songwriters. Orlando di Lasso's famous 16th century chanson Susanne un jour meets Cohen's Suzanne. Josquin des Prez's Adieu mes amours or courtly dances published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris in 1529 combine with Cohen's songs and the eras converge. With knowledge of Renaissance musical practices, new diminutions on Cohen's music emerge, including original chordal accompaniments for viola da gamba or lute based on late 16th and 17th century models.

This 1991 tribute album reveals the broad range of Cohen's talent as composer in its dazzling variety of voices and styles. Following the prayer Who By Fire by House of Love, Ian McCulloch soars through Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye, adding his own melancholy twist to the song's sublime sadness; The Pixies storm through I Can't Forget at their characteristic fast pace, whilst That Petrol Emotion poignantly render Stories Of The Street and James perform a meandering but moving So Long Marianne. Stephen Duffy of The Lilac Time gently caresses Bird On A Wire, followed by the Ugandan singer Geoffrey Oryema whose Suzanne, embellished by flute and a trio of guitars, fades out on a click-filled chorus. Quite brutal is David McComb's exploration of the sleazy Don't Go Home With Your Hard-on which shakes, rattles and rolls along with the best of the psychotic beats, while Dead Famous People, produced by Serge Gainsbourg, make a surprising success of a bubblegum singalong rendition of True Love Leaves No Traces. The star of the show is John Cale as he paints a truly great soundscape with only voice and piano in Hallelujah, a classic which would have remained buried in Cohen's own rather monotone version.

A stunningly sophisticated leap into modern musical textures, I'm Your Man re-establishes Leonard Cohen's mastery. Against a backdrop of keyboards and propulsive rhythms, Cohen surveys the global landscape with a precise, unflinching eye: the opening "First We Take Manhattan" is an ominous fantasy of commercial success bundled in crypto-fascist imagery, while the remarkable "Everybody Knows" is a cynical catalog of the land mines littering the surface of love in the age of AIDS.