by André Depienne

Leonard Cohen grew up in a very influential Jewish family from Westmount, an English-speaking suburb of Montreal. Leonard took up the guitar at the age of 13, initially to impress a girl. He went on playing in small cafés, before joining the country trio “Buckskin Boys” at the young age of 15. In 1955, he graduated from McGill University with a degree in English literature, and worked in his father’s textiles business for a while.  

At that time, music wasn't Leonard's priority and he rather got involved in a university debating club, which paved the way for his writing career. His first volume of poetry “Let Us Compare Mythologies”, was published in 1956, but only 500 copies were printed. Five years later, he earned success on a national level with his second work, “The Spice-Box of Earth”, also starting to be noticed abroad.  

During the 60’s, Leonard spent a lot of time to travelling many parts of Europe, living some time on the Greek island Hydra with the Norwegian, Marianne Ihlen, who became his muse. During that time he published three novels and a volume of poetry.

In 1967, he traveled to New York, looking to establish a career as a singer-songwriter. By that time, US folk singer Judy Collins was already very successfully interpreting texts and songs by Leonard Cohen, including “Suzanne”. Leonard was living at the Chelsea Hotel and was in a relationship with Janis Joplin for a while. As a tribute to the hotel, he later wrote the song “Chelsea Hotel No.2”.

In Greenwich Village Leonard got to know fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, and they became lovers for a year. In some kind of song-writing competition, both wrote a song entitled “Winter Lady”.

In 1967, Leonard Cohen gave his debut performance as a singer at the “Newport Folk Festival”, and was discovered by Colombia Records producer John Hammond, who saw Cohen a second Bob Dylan. His debut album “Songs Of Leonard Cohen” was released in December 1967, and made him a star overnight. It included legendary songs like “Suzanne”, “Sisters Of Mercy” and “So Long, Marianne” and is considered one of the most important albums of that time.

He finally established his status as a musician with the follow-up albums “Songs From A Room” and “Songs Of Love And Hate”. In 1972 however, Leonard Cohen stated, that after releasing a live album, he wanted to turn his back on the music business, and go back to focusing on literature again. But in 1974, after spending time in Greece, Israel and Sinai, he made a successful comeback with the studio album “New Skin for the Old Ceremony” and a live tour.

Leonard Cohen remained one of our most successful singer-songwriters up until his death in November 2016. As the result of a fall, he died aged 82 at his house in Los Angeles. On the 10th of November 2016, he was buried in the family plot on Montreal’s Jewish Orthodox Cemetery “Shaar Hashomayim ”.