b. 21 September 1934, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A graduate in English Literature from McGill and Columbia Universities, Cohen first made an impression as a novelist. The Favorite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966) offered the mixture of sexual and spiritual longing, despair and black humour, prevalent in his lyrics. Two early songs, "Suzanne" and "Priests", were recorded by folk singer Judy Collins, and the former was also included on Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967), the artist's impressive debut. The weary loneliness portrayed by his intonation was enhanced by the barest of accompaniment, while the literate, if bleak, subject matter endeared the artist to a generation of "bedsit" singer-songwriter aficionados. The album also featured "Sisters Of Mercy" and "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", two haunting compositions destined to become classics of the genre.
Cohen's second album Songs From A Room (1969) maintained a similar pattern, but despite the inclusion of "Story Of Isaac" and "Bird On The Wire', lacked the commercial impact of its predecessor. The appeal of Cohen's lugubrious delivery had noticeably waned by the release of 1971"s Songs Of Love And Hate, yet it contained two of his finest compositions in "Joan Of Arc" and "Famous Blue Raincoat". The inclusion of "Dress Rehearsal Rag", one of the artist's earliest songs, suggested an aridity and it was four years before Cohen completed another studio set. New Skin For The Old Ceremony showed his talent for wry, often chilling, observations undiminished and included the disconsolate "Chelsea Hotel", an account of Cohen's sexual encounter with singer Janis Joplin.
A second impasse in the artist's career ended in 1977 with Death Of A Ladies' Man, an unlikely collaboration with producer Phil Spector. Although Cohen's songs retained their accustomed high standard, a grandiose backing proved ill-fitting and he later disowned the project. Recent Songs (1979) and Various Positions (1984) were excellent, if underrated collections, with the latter featuring one of his finest compositions, "Hallelujah" (later covered to memorable effect by both John Cale and Jeff Buckley). Various Positions also marked the first time Cohen collaborated with Hawaiian singer-songwriter Anjani and Leanne Ungar, the studio engineer who would go on to work with the singer on all his subsequernt recordings.
Cohen's career seemed confined to a small, committed audience until Jennifer Warnes, a former backing vocalist, released Famous Blue Raincoat in 1987. This commercially successful celebratory set was comprised solely of Cohen's songs and served as a timely reminder of his gifts. His own next set, I'm Your Man, was thus afforded widespread attention and attendant live performances formed the core of a BBC television documentary. Tracks such as "First We Take Manhattan", "Everybody Knows" and "Tower Of Song' revealed Cohen's artistry intact and suggested that his major compositions were growing in stature with the passing of time. This was confirmed by 1992"s excellent The Future on which Cohen sounded confident and fresh with lyrics as biting and interesting as ever, most notably on the title track ("Give me crack and anal sex/Take the only tree that's left/And stuff it up the hole/In your culture").
Despite his profile being higher than ever, Cohen elected to spend the rest of the decade in the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles as a reclusive figure, emerging only to support the recording career of his son Adam. He returned to the studio at the start of the new millennium to record his first album in almost a decade, Ten New Songs. The album was co-written by singer-songwriter Sharon Robinson, who had first worked with Cohen as a backing singer on his 1979 tour before making her collaborative debut on the I'm Your Man track "Everybody Knows". The 2004 follow-up Dear Heather was released shortly after Cohen had celebrated his 70th birthday, and featured further collaborations with Robinson and Anjani. The upswing in Cohen activities was instigated by his alarming financial situation, following the revelation that his longtime manager Kelley Lynch had misappropriated over $5 million of his retirement funds. The artist was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2008.
