Remembering singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016

“Songs of Leonard Cohen,” released in 1968, was the artist’s first studio album.

“Leonard Cohen seems on the verge of becoming a major spokesman for the aging pilgrims of his generation,” The New York Times wrote that year. He told the Times interviewer: “I don’t even think of myself as a writer, singer or whatever. The occupation of being a man is so much more.” 

The legendary singer-songwriter died at 82, his label confirmed on Thursday. 

Leonard Cohen - 1969

Cohen’s 1969 album “Songs from a Room” contains one of his most well-known songs, “Bird on the Wire.”

The singer, who once said he got into music because he couldn’t make a living as a poet, rose to prominence during the folk music revival of the 1960s. During those years, he traveled the folk circuit with the likes of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and others as they were moving popular music away from a reliance on lightweight pop lyrics to songs that contained deeply personal meanings. 

Leonard Cohen - 1970

Cohen, pictured here at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970, never seemed quite as comfortable on stage, however, and he chalked it up in part to being the old man among the group of his performer friends, who included Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. 

“I was at least 10 years older than the rest of them,” he told Magazine, a supplement to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, in 2001.  

Leonard Cohen - 1971

“Songs of Love and Hate,” Leonard Cohen’s 1971 album, was his most commercially successful album in the U.K. and Australia.

Cohen, who was born Sept. 21, 1934, in Montreal, had an interest in music from an early age. He formed a country music group called the Buckskin Boys while still in his teens. 

Leonard Cohen - 1976

Cohen poses for a photo on a railroad track on April 25, 1976, on the day of a concert in Munich. 

Before he became a singer, Cohen had success as a poet. He was attending McGill University when his poetry book, “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” was published in 1956 to critical acclaim. It was followed by “The Spice-Box of Earth” in 1961. His first novel, “The Favourite Game,” came out in 1963. 

He published several more poetry collections while living on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s and began to get wide notice with his experimental novel “Beautiful Losers” in 1966 and his first album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” in 1968. 

Leonard Cohen - 1977

Leonard Cohen was indeed known for being a ladies’ man, as the title of his 1977 album “Death of a Ladies’ Man” acknowledges. He never married, but he had two children, Adam and Lorca, with artist Suzanne Elrod. 

In later years, he was linked romantically with actress Rebecca De Mornay and with jazz singer Anjani Thomas, who performed on several of his albums. 

Leonard Cohen - 1984

Leonard Cohen’s 1984 album “Various Positions” included his most famous hit, “Hallelujah.”

“Hallelujah” has been covered many times over the years -- among the artists who have covered it are Bon Jovi, Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor, Michael McDonald, Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake, k.d. lang, Brandi Carlile, Susan Boyle, Bono, Willie Nelson and Renee Fleming, though the most famous cover of it was probably Jeff Buckley’s. It was featured in the movie “Shrek” and TV’s “The O.C.,” “The West Wing” and “American Idol.” And outside of the entertainment world, “Hallelujah” has also been used at Jewish and Christian religious services.

Leonard Cohen - 1988

Leonard Cohen’s 1988 album “I’m Your Man” included “Ain’t No Cure For Love,” “First We Take Manhattan,” “Tower of Song” and “Everybody Knows.”

Cohen was close with peer Bob Dylan, who told The New Yorker in 2016 that Cohen’s best work was “deep and truthful,” “multidimensional” and “surprisingly melodic.” 

Leonard Cohen - 1995

Cohen was a student and friend of Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a Zen Buddhist monk, and from 1994 to 1999 he lived as a disciple of Roshi’s at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in Los Angeles. Cohen, shown in this 1995 file photo, followed the strict daily regimen of a monk while continuing to write poetry and compose music in his two-room wooden cabin. He rose at 2:30 a.m. after just four hours of sleep and spent much of each day meditating and doing chores. 

He claimed not to fully understand Buddhist concepts, but he said the retreat and its hard work gave him a better sense of himself. 

Leonard Cohen - 2001

Leonard Cohen’s 2001 album “Ten New Songs” was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson, who also sang on all of the tracks.

Leonard Cohen - 2006

Cohen was the subject of the documentary “Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man.” The film focused on the legendary singer-songwriter, with performances by those musicians he has influenced. Cohen is pictured here at its Los Angeles premiere.

Leonard Cohen - 2006

In 2006, Cohen won a lawsuit against his former manager, Kelley Lynch, whom he alleged stole more than $5 million of his retirement money while he was in seclusion at the Zen center. He was left with a nest egg of about $150,000, the lawsuit claimed. 

Cohen was awarded $9.5 million but he was unable to collect it. He returned to touring in 2008-09 in part because of the financial losses, telling The New York Times the case was “a long, ongoing problem of a disastrous and relentless indifference to my financial situation. I didn’t even know where the bank was.” 

Leonard Cohen - 2008

Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008.

Leonard Cohen - 2009

Cohen performed at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, on April 17, 2009.

Leonard Cohen - 2010

Cohen won a lifetime achievement award during the 52nd annual Grammy Awards-Special Merit Awards on January 30, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.  

Leonard Cohen - 2011

The singer was moved to tears during a concert called “A Tribute to Leonard Cohen” in Gijon, northern Spain, on October 19, 2011. 

Leonard Cohen - 2011

Cohen received from Spain’s Prince Felipe the 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters during the Prince of Asturias awards ceremony on October 21, 2011 in Oviedo. 

Leonard Cohen - 2012

Cohen and Chuck Berry became the first two recipients of PEN New England’s Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on February 26, 2012. 

Leonard Cohen - 2012

The singer received the Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto on May 14, 2012. The Glenn Gould Prize is awarded biennially to a living individual for a lifetime contribution to the arts. 

Leonard Cohen - 2014

Cohen released his album “Popular Problems” in 2014. Here, he is pictured at a listening party for the album on Thursday, Sept 18, 2014 in New York.