He was the best and a Canadian....RIP Cohen

This song was stolen from you after you wrote it ...


“Suzanne” (1967)
Cohen wrote his first single, featured on his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen, as a tribute to a friend and muse named Suzanne Verdal, with whom Cohen struck up a relationship in Montreal in 1965. Singer-songwriter Judy Collins would release a version of this song in 1966, prior to Cohen, but it is the author’s own version that remains definitive. It would also establish the hallmarks of Cohen’s songs: spare instrumentation (lilting acoustic guitars, angelic back-up singers, wisps of strings) and incredibly evocative storytelling about the mysteries of the human soul. “And you want to travel with her and you want to travel blind,” Cohen croons. “And you know that she will trust you / For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.” —Kevin O’Donnell


Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, Cohen received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

“So Long, Marianne” (1967)
The song’s subject was Marianne Ihlen, one of Cohen’s most famous muses and with whom Cohen had a relationship in the sixties. In August, Ihlen passed away due to leukemia and Cohen penned a touching tribute to his friend that read, in part, “I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.” One hopes the two are reunited in the great beyond, duetting the song’s touching refrain, “It’s time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.” —KO

"So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. It was featured on his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Pitchfork Media placed it at number 190 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s.
The song was inspired by Marianne Jensen, born Marianne Ihlen, whom Cohen met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. Cohen said she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. She had recently been left by her husband, the Norwegian writer Axel Jensen, leaving her and their six-month-old son alone on the island. The two hit it off, and Cohen ultimately took her from Hydra back to her home in Oslo, Norway. He later invited her and her son to live with him in Montreal, an offer which she accepted. The two lived together throughout the 1960s, commuting between New York, Montreal, and Hydra.


I hope you found Marianne in heaven and are laughing and crying ...RIP maestro

“Hallelujah” (1984)
Cohen surely never could have guessed the pop-culture afterlife his gospel-tinged dirge was destined for when he wrote it more than 30 years ago. Though all that followed — up to and including a now-iconic Jeff Buckley cover, and untold number of spectacularly misguided American Idol auditions — still can’t diminish its singular power. —LG

It's amazing how Pacino looks like Cohen


Leonard Cohen ~ Dance Me To The End Of Love

You were such a beautiful soul and I have barely even begun to dive into the depths of that which you gave this uncertain, ever-changing world... I know that when I'm ready to take that trip I will find a muse unlike any I've yet encountered. Just the little I've seen of you resonates so strongly within my spirit; the struggles you faced make mine all the more concrete and definable; you are a beacon in an oft-aimless ocean and one day I will rest upon the shores of your experience and delight in such a familiarity that I might as well be in my own bed, awaiting my moment to ascend to the Promised Land.

“Bird on the Wire” (1969)
Another Cohen tune that was initially recorded by Judy Collins, Cohen’s spare country tune is a soul-baring plea for redemption. The song cut so deep that Kris Kristofferson reportedly told Cohen he wanted the song’s first lines — “Like a bird on the wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried in my way to be free” — stamped on his tombstone, and it has been faithfully covered by greats like Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, and others. —KO

“First We Take Manhattan” (1987)
Ready for disco Cohen? In his most club-ready song, the bard addresses terrorism, both the literal and the psychic kind. The lyrics frighten and amuse in equal measure, while the music functions as Cohen’s answer to Marianne Faithfull’s “Broken English,” creating a danceable vision of doom. —JF

Thanks for the songs .

Hope you found Marianne and she saved the last dance for you ...RIP.

This was the last performance of his life.

I came to Canada from the Caribbean in 1968 to Montreal,  Canada . A Friend at McGill University gave me a radio

I click it on that Saturday night and got  a Montreal FM radio station that featured a young Canadian songwriter-poet and singer
named Leonard Cohen , I enjoyed that hour listening to him. Became a fan .

Thank you for a lifetime of memories, Maestro. You were a major part of my musical life for the past 50 years.
Ups and downs were commemorated through your music.

Perhaps his most memorable song from Canadian poet/songwriter & performer Leonard Cohen. Cohen specified, notably in a BBC interview,
that the song was about encountering Suzanne Verdal, the then wife of sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, in a Montreal setting. Indeed, many lines
describe different elements of the city, including its river (the Saint Lawrence) and a little chapel near the harbour, called Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (literally Our Lady of Good Help), which sits on the side of the harbour that faces the rising sun in the morning, as it is described in the song.

Suzanne Verdal was interviewed by CBC News's The National in 2006 about the song. Verdal claims that she and Cohen never had sexual relations, contrary to what some interpretations of the song suggest. Cohen himself stated in a 1994 BBC interview that he only imagined having sex with her, as there was neither the opportunity nor inclination to actually go through with it. She says she has met Cohen twice since the song's initial popularity; once after a concert Cohen performed in the 1970s and once in passing in the 1990s when she danced for him, but Cohen did not speak to her (and possibly did not recognize her).

A few days ago , he passed away ,
Leonard Cohen passed in California and was buried in Montreal, in a pine box beside his mother and father as per Jewish custom, (3 days before it was announced). Apparently, he had taken a fall earlier, then went to bed and passed in his sleep...peaceful.

You may not have heard of him . He was brilliant as an orator , with a raspy
voice . He went on to become a Buddist monk , his manager stole millions from him and he had to resume
his career later in life .

Physically , you have left us but your songs will remain eternal ,
May he find eternal rest .

They chose Dylan for the Nobel Prize .

In Time your works will be deemed greater .

Meet Leonard Cohen's Muse Suzanne Verdal

You're still a raging beauty, Suzanne!
So glad to have met you at last.