QuoteReplyTopic: Leonard Cohen Dead at 82 Posted: 11 Nov 2016 at 12:04am
Leonard Cohen, one of Canada and the world’s greatest singer-songwriters, has died.
A post on his official Facebook page
broke the news and said a memorial service would take place at a later
date in Los Angeles. It did not say when or how Cohen had died.
My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles with the knowledge that he had completed what he felt was one of his greatest records. He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humour.
Tributes have poured in
from musicians, writers, poets and politicians. Canadian prime minister
Justin Trudeau, whose father Pierre was a longtime friend of the
singer, said:
His ability to conjure the vast array of human emotion made him one of the most influential and enduring musicians ever.
Fans have left messages and candles at the Chelsea Hotel in New York and outside Cohen’s Montreal home.
In an interview last month, Cohen said he was “ready to die”.He told the New Yorker:
I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me.
Agence France-Presse posts these 10 key moments from Leonard Cohen’s life:
21 September 1934: Cohen is born in Montreal to a Jewish family of Polish origin. His father dies when he is nine years old.
1956-1961: After studying history at McGill University, Montreal,
and spending a year at Columbia University in New York, he publishes his
first poetry volumes – Let Us Compare Mythologies then The Spice-Box of
Earth - before heading to Europe on a scholarship.
1963: During a seven-year spell living on the Greek island of Hydra,
he writes Flowers for Hitler, one of his most controversial poetry
collections; his first novel, The Favorite Game; and Beautiful Losers, a
book about religion and sexuality that prompts the Boston Globe to
compare him to fellow novelist James Joyce.
Early 1968: His musical career begins with his first album Songs of
Leonard Cohen, a year after the success of Suzanne performed by American
singer Judy Collins.
1970: He begins his first tour of the United States, Canada and Europe, participating in the Isle of Wight music festival.
988: The huge success of I’m Your Man, an album in a new style using
synthesisers and more sombre lyrics, is recorded in Los Angeles where
Cohen is now living.
1994: Cohen retires to a Buddhist monastery on Mount Baldy,
California, and in August 1996 is ordained as a Zen monk with the name
Jikan, meaning “The Silent One”.
1999: Defrauded and almost bankrupted by his former manager, he begins performing again and releases a new album, Ten New Songs.
2010: Already firmly established in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in New York, Cohen receives a Grammy lifetime achievement award. He is
also made a Companion to the Order of Canada (2003) and given the Prince
of Asturias award for letters (2011).
2016: For his 82nd birthday, he makes his 14th album together with
his son Adam and the choir of Montreal synagogue, adding to the
intensity of his voice that is now darker than ever as he sings “Hineni,
hineni, my Lord”, meaning “I’m ready, my Lord” in Hebrew.
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