Leonard Cohen: The Death of the Incandescent Songwriter-Poet, 1932 – 2016

RollingStone explained the irreplaceable Mr. Cohen and his music very well:

“Leonard Cohen, the hugely influential singer and songwriter whose work spanned five decades, died at the age of 82. Cohen’s label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed his death on the singer’s Facebook page.

“‘It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,’ the statement read. ‘We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief.’ A cause of death and exact date of death was not given.

“Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet. Cohen’s haunting bass voice, nylon-stringed guitar patterns, Greek-chorus backing vocals shaped evocative songs that dealt with love and hate, sex and spirituality, war and peace, ecstasy and depression. He was also the rare artist of his generation to enjoy artistic success into his Eighties, releasing his final album, You Want It Darker, earlier this year.

Here’s the title song from that newest—and last—album, You Want It Darker. It’s Leonard’s good-bye, telling us that he would soon be exiting the building. And so he did.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Cohen. We will miss you terribly.

And then there are all the rest…

Other singers have interpreted Mr. Cohen wonderfully, Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave among them, along with once-lover and recording collaborator, Jennifer Warnes.

And of course there is Jeff Buckley with his heart-tearing and luminous version of Hallelujah.

But nobody does Cohen’s work quite like the man himself.