Leonard Cohen

Fact Sheet

Birthday	21 September 1934 (75)
Sign	Virgo
Birthplace	Canada

Leonard Cohen (born September 21, 1934), a Canadian poet, novelist, songwriter and singer, was born in Montreal, Quebec, where he attended McGill University. His first poetry book, Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956) was published while he was an undergraduate. In 1961, The Spice Box Of Earth made him widely famous.

After moving to Greece, Cohen published Flowers For Hitler in 1964, and the novels The Favorite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966). The Favorite Game is an autobiographical 'Bildungsroman' about a young man finding his identity in writing. In contrast, Beautiful Losers can be considered as an 'Anti-Bildungsroman' since it - in an early post-modern fashion - deconstructs the identity of the main characters by means of combining the sacred and the profane, religion and sexuality in a rich, lyrical language. For a good survey of Cohen's written works see Leonard Cohen by Steven Scobie (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978).

Cohen went to the United States and began to perform in folk festivals. His album The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967 in music) was followed by Songs From a Room, Songs of Love and Hate (1971 in music), New Skin for the Old Ceremony, Death of a Ladies' Man, Recent Songs, Various Positions, I'm Your Man (1988 in music), The Future (1992 in music) and Ten New Songs (2001 in music).

Cohen has continued to record intermittently since that time, his cryptic yet satisfying lyrics and evocative sound continuing to attract discerning music lovers of all ages.

Many of Cohen's songs have been interpreted by other artists, often receiving far more popular attention than Cohen's own, typically minimalistic arrangements. Examples include "First We Take Manhattan" (Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes, REM), "Bird On A Wire" (The Neville Brothers, Fairport Convention, Judy Collins), and "Hallelujah" (Bob Dylan, John Cale, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley). As of December 31, 2002, the site www.leonardcohenfiles.com had counted a total of 759 published cover versions of Cohen's songs.

In 1991, Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
In 1996, Cohen ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk at the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, California as Jikan, a Dharma name meaning silent one. He left in Spring 1999.
In 2003, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honour.

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