Leonard Cohen

Biographical Information

-Born in Montreal, Canada of Canadian and Russian Jewish heritage

-Father: a prosperous Canadian Jew with a high-end clothing business who always dressed in suits. Mother: 16 years younger than her husband, an emotional and loving Russian, daughter of a Rabbi

-older sister, Esther

-Close-knit Jewish community. One of the most prominent Jewish families in Montreal. "The aristocracy of the intellect" -Lyon Cohen, Leonard's grandfather.

-Saturday service, Sunday Sunday school, two afternoons a week for Hebrew school. A short walk down the hill.

-Westmount largely upper-middle class Protestant English Canadians or second- or third-generation Jews. Minority in Catholic Canada. Everyone felt like outsider that belonged to something important: It was a "a romantic, conspiratorial mental environment", a place of "blood, soil and destiny." "That is the landscape I grew up in . . . and it's very natural to me."

Later Years to Present

-Attended Columbia University for 2 years, writing.

-Published The Spice Box of Earth

-Greece, Marianne and Axel (previous marriage)

-Cuba during Revolution

-Started recording. Hallelujah was rejected.

-Zen monastery in California

-Financial difficulty, on tour for a living and for passion.

Has far more than enough but plans to record more

and go on new tour starting in 2015, he will be 80.

Early Career

- Father died when 9 years old

-Very involved in high school: presidency of student council, yearbook publishing board, a member of the Menorah Club, Art Club, the Current Events Club, the Young Men's Hebrew Association and a cheerleader.

-Quick-witted. Unabashed. Content. Comfortable and secure in an uncomfortable time (WWII).

-Attended McGill University: the Buckskin Boys (Jewish, Protestant and Catholic). Always writing and playing guitar (seeing Cohen with a guitar was similar as a seeing him with a notebook). Get-togethers with peers and professors, poets and writers- confident. First year- 56.4%, better grades in math. Social and loving it. English major.

"Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh."

-Leonard Cohen

John 1:14- "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." -Leonard Cohen

"I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly."

-Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

"After the Sabbath Prayers"

After the Sabbath Prayers

After the Sabbath prayers

The Baal Shem's butterfly

Followed me down the hill.

Now the Baal Shem is dead

These hundreds of years

And a butterfly ends its life

In three flag-swept days.

So this was a miracle,

Dancing down all these wars and truces

Yellow as a first-day butterfly,

Nothing of time or massacre

In its bright flutter.

Now the sharp stars are in the sky

And I am shivering as I did last night,

And the wind is not warmer

For the yellow butterfly

Folded somewhere on a sticky leaf

And moving like a leaf itself.

And how truly great

A miracle this is, that I,

Who this morning saw the Baal Shem's butterfly

Doing its glory in the sun,

Should spend this night in darkness,

Hands pocketed against the flies and cold.

Hallelujah

"Hallelujah"

I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time when you let me know

What's really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you

The holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above

But all I’ve ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

It’s not a cry you can hear at night

It’s not somebody who has seen the light

It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain

I don't even know the name

But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?

There's a blaze of light in every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Artistry

Love, Sex, Music, Religion, Depression, Music

Poet first, then performer