Among other things, his poetry and novels were known for sexually explicit imagery, but also for their focus on themes of depression and suicide.Ĭohen suffered from depression for much of his life, and this was reflected in some of his writing and his songs. While a student at McGill University, Cohen began publishing books of poetry.
Cohen’s paternal grandfather had been the founder of the Canadian Jewish Congress.īelow is a photo of Leonard Cohen performing at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970. He began his career as a poet and novelist, but then branched out to become a singer-songwriter.Ĭohen was born in 1934 to a middle-class Jewish family in an English-speaking area of Montreal. Leonard Cohen was a multi-talented artist. Cohen’s song Democracy (Is Coming to the USA) is one of Merle’s favorite songs. We want to dedicate this blog post to our good friend Merle McClung, whom we met when we were in graduate school. As we will see, Cohen was a man of many talents. Leonard Cohen passed away on November 7, 2016. We will then discuss covers of this song by Jeff Buckley and by k. We will review the original written by Leonard Cohen. This has to be one of the most frequently-covered songs of all time. Hello there! In this week’s blog we will discuss the song Hallelujah.