Leonard Cohen Lyrics

Leonard Cohen Info:

Birth name:
Leonard Norman Cohen

Born:
September 21st, 1934

Died:
November 7th, 2016 (at the age of 82)

From:
Westmount, Quebec, Canada

Genres:
Folk, folk rock, soft rock, spoken word

Occupations:
Musician, singer-songwriter, poet, novelist

Instruments:
Vocals, guitar, keyboards

Years active:
1956-2016

Associated acts:
Jennifer Warnes
Judy Collins

Romantic Links:
Engaged to Rebecca De Mornay in the 1990's
2 Children with Suzanne Elrod

Children:
Son Adam Coehn born in 1972
Daughter Lorca Cohen born in 1974

Did You Know:
• Wrote his first book of poetry in 1956 and his first novel in 1963

Leonard Cohen Quotes:
A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.

Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.

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

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.

Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

Seven to eleven is a huge chunk of life, full of dulling and forgetting. It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armor themselves against wonder.

The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation's sweetest dreams of itself.


Leonard Cohen Awards:
1964
the Québec Literary Competition Prize (awarded 1923-70 by the Province of Québec) The Favourite Game (Cohen's first novel)

1968
Governor General's Award (English language poetry or drama) for Selected Poems 1956-1968. (Refused)

1970
Honorary degree from Dalhousie University

1984
The Golden Rose, the main award at the international television festival Rose d'Or in Montreux, for I am a Hotel, made-for-TV short musical film written by Cohen and based on his songs.

1985
Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry for Book of Mercy

1986
Genie Award for Best Original Song for "Angel Eyes" from Night Magic (with Lewis Furey)

1988
Columbia Records Crystal Globe Award from CBS for I'm Your Man. The award is for artists who sell more than five million copies of an album in foreign territories

1989
Nominated for Juno Awards for Canadian Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year

1991
Officer of the Order of Canada

1991
Induction into the Juno/Canadian Music Hall of Fame

1991
Nominated for a Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year.

1992
Honorary degree from McGill University, Montreal.

1993
Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. The video for Closing Time, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, won for Best Video. He was also nominated as Producer of the Year (with co-producer Leanne Ungar, for "Closing Time").

1993
Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

1994
Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year and was nominated for the Juno Award for Album of the Year (for The Future). The video for The Future, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, was nominated for Juno Award for Best Video.

1996
Ordained a Rinzai Buddhist monk.

2001
Nagroda Muzyczna Fryderyk, the annual Polish music award, for best foreign album (Ten New Songs).

2002
Nominated for Juno Award as Best Songwriter Cohen (with Sharon Robinson) for "Boogie Street", "In My Secret Life", and "You Have Loved Enough").

2002
Nominated for the Juno Award for Best Video for "In My Secret Life", directed by Floria Sigismondi. Ten New Songs nominated for Best Pop Album, and he was nominated for Best Artist.

2002
SNEP Award Cohen for more than 100,000 copies sold of Ten New Songs in France.

2003
Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's second highest civilian honour.

2004
Inclusion in Canada Reads 2005 with Beautiful Losers

2005
Induction into the Canadian Folk Music Walk of Fame.

2006
Induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2007
Grammy for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters.

2008
Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Lou Reed who described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."

2008
Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

2009
Long Listed for the Polaris Music Prize for Live in London

2009
Nominated for Mojo Honours Lists for Best Live Act category.

2009
Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2008 show in Dublin's IMMA's Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

2010
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

2010
A second Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2009 show in Dublin's O2.

2010
Porin Award in Croatia in category of foreign video programme, for his Live in London DVD.

2010
Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2011
Glenn Gould Prize

2011
Prince of Asturias Awards, Literature, Spain

2012
Inaugural PEN Award for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence. Chuck Berry received same award.

2012
Prix Denise-Pelletier

2013
Juno Award, Artist of the Year.