Leonard Cohen

by David Sheppard, John Aizlewood (Editor)

The consort of Janis Joplin and Rebecca De Mornay and one-time collaborator of Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen has for the last five years been a full-time resident of the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles where he submitted to the rigors of zazen and communal living. He was officially ordained a Buddhist monk and given the name of Jikan (Silent One). Born in Montreal in 1934, Cohen received international recognition for his second collection of poems The Spice Box of the Earth in 1961, rising to prominence in 1967 with his debut album The Songs of Leonard Cohen. His most recent album, The Future, is his eleventh. He has written two novels including the cult classic Beautiful Losers, and eight volumes of poetry. Author David Sheppard explores Cohen's fifty year odyssey through Judaic mythology, drugs, alcohol, sex, and Buddhism. What he finds is a man with a unique ability to serve up bleak but heartfelt individual truth. "Cohen has always been a man of surprises, so much so that many take him to be a man of artful disguises (as he sometimes does himself). His life has always been dangerously mythic..." -- Pico Iyer

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Tekken · Rating 1 out of 5]

Üpris kõhnuke ja mitte eriti õnnestunud katse meie kõigi lemmikut portreteerida. Autori anne jäi ainesele praktiliselt igal leheküljel alla. Nii ontliku ellusuhtumisega kirjutaja oleks võinud vast mõne teise teema valida.

[Thomas Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for Leonard Cohen

- 1 star for this author, who is pompous, and very punchable, in a literary sense.

[Skel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do yourself a favour and read a thesaurus, while listening to Leonard Cohen, instead of reading this book. I guarantee you will gain more insight into the man behind the music and you won't run the risk of a subconjunctival hemorrhage, due to excessive eye rolling.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe only 4.5 stars. A gloss on Cohen's life but, dammit, he's just so interesting.

[Marca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kui sa loed raamatut ühest oma lemmikmuusikust ja ikka tuleb uni peale, siis see raamat pole vist kõige parem...Osaliselt kuiv ja referaadilaadne, teisalt imelikku sarkastilist huumorit täis ülevaade Coheni ellu aastal 2000, mil autor arvas tema loometee lõppenud olevaks. Pea igalt lehelt võib lugeda üsna kummalisi lauseid stiilis: "Siidpehme helimaastik moodustab Coheni halisevale resignatsioonile suurepäraselt neitsiliku alusmaalingu". Kohati tundub olevat halb tõlge (lugesin eestikeelset versiooni), kohati kumabki läbi selline punnitatud kirjaviis. Saan aru, et autor ongi muusikakriitik ja suhtub oma teemadesse võimalikult erapooletult, kuid minu jaoks oli raamatus vähe "inimlikku lähedust". Vaatasin, et raamat on ilmunud sarjas "Kill Your Idols", seega võib seesugune stiil ka taotluslik olla.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

a slim little biography touching on some points of interest, mostly items of trivia relating to the inspiration for Cohen's songs and poems. The shortness seemed to have more to do with the author exhausting his thesaurus than with a lack of biographical data... the prose getting very tiresome at times, dispensing the "$10 words" with little purpose except to attempt some kind of literary virtuosity that isn't matched by the actual quality of the writing.

I betcha there are better Cohen biographies out there. Rock star biographies not really being a genre I dive into with gusto, I probably won't look too far and long for them.

P.S. Leonard Cohen rules!

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

I Love Leonard Cohen. But I did not love this book. It had a few interesting bits but not a ton of stuff I didn't already know. Also this authors "song by song analysis" was painful to read and I have the desire to punch him in the face. He talks down on some of the really good songs from the early albums and calls Cohen's keyboard solo in "Tower of Song" AUTISTIC. Oh well another music journalist who's a failed musician I suppose...

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This biography is not as interesting as Cohen's songs and poetry...Not much detail, and not memorable...The song-by-song breakdown was fun, but that was the only part of the book I enjoyed. This was written before Cohen's comeback in the 2000s. Ultimately, maybe the best person to tell Cohen's story is Cohen himself. If you're just getting your feet wet in the Leonard Cohen discography, then this might be good for some quick background info.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laughably pretentious, at times, in its attempts at stylish iconoclasm. Also very smug, but not entirely without interest and insight.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

just kinda sparse

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent... excellent... excellent! (You're not artsy-er than me... just because you have sideburns and a vintage tee!)

[Richard]

Very well written, incisive yet highly critical study of Cohen and his influences...