Song 176 - Three of the Greatest Leonard Cohen Songs

The word sadly says goodbye to the talented Leonard Cohen today, who died at the age of 82. Born in Canada; Cohen was not only a singer but a poet and novelist and leaves the world with an incredible legacy of songs that will be part of the worldwide musical history. I first came across the music of Cohen as a student studying in Edinburgh in the 1990s. The person who introduced me to his music loved to claim such a broad range of music taste, but, sometimes, I thought that the musical tastes where his dad's and like me, his parents' tastes became his own and he past Cohen on to me. 

The one song I associated most with Cohen, mainly because it is one of the only songs where I heard his original version first is I'm your man. Taken from his 1988 album of the same name,  I absolutely love Cohen's lyrics throughout this song, it is a love song but without all the shoulder pads and glam rock of the 1980s. When I listen to this song I remember a Soul Club in the West end of Edinburgh where we used to go and just chill out and enjoy music until the small hours.  The song lyrics are a loose translation of the poem Pequeno Vals Vienes by Federico Garcia Lorca, one of Cohen's favourite poets. 

The album itself was hailed as a return to form for Cohen and remained number one in Norway for 16 weeks and topped the charts in the UK. When asked to vote on the favourite Leonard Cohen songs of all time, readers of Rolling Stones put I'm you man" in the top ten along with two other tracks on this album.   

Listen to I'm your man by Leonard Cohen

My second Cohen song is "Favourite Blue Raincoat", which he wrote in 1971 and released as part of his third album, Songs of Love and Hate. Written as a letter, the lyric tells the story of a love triangle between the singer, a women named Jane, and the male addressee, who is identified only briefly as " my brother, my killer". I was first introduced to the cover version that Toris Amos did in the late 1990s. Amos is one of my favourite songwriter and her style on covering this song blew me away.  

It strikes a lovely melancholic image of a well- loved jacket that symbolised a person. Cohen said that he was the owner of the famous blue raincoat but claimed as a composition he was never satisfied with the song. Thinking the Cohen wasn't happy with the song makes me wonder what he would have like to have changed it! As to me, the song is perfect.

Listen to Famous Blue Raincoat
Listen to Tori Amos' Version

The last song, which is probably the most widely known out of my choice of three is Hallelujah which was first released in 1984 on the studio album Various Position. The song itself at the time of release had very limited commercial success, to begin with. However, in the 1990s, people started covering it, with the most famous being Jeff Buckley and the song has become an international hit, covered by many. I think Jeff Buckley's version stays with people because of his untimely death and the fact that he never saw how much of an impact his version of Cohen's classic would have on the world. 

Hallelujah is another song which Cohen struggled with and there is a suggestion put forward that he may have written as many as 80 versions before recording it for his album. The album itself was nearly never released. Another song that I can now not imagine life without and the different version evoke different memories for me.

Listen to Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
Listen to Jeff Buckley's Version
Listen to Rufus Wainwright's version

There is a line from a poem that I read that says "Death is nothing at all, I have only stepped into the next room." Cohen joins a wealth of pop royalty that has left the world stage for heaven's this year and all we have left are the wealth of their sweet lyrics to comfort us in dark times. RIP Leonard Cohen, thank you for your music.