Cohen, songwriter noted for 'Hallelujah,' dies at 82

Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen

LOS ANGELES -- Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter who seamlessly blended spirituality and sexuality in hits like "Hallelujah," "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire," has died at age 82.

Cohen's label confirmed a statement on his Facebook page Thursday that he has passed away. No further details on his death were given.

Cohen blended folk music with a darker edge that won him fans around the world and among fellow musicians like Bob Dylan and R.E.M.

He remained wildly popular into his 80s. He toured as recently as earlier this year and released a new album just last month.

His "Hallelujah" became a cult hit when it was covered by musician Jeff Buckley in 1994, singing an arrangement by John Cale, and has become a modern standard since.

Cohen, who once said he got into music because he couldn't make a living as a poet, rose to prominence during the folk music revival of the 1960s.

During those years, he traveled the folk circuit with the likes of Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and others as they were moving popular music away from a reliance on lightweight pop lyrics to songs that contained deeply personal meanings.

Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, telling the audience: "This is a very unlikely occasion for me. It is not a distinction that I coveted or even dared dream about."

Born Sept. 21, 1934, in Montreal, he formed a country music group called the Buckskin Boys while still in his teens.

He was attending McGill University when his poetry book, Let Us Compare Mythologies, was published in 1956. It was followed by The Spice-Box of Earth in 1961. His first novel, The Favourite Game, came out in 1963.

He published several more poetry collections in the 1960s and began to get wide notice with his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1968.

In all, he published more than a dozen novels and books of poetry and recorded nearly two dozen albums.

Cohen never married but he had two children, Adam and Lorca, with artist Suzanne Elrod.

A Section on 11/11/2016

Upcoming Events