,
CC (born
September 21 ,
1934 in
Montreal ,
Quebec ,
Canada ) is a Canadian
Poet ,
Novelist , and
Singer-songwriter . His musical career has largely overshadowed his prior work as a poet and novelist, although he has continued to publish poetry sporadically after his breakthrough in the music industry.
Musically, Cohen's early songs are based in
Folk Music , both for melodies and instrumentation, but, beginning in the
1970s , his work shows the influence of various types of
Popular Music and
Cabaret music. Since the
1980s he typically sings in a deep bass register, with
Synthesizers and female backing vocals.
Cohen's songs are often emotionally heavy and lyrically complex, owing more to the metaphoric word play of poetry than to the conventions of song craft. His work often explores the themes of
Religion ,
Isolation ,
Sex , and complex interpersonal relationships.
Cohen's music has become very influential on other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand
Cover Version s of his work have been recorded. He is iconic in his native land, having been inducted into the
Canadian Music Hall Of Fame , the
Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame and awarded the
Order Of Canada , the nation's highest civilian honor.
Cohen was born to a middle-class and formed a
Country -folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided Leonard with a modest
Trust income, sufficient to allow him to freely pursue his literary ambitions for some time without risking economic ruin.
Cohen idealized his father and his death threw him into a deep
Depression . As he grew older he began taking the then legal drug
LSD as a treatment. Cohen has said that he believes the drug opened his awareness to the "hypocrisy" and "self-delusion" that are "common traits of humanity," ideas which are prominent themes in his songs. His depression did not lift until the late 1990s. His mother Masha Cohen, from whom he inherited his love for songs and poets, died in
1978 .
In
1951 , Cohen enrolled at
McGill University , where he was president of the
McGill Debating Union and pursued a career as a poet. His first
Poetry book, ''
Let Us Compare Mythologies '' (
1956 ), was published while he was an undergraduate. ''
The Spice-Box Of Earth '' (
1961 ) made him well-known in poetry circles, especially in his native
Canada .
Cohen applied a strong work ethic to his early and keen literary ambitions. He wrote poetry and fiction through much of the
1960s , and preferred even as a young man to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances. After moving to
Hydra , a
Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection ''
Flowers For Hitler '' (
1964 ), and the novels ''
The Favourite Game '' (
1963 ) and ''
Beautiful Losers '' (
1966 ). ''The Favourite Game'' is an autobiographical ''
Bildungsroman '' about a young man finding his identity in writing. In contrast, ''Beautiful Losers'' can be considered as an 'anti-bildungsroman' since it — in an early
Postmodern fashion — deconstructs the identity of the main characters by combining the sacred and the profane, religion and sexuality in a rich, lyrical language. Reflecting Cohen's ''
Québécois '' roots, but perhaps unusually for someone from a Jewish background, a secondary plot in ''Beautiful Losers'' concerns
Tekakwitha , the
Roman Catholic Iroquois mystic. ''Beautiful Losers'', greeted initially with shock by Canadian reviewers who berated it for its explicit sexual content, is today considered by many critics to be among the finest literary novels of the 1960s. For a good early survey of Cohen's written work, see ''Leonard Cohen'' by Steven Scobie (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978).
In
1967 , Cohen relocated to the
United States to pursue a career as a folk singer-songwriter. His song "
Suzanne " became a hit for
Judy Collins , and after performing at a few folk festivals, Cohen was discovered by
John H. Hammond , the same
Columbia Records representative who discovered
Bob Dylan and
Bruce Springsteen , among others.
The sound of Cohen's first album ''
Songs Of Leonard Cohen '' (
1967 ) was much too downtrodden to be a commercial success, but was widely acclaimed by folk music buffs and by Cohen's peers. He became a cult name in the UK, where it spent over a year on the album charts. He followed up with ''
Songs From A Room '' (
1969 ) (featuring the oft-covered "
Bird On The Wire "), ''
Songs Of Love And Hate '' (
1971 ), and ''
New Skin For The Old Ceremony '' (
1974 ).
Throughout the late
1960s and early
1970s , Cohen toured the United States, Canada and
Europe . In
1973 , Cohen toured
Israel and performed at army bases during the
Yom Kippur War . Beginning around 1974, his collaboration with pianist/arranger
John Lissauer created a live sound almost universally praised by the critics, but never really captured on record. During his time, Cohen often toured with
Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer. Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums and recorded an album of Cohen songs in
1987 , ''
Famous Blue Raincoat ''.
In
1977 , Cohen released an album called ''
Death Of A Ladies' Man '' (note the plural possessive case; one year later in
1978 , Cohen released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, ''
Death Of A Lady's Man ''). The album was produced by
Phil Spector , well known as the inventor of the "
Wall Of Sound " technique, in which pop music is backed with thick layers of instrumentation— an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was a complete fiasco. Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions and Cohen said Spector once threatened him at gunpoint. The end result is often thought gaudy and ostentatious, and Cohen's songwriting on this album is also thought to be some of his weakest.
In ''.
In
1984 , Cohen released ''
Various Positions '', featuring the oft-covered "
Hallelujah ," but Columbia declined to release the album in the United States, where Cohen's popularity had declined in recent years. (Throughout his career, Cohen's music has sold better in Europe and Canada than in the U.S.—he once satirically expressed how touched he is at the modesty the American company has shown in promoting his records.)
In
1986 he made a guest appearance in an episode of the TV series ''
Miami Vice ''.
In
1987 ,
Jennifer Warnes ' tribute album ''Famous Blue Raincoat'' helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S., and the following year he released ''
I'm Your Man '', which marked a drastic change in his music.
Synthesizer s ruled the album, although in a much more subdued manner than on ''Death of a Ladies' Man'', and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humour. It was Cohen's most acclaimed and popular since ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', and "First We Take Manhattan" and the title song became two of his most popular songs. The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by
Sharon Robinson ) in the
1990 film ''
Pump Up The Volume '' helped to expose Cohen's music to a younger audience.
He followed with another acclaimed album, ''
The Future '', in
1992 . ''The Future'' is his most political album to date, articulating a politics to urge (more often than not in terms of
Biblical prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and even hope in the face of prospects ranging from the grim to the dire. Three tracks from the album - "Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" - were featured in the controversial movie
Natural Born Killers .
In the title track Cohen prophesies impending political and social collapse, reportedly as his response to the
L.A. Unrest Of 1992 : "I've seen the future, brother: It is murder." Some describe it as anti-abortion due to the lyrics "destroy another fetus now, We don't like children anyhow. I've see the future, baby, it is murder".
In "Democracy," Cohen, criticizes America but says he loves it: "I love the country but I can't stand the scene." Further, he describes his own politics as: "I'm neither left or right/I'm just staying home tonight/getting lost in that hopeless little screen."
Cohen's humility also shines through "Waiting for the Miracle" (co-written with : "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in."
In
2001 , following five years' seclusion as a
Zen Buddhist
Monk at the
Mount Baldy Zen Center, Cohen returned to music with ''
Ten New Songs '', featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer
Sharon Robinson . With this album, Cohen shed the relatively extroverted, engaged, and even optimistic outlook of ''The Future'' (the sole political track, “The Land of Plenty,” abandoning stern commandment for yearning but helpless prayer) to lament and seek acceptance of varieties of personal loss: the approach of death and the departure of love, romantic and even divine. ''Ten New Songs''' cohesive musical style (perhaps absent from Cohen's albums since ''Recent Songs'') owes much to Robinson’s involvement. Although not Cohen’s bitterest album, it may rank as his most melancholic.
In October
2004 , he released ''
Dear Heather '', largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current Cohen partner)
Anjani Thomas , although Sharon Robinson returns to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, ''Dear Heather'' reflects Cohen's own change of mood - he has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributes to the neurological processes of aging. ''Dear Heather'' is perhaps his least cohesive, and most experimental and playful album to date, and the stylings of some of the songs (especially the title track) frustrated many fans. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager.
"Blue Alert," an album of songs co-written by Thomas and Cohen, is scheduled for release on
May 23 ,
2006 . It is sung by Thomas, who on the album reportedly "sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman. . . . though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke."
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In
1994 , following a tour to promote ''The Future'', Cohen retreated to the
Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what would become five years of seclusion at the center. In
1996 , Cohen was ordained as a
Rinzai Zen
Buddhist monk and took the
Dharma name ''Jikan'', meaning 'silent one'. He left Mount Baldy in
1999 .
Cohen has been under new management since April 2005. He recently wrote and produced the album ''Blue Alert'' for
Anjani Thomas , scheduled for release May 23, 2006. Cohen's new book of poetry and drawings ''Book of Longing'' will be published in April 2006; in March the Toronto publisher offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online, which saw the entire amount sold within hours. Cohen's new album meanwhile is also slated for late 2006, with subsequent touring.
This recent activity has been necessary—Cohen states—because his financial resources, including the publishing rights to his songs, reportedly have been gutted, leading him to file suit against his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, for gross misappropriation of funds
Cohen stated that he has been deprived of over US$5 million placed in a fund for his retirement, leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events have put him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's '' Maclean's '' magazine. In March of 2006, Cohen won the
Civil Suit , and was awarded US$9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, had completely ignored the suit, and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060302/leonard_cohen_060302/20060302?hub=Canada . As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the cash [http://www.nme.com/news/leonard-cohen/22406].
Cohen has never married. In the
1960s , during his stay at Hydra, Cohen befriended the Scandinavian novelists
Axel Jensen and
Göran Tunström . Leonard lived there with Axel's wife Marianne Jensen (now: Ihlen) and their son Axel after they broke up. The song "So Long, Marianne" is about her. For a long time it was believed that the character Lorenzo in Jensen's novel ''Joacim'' (1961) was based on Cohen, but Axel told him it was influenced by Tunström.
He fathered two children with artist
Suzanne Elrod . A son, Adam, was born in
1972 and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet
Federico García Lorca , was born in
1974 . Adam Cohen began his own career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-
1990s .
Contrary to popular belief, "
Suzanne ," one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor
Armand Vaillancourt , rather than Elrod.
Around 1990, Cohen was romantically linked, and by some accounts formally engaged, to actress
Rebecca De Mornay . He is now seeing and working with
Anjani Thomas .
Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love and sex, religion, psychological depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so.
Love and sex are common enough themes in popular music; Cohen's background as a novelist and poet brings an uncommon sensibility to these themes. "Suzanne," probably the first Cohen song to gain broad attention, mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc." "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken (in exactly what degree is ambiguous in the song) by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend, to whom he writes, "I guess that I miss you/ I guess I forgive you … Know your enemy is sleeping/ And his woman is free", while "Everybody Knows" deals in part with the harsh reality of
AIDS : "… the naked man and woman/ Are just a shining artifact of the past." "Sisters of Mercy" evokes of genuine love (''agape'' more than ''eros'') found in a hotel room encounter with two Edmonton women, whereas "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his Janis Joplin one-night stand rather unsentimentally, and the title of "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" speaks for itself.
Cohen comes from a composing a song that "pleased the Lord"; "Coming Back to you" and "If It Be Your Will" are clearly addressed to a Judeo-Christian God. In his early career as a novelist, ''Beautiful Losers'' grappled with the mysticism of the Catholic/Iroquois Katherine Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with
Buddhism at least since the 1970s and in 1996 he was ordained a Buddhist monk. However, he still considers himself also a Jew: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."
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Having suffered from
Psychological Depression during much of his life (although less so with the onset of old age), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and
Suicide . The wife of the protagonist of ''Beautiful Losers'' commits a gory suicide; "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" is about a suicide; suicide is mentioned in the darkly comic "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to kill oneself; a general atmosphere of depression pervades such songs as "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine." A reviewer once remarked tongue-in-cheek that Cohen's albums should be sold with razor blades.
As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah", music itself is the subject of many songs, including "Tower of Song", "A Singer Must Die", and "Jazz Police".
Social justice often shows up as a theme in his work, where he seems, especially in later albums, to expound a leftist politics, albeit with culturally conservative elements. In "Democracy" lamenting "the wars against disorder/ … the sirens night and day/ … the fires of the homeless/ … the ashes of the gay," he concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy: A specifically (and classically) leftist position, as is his practically , he nevertheless, startlingly, raises (and takes an agnostic position on) the question of whether "It's what we deserve/ For sins against God/ For crimes in the world."
War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work which in his earlier songs, as indeed in his early life, he approached ambivalently. In "Field Commander Cohen" he (perhaps metaphorically) imagines himself as a soldier/spy socializing with , Cohen, who had traveled to
Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the 1973 war with Egypt, had instead been assigned to a
USO -style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the
Sinai Desert , at one of which he both came under fire and reportedly shared cognac with an unlikely self-professed fan, then-General
Ariel Sharon . Disillusioned by encounters with captured and wounded enemy troops, and having expressed ambivalence from the start about the causes of the conflict, he eventually left, but not before beginning to write his song "Lover Lover Lover," as he later claimed, "for the soldiers of both sides."
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His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser," whether the WWII
French Resister of
Anna Marly and
Hy Zaret 's ''The Partisan'' (which he covered) or the royalist of his own "The Old Revolution," although Cohen's fascination with war is often as metaphor for more explicitly cultural and personal issues, as in ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'', by this measure his most "militant" album.
Several of Cohen's songs apparently oppose
Abortion . "Story of Isaac" leaves completely unclear whether those "who build these altars now/ To sacrifice these children" are sacrificing young soldiers, or the unborn, or neither or both. But "Diamonds in the Mine" explicitly and infuriatingly declaims, "The only man of energy/ Yes the revolution's pride/ He trained a hundred women/ Just to kill an unborn child," and in "The Future", Cohen sings sarcastically "Destroy another fetus now/ We don't like children anyhow." Also, Cohen's song "Dance Me to the End of Love" contains the lyric, "Dance me to the children who are asking to be born." Some manner of social conservatism may be a subtext in "Stories of the Street," where "The age of lust is giving birth/ And both the parents ask/ The nurse to tell them fairy tales/ From both sides of the glass," and in songs where Cohen and various women seem to be on either sides of a war: as in "There is a War," and "First We Take Manhattan."
Cohen blends a good deal of pessimism about political/cultural issues with a great deal of humor and (especially in his later work) gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analyses, as his songs are often verbally playful and even cheerful: In "Tower of Song," the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings
Ironically that he was "… born with the gift/ Of a golden voice"; the generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" nonetheless contains playful lines "You were
The Whore and the
Beast Of Babylon / I was
Rin Tin Tin "; in concert, he often plays around with his lyrics (for example, "If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" will become "If you want a Jewish doctor …"); and he will introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem (for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria": "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love").
Some of his songs, such as "Ballad of the Absent Mare" and "
Hallelujah " are simply beautiful, and "Democracy" looks at a future as hopeful as that of "The Future" is bleak.
Cohen has also covered such love songs as
Irving Berlin 's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by
Marlena Shaw ), chosen in part for their unlikely juxtaposition to his own work.
(Also see the external references section below)
- "Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win 'Vocalist of the Year'."—first words of his speech accepting the Juno Award for ''Best Male Vocalist'' in Canada (1992)
- "I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin."—from interview with ''The Daily Telegraph'' (1993)
- "Now, I don't want to give you the impression that I'm a great musicologist, but I'm a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time; you know, people said I only knew three chords when I knew five."—from interview with BBC Radio 1FM (1994)
- "I feel that, you know, the enormous luck I've had in being able to make a living, and to never have had to have written one word that I didn't want to write, to be able to have satisfied that dictum I set for myself, which was not to work for pay, but to be paid for my work—just to be able to satisfy those standards that I set for myself has been an enormous privilege."—(same interview with BBC Radio 1FM (1994))
- "So the great affair is over/ but whoever would have guessed/ it would leave us all so vacant/ and so deeply unimpressed/ It's like our visit to the moon/ or to that other star/ I guess you go for nothing/ if you really want to go that far"—from "Death of a Ladies' Man" (1977)
- "Everybody knows that you love me baby/ Everybody knows that you really do/ Everybody knows that you've been faithful/ Ah give or take a night or two/ Everybody knows you've been discreet/ But there were so many people you just had to meet/ without your clothes/And everybody knows …"—from "Everybody Knows" (1988).
- "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ It's how the light gets in."—from "Anthem" (1992)
- "You say I took the name in vain. I don't even know the name. But if I did, well really, what's it to you? / There's a blaze of light in every word; it doesn't matter which you heard: the holy or the broken hallelujah." - from "Hallelujah" (1984)
- "And sometimes when the night is slow/ The wretched and the meek/ We gather up our hearts and go/ A Thousand Kisses Deep."—from "A Thousand Kisses Deep" (2004)
- "It was only when you walked away I saw you had the perfect ass. Forgive me for not falling in love with your face or your conversation."—from ''The Energy of Slaves'' (1972)
- "Give me Leonard Cohen afterworld/ So I can sigh eternally" — from " Pennyroyal Tea " by Nirvana (1993)
- "I don't want, no I really don't want/ To be John Lennon or Leonard Cohen/ I just want to be my Dad."—from Rufus Wainwright 's "Want"
- "What if I had to/ Live here without you/ Oh, I don't really want to know/ Where you goin', Lenny Cohen?" — from "l.c." by Adam Again (1995) -- possibly referring to Cohen's 1994 retreat to Mount Baldy Zen Center
- In the Canadian film Hardcore Logo , a Canadian punk rocker suggests "Faster, Leonard Cohen! Die! Die!" as a possible band name. This also refers to the film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! .
- ''The Best of Leonard Cohen'' (1975) (also known as ''Greatest Hits'')
- ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'' (1997) (including two new tracks)
- ''The Essential Leonard Cohen'' (2002), double CD
Cohen's music has often been used in film soundtracks.
- '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller '' (1971) uses three songs from his debut album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'': "Stranger Song" is McCabe's theme, "Winter Lady" is Mrs. Miller's, and "Sisters of Mercy" is the theme of the prostitutes who work in their establishment. He also composed some incidental music for the movie.
- '' Bird On A Wire '' (1990) uses " Bird On A Wire " sung by The Neville Brothers .
- '' Pump Up The Volume '' (1990) uses "Everybody Knows" frequently, as well as "If It Be Your Will". A Concrete Blonde cover of "Everybody Knows" is also heard in the film and appears on the cd of the soundtrack.
- '' Natural Born Killers '' (1994) uses "The Future," "Waiting for the Miracle," and "Anthem," all from the album ''The Future''.
- '' Exotica (movie) '' (1994) uses "Everybody Knows" from the album ''I'm Your Man.''
- '' When Night Is Falling '' (1995) uses "Hallelujah."
- '' Basquiat '' (1996) uses "Hallelujah" performed by John Cale .
- '' Breaking The Waves '' (1996) uses "Suzanne".
- '' Wonder Boys '' (2000) uses "Waiting for the Miracle."
- '' Shrek '' (2001) uses a slightly censored version of John Cale 's recording of "Hallelujah." The soundtrack album, however, replaces this with a version by Rufus Wainwright .
- '' The Good Thief '' (2002), directed by Neil Jordan, features "A Thousand Kisses Deep."
- '' Secretary '' (2002) uses "I'm Your Man."
- '' The Life Of David Gale '' (2003) uses "The Future."
- '' A Home At The End Of The World '' (2004) uses "Suzanne" from ''Songs of Leonard Cohen.''
- '' Nathalie... '' (2004), a French movie by Anne Fontaine, uses "Boogie Street."
- '' Lord Of War '' (2005) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley .
- '' St. Ralph '' (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Gord Downie .
- '' Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei '' (2004) uses "Hallelujah" performed by Jeff Buckley .
- '' I'm Your Fan '', from 1991, features Cohen's songs interpreted by a variety of Folk and Alternative Rock acts, including R.E.M. , Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds , Pixies , The Lilac Time and Geoffrey Oryema ,
- '' Tower Of Song '', released in 1995, has a more mainstream Pop - Rock program that includes Sting , Jann Arden , Willie Nelson and Elton John .
- At least 32 tribute albums are released worldwide, mostly in non-English languages.
Many of Cohen's songs have been interpreted (and sometimes translated in other languages) by other artists, occasionally receiving more popular attention than Cohen's own, typically minimalistic arrangements. Some of Cohen's most covered songs include:
- "Avalanche," covered by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds .
- " Bird On The Wire ," covered (often as "Bird on a Wire") by Johnny Cash , Joe Cocker , Judy Collins , Fairport Convention , Tim Hardin , K.d. Lang , Willie Nelson , The Neville Brothers , Dax Riggs and Our Lady Peace (at Live 8 ).
- "Dance Me To The End Of Love," covered by Madeleine Peyroux .
- "Everybody Knows," covered by Concrete Blonde , Don Henley , The Duhks and the Washington Squares .
- " Famous Blue Raincoat ," covered by Judy Collins , Tori Amos , Joan Baez , Lloyd Cole , Hayden , Dax Riggs and Jennifer Warnes
- "First We Take Manhattan," covered by Joe Cocker , R.E.M. , and Jennifer Warnes
- " Hallelujah ," covered by Bono , Jeff Buckley , John Cale , Allison Crowe , K.d. Lang , Bob Dylan , Rufus Wainwright , Elisa , Gavin DeGraw , Arooj Aftab and Jazz Mandolin Project . Cale's version (slightly edited) was featured in the movie '' Shrek '', but Wainwright's replaced it on the soundtrack album, apparently because Wainwright was signed with Dreamworks SKG at the time and Cale was not. The ''Shrek'' theme music was also based on "Hallelujah." In addition, the American TV show '' Scrubs '' used parts of Cale's "Hallelujah" (from '' Fragments Of A Rainy Season '', not from '' I'm Your Fan '') and it is included on the ''Scrubs Soundtrack''. Cale's version also appears in Julian Schnabel 's film "Basquiat", about New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat . The song appears on the Jazz Mandolin Project 's album ''The Deep Forbidden Lake'' as an Instrumental . Buckley's version is featured in the ending scenes of the first season's finale of The O.C.
- "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," covered by Judy Collins , Roberta Flack , Claudine Longet , and Ian McCulloch
- "Joan of Arc," covered by Judy Collins , Allison Crowe , Fabrizio De André , and Jennifer Warnes .
- "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy", covered (as "Nancy") by Fabrizio De André and Palaxy Tracks.
- "So Long, Marianne," covered by John Cale , Suzanne Vega and Straitjacket Fits .
- "Story of Isaac," covered by Roy Buchanan , Judy Collins , and Suzanne Vega
- " Suzanne ," covered by Graeme Allwright , Judy Collins , Fabrizio De André , Neil Diamond , Fairport Convention , Roberta Flack , Peter Gabriel , Noel Harrison , Geoffrey Oryema , and Nina Simone . R.E.M. recorded a song called "Hope" which they admit was indebted to "Suzanne;" Cohen gets co-songwriting credit for the song.
- "Tower of Song", covered by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds , Dax Riggs and Deadboy & The Elephantmen , Marianne Faithfull , Martha Wainwright and The Jesus And Mary Chain .
- "Who By Fire", covered by Coil on the album Horse Rotorvator .
- "Song of Bernadette", covered by Anne Murray on the album '' What A Wonderful World ''.
- "Leonard Cohen's Day Job" by the Austin Lounge Lizards is not a cover ''per se'', but it alludes to and parodies several songs, especially "I'm Your Man" and "Joan of Arc."
As Of December 18, 2005 , the site
www.leonardcohenfiles.com had counted a total of 1105 published cover versions of Cohen's songs.
A film entitled "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" has a USA release date of Jun 21, 2006. It is a film of the 2005 tribute to Leonard Cohen "Came So Far For Beauty" held at the Sydney Operea House. The film was directed by Lian Lunson, has appearances by Nick Cave, Beth Orton, and others and a performance of "Tower of Song" by Cohen and U2.
