A Tribute to Mr. Leonard Cohen Quiz

Answer: Canada

Mr. Cohen was born in Montreal, Canada on 21 September 1934. His paternal grandfather was from Poland and was the inaugural president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His maternal grandfather was a Lithuanian Pole who was an influential Talmudic writer.

His father, a middle class store owner died when he was nine. His early life was shaped by his religion rather than by music, although he learned to play guitar at Westbrook High School in 1948 where he formed a country rock group, The Buckskin Boys.

However at high school, influenced by his teachers, he became more interested in literature.

Answer: Poet

Mr. Cohen enrolled at McGill University in 1951 and graduated four years later with a B.A. in literature. He published his first poems whilst at university and his first book of poems, "Let Us Compare Mythologies" was published the year after he finished his undergraduate degree.

He attempted post-graduate degrees at McGill and Columbia University but finished neither, by then concentrating on writing poetry with an income from odd jobs. His second book of poems, "The Spice-Box of Earth" was published in 1961.

He was heavily influenced by the works of William Butler Yeats, Walt Whitman, Federico García Lorca, and Henry Miller. Because of a trust income from his father's estate he was able to live without regular employment though he chose to live a frugal existance.

In the sixties he bought a modest house on the island of Hydra in Greece where he wrote the acclaimed, "Flowers for Hitler" (1964), and two novels "The Favourite Game" (1963) and "Beautiful Losers" (1966) and another volume of poems "Parasites of Heaven" (1966).

While his works were acclaimed by critics, they were not a very commercial success.

Answer: Songs of Leonard Cohen

In 1967, Mr. Cohen was disillusioned with his career as a poet in Montreal, so, buoyed by the success of the Judy Collins' release of one of his poems that had become a hit, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. His first album "Songs of Leonard Cohen" (1967) stayed in the charts for almost a year despite Mr Cohen being unhappy with the production of same with a lush recording being produced where Mr Cohen fought for what was to become his trademark minimalist production.

In the end most of the "lushness" was able to be removed but not all, due to the limitations of a four-track master tape. Other successful albums followed, "Songs from a Room" (1969), "Songs of Love and Hate" (1971) and "New Skin for the Old Ceremony" (1974) and "Death of a Ladies' Man" (1978). Mr. Cohen did not tour North American and Europe until 1970 which, in part contributed to modest album sales despite his early albums being critically acclaimed.

Answer: False

It was the 1967 recording of "Suzanne", originally a 1966 published Cohen poem that caused Mr. Cohen to move to Los Angeles in 1967 to become a musician.
The song was inspired by Suzanne Verdal, the girlfriend (at the time) of sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, It was a platonic relationship despite the suggestive nature of the lyrics.
The song appears on Mr Cohen's inaugural album and was released as a single but it was not a hit. Mr. Cohen and Ms Elrod had a ten year relationship that ended in 1979. She shot one of his album covers, appeared on the cover of "Portrait of a Ladies' Man" and was the Dark Lady in Mr. Cohen's 1978 book "Portrait of a Lady's Man".

Answer: False

"Hallelujah" was a single from the "Various Positions" (1984) album. It was a minor hit in several European countries and reached number 36 in the UK charts (Official Charts Company). The world took more notice when JJ Cale recorded a version in 1991, which was noticed by Jeff Buckley who, perhaps had the most well know cover when he recorded it it 1994, three years before his death. Other notable recordings were covered by Rufus Wainwright (1997) (Mr Cohen's son in law) and k.d.lang (2003). The song was also immortalised in the movie "Shrek" (2001) (Wainwright version). It is one of the most covered songs in modern music history. What is remarkable is the various interpretations by the covering artist: Everything from the deeply religious to the overtly sexual is projected, using lyrical and tonal changes.

Perhaps this song illustrates Mr. Cohen's legacy and perfectionism. He wrote over eighty verses for the song before he recorded the song (And even then, he had various versions of the song which he sang at concerts). The [original] song is recorded in 12/8 time which to me at least is the perfect time signature for a song that is both profoundly spiritual and grounded in in rock music.

Answer: First We Take Manhattan

Jennifer Warnes and Leonard Cohen were lifelong friends after they met in 1971. She started as one of his back-up singers, became guest vocalist on seven Cohen albums (1979-2012) and released her own album of Cohen songs "Famous Blue Raincoat", This album featured the hit single, "First We take Manhattan"(featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar), one of of two unreleased Cohen tracks on the album (Both appeared later on Mr Cohen's "I'm Your Man" 1998 album).

The tribute album featured Cohen songs from all albums from 1967-1984.

Answer: No

In an interview with Larry Rohter of the New York Times in 2009, Mr Cohen was asked "So how [do you] square [your Jewish faith] faith with his continued practice of Zen ". He replied ""Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief."
The '90s were musically a quiet time for Mr. Cohen due in part to a five-year seclusion in a Renzai Zen Buddhist monastery starting in 1994.
Religion or a search for deities was a major theme of Mr Cohen's music.The religion themes were complex and layered throughout nearly every album. After the release of his 2001 album, "Ten New Songs", his first after a hiatus in a Buddhist monastery, one reviewer published, the following comment which neatly summed up the major themes of Mr. Cohen's music at this stage of his life: "Although the tones of these odes and meditations is mournful, at the age of 67 Cohen's pessimism about the human condition is tempered with reconciliation. He'll never be cheerful, but a Zen-like serenity pervades every song."

Answer: Ten New Songs

Nine years after his last studio album, Mr. Cohen released "Ten New Songs". This was actually a collaboration with Sharon Robinson who initially wrote music around lyrics that Mr. Cohen had provided but she ended up singing alongside him as well as producing the album. The cover correctly shows the two side by side but the name on the cover lists only Leonard Cohen. The lead single was "In My Secret Life".

"Various Positions" (1984) was a controversial record and while the production was trademark spartan, it featured synthesizers and the album was drenched in reverb. The critics handed out similar comments to when Mr Dylan plugged in his electric guitar. "Dance Me to the End of Love" a feature song on this album was voted by "Rolling Stone" the seventh best Cohen song. ("Hallelujah" was predictably first).

"I'm Your Man" (1998), Mr. Cohen's eighth album went even further with a decidedly synth-pop sound. This album featured as its lead track, Mr. Cohen's interpretation of "First We Take Manhattan", a far more spartan and stripped back version over Ms. Warnes' lush commercial slant.

"Death of a Ladies' Man" (1977) was Mr. Cohen's fourth studio album and featured Mr. Cohen, the Master of Minimization with the 'Wall of Sound' production of Phil Spector. It appeared to be a poor partnership as reviews were probably Mr. Cohen's worst reviews of any of his albums.

Answer: 1968 Governor General's Award for Literature for "Selected Poems 1956-1968".

Mr. Cohen earned many awards in his career, not just in music but in the broader community. This is best exemplified by his award in 2003 of Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's second highest civilian honour. However he did struggle with financial gain from his 'art". He stated at a concert the rights to "Suzanne" were stolen from him but ultimately he was pleased as he thought it would be "wrong to write this ['Suzanne'] and get rich from it". In 1968 he refused the Governor-General's Award for Literature.
According to the Toronto "The Globe and Mail", he stated that "The world is a callous place and he would take no gift from it."
The other listed awards were real and accepted.

Answer: You Want It Darker

Amen was actually a love rather than religious song from his twelfth album "Old Songs" (2012).
"That's no Way To Say Goodbye" and "So Long Marianne" are both songs from Mr Cohen's debut album and were inspired by his long time lover for most of the 60s: Marianne Ihlen. She died earlier in 2016. Mr Cohen wrote her a farewell letter "... I think I will follow you very soon." This turned out to be prophetic".

The album "You Want It Darker" was released in October 2016. The lead song on the album had the same title. This song was a perfect fusion of minimalist classic Cohen musicianship and typical religious themes. The lyrical them is one where he is asking the Lord to take him. In an interview with the "New Yorker" a month before he died, Mr Cohen said. "I am ready to die, I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me".
The title of the song (and album) could be interpreted as an acknowledgement of the melancholy nature of his entire library of lyrics which both disturbed many with their themes grounded in depression but enthralled more. His stance is typically self-deprecatory when he asked, " Do you want it darker?" Quiet humour pervaded his music and here I feel he has had the last chuckle.

The world is a sadder place without Leonard Cohen but his legacies are many, and they choose to endure...