The poetry scene of fifties and sixties produced some of the most self-indulgent rubbish of the twentieth century. Dig deeper and you'll find there is much more here. If it were possible to read with your eyes closed, then it would be easy to imagine oneself in a smokey sixties coffee house surrounded by black turtlenecked beatniks snapping their fingers in cool approval. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Mafor his status among the 'highest and most influential echelon of songwriters'. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.Ĭohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.Ĭohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist.

Selected poems 1956 1968