“There is a Crack in Everything; That's How the Light Gets In”

Leonard Cohen, the hugely influential singer and songwriter whose work spanned nearly 50 years, died at the age of 82. Cohen's label, Sony Music Canada, confirmed his death on the singer's Facebook page on Friday morning.

“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,” the statement read. “We have lost one of music's most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief." A cause of death and exact date of death was not given.

“My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles with the knowledge that he had completed what he felt was one of his greatest records,” Cohen's son Adam wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone.

Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.

Cohen's haunting bass voice, nylon-stringed guitar patterns and Greek-chorus backing vocals shaped evocative songs that dealt with love and hate, sex and spirituality, war and peace, ecstasy and depression. He was also the rare artiste of his generation to enjoy artistic success into his Eighties, releasing his final album, “You Want It Darker”, earlier this year.

Leonard Norman Cohen, born September 21, 1934, in Westmount, Quebec, learned guitar as a teenager and formed a folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Early exposure to Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca turned him toward poetry – while a flamenco guitar teacher convinced him to trade steel strings for nylon. After graduating from McGill University, Cohen moved to the Greek island of Hydra, and published the poetry collection “Flowers for Hitler” (1964) and the novels “The Favourite Game” (1963) and “Beautiful Losers” (1966).

Frustrated by poor book sales, and tired of working in Montreal's garment industry, Cohen visited New York in 1966 to investigate the city's robust folk-rock scene. His New York milieu included Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, and the haunting German singer Nico, whose despondent delivery he may have emulated on his exquisite 1967 album “Songs of Leonard Cohen”. Cohen quickly became the songwriter's songwriter of choice for artistes like Judy Collins, James Taylor, Willie Nelson and many others. His black-and-white album photos offered an arresting image to go with his stark yet lovely songs. His next two albums were “Songs From a Room” (1969) and “Songs of Love and Hate” (1971).

During the 70s, Cohen set out on the first of the many long, intense tours he would reprise toward the end of his career. Cohen's relationship with Suzanne Elrod during most of the '70s resulted in two children, the photographer Lorca Cohen and Adam Cohen, who leads the group Low Millions. Cohen was well known for his wandering ways, and his most stable relationships were with backing singers Laura Branigan, Sharon Robinson, Anjani Thomas, and, most notably, Jennifer Warnes, who he wrote with and produced. After indulging in a variety of international styles on Recent Songs (1979), Cohen accorded Warnes full co-vocal credit on 1984's “Various Positions”.

“Various Positions” included “Hallelujah”, a meditation on love, sex and music that would become Cohen's best-known composition thanks to Jeff Buckley's incandescent 1994 reinterpretation.

In 1995, Cohen halted his career, entered the Mt. Baldy Zen Center outside of Los Angeles, became an ordained Buddhist monk and took on the Dharma name Jikan ('silence'). Cohen broke his musical silence in 2001 with “Ten New Songs”, a collaboration with Sharon Robinson, and “Dear Heather” (2004), a relatively uplifting project with current girlfriend Anjani Thomas.

The final act of Cohen's career began in 2005, when it was found his longtime manager Kelley Lynch had robbed Cohen of more than $5 million. To replenish the fund, Cohen undertook an epic world tour during which he would perform 387 shows from 2008 to 2013. He continued to record as well, releasing “Old Ideas” (2012) and “Popular Problems”, which hit US shops a day after his eightieth birthday.

When the Grand Tour ended in December 2013, Cohen largely vanished from the public eye. Just last month, he released “You Want It Darker”, produced by his son Adam. Severe back issues made it difficult for Cohen to leave his home, so Adam placed a microphone on his dining room table and recorded him on a laptop. The album was met with rave reviews, though a New Yorker article timed to its release revealed that he was in very poor health. “I am ready to die,” he said. “I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me.”

The singer-songwriter later clarified that he was “exaggerating”. “I've always been into self-dramatization,” Cohen said last month. “I intend to live forever.”

And it is safe to say that wish of his was granted, long before his body succumbed to worldly woes and his soul elevated for a higher place.

Source: Rolling Stone