The Simple Songwriter

When one mentions “songwriter”, we tend to automatically assume that the person works on the background and is rarely known to the rest of the world. In fact, many would assume that there are few singers who actually write their own songs. Smaller still are the number of singer/ songwriters who actually have the guts to write and sing about topics that are considered of sensitive nature by many and still make a hit out of it. That being the case, it is no surprise that many singers and songwriters really do look up to Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen is a Canadian singer/ songwriter whose work spans more than half a decade of quality music. His work mostly dealt with such topics as Most would remember him for his song, “Hallelujah” which has been translated as well as sung by around 300 artists, each with their own interpretation of the song. Although, at first blush,  most would see the song as a liturgical one, the interpretations by various artists run the whole gamut of signifying innocence to downright sexual overtones.

Cohen’s musical career started in 1967 when he went to the US in order to try his luck in the music industry. The first hit song that he had written was “Suzanne” which was made popular by Judy Collins. It was after performing in a number of folk song festival that Coen was able to make the leap from the backstage to the limelight. This happened when he was signed by John H, Hammond under Columbia Records. His first three albums were titled, “Songs of

Leonard Cohen”, “Songs From A Room”, and “Songs of Love and Hate”. It was during his third album that Cohen went on his very first record tour. The said tour took him to various parts in the US, Canada, and Europe. Some of the tracks on his first album were featured in the Western film, “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”. During the ’90s, Cohen was targeting the younger audience when he released the track “Everybody Knows”. The said single was picked to be part of the album, “Pump Up the Volume”.

If you think Cohen is no different from other songwriters who were able to churn out hit albums each year, think again. Prior to becoming a songwriter, Leonard Cohen has also dabbled in writing poems as well as in writing novels. Some of his most popular works include Beautiful Losers which was able to garner the attention of the Canadian press due to its overtly sexual undertones, the Book of Longing, and the poem, “A Thousand Kisses Deep” which he later adapted into a song. All the time he was making music, Cohen has never turned his back to the literary world and would, every now and then, indulge in some poetry writing as well as reading.

In order to promote his latest album, “Old Ideas”, Leonard Cohen would be hitting the road again and doing US and Canada tours. Get your Leonard Cohen tickets now from Ticket Broker and catch him when he performs on March 2 and 3 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, CA.