Love." Frank Sinatra never needed to look over his shoulder at Cohen (at least, as a singer), but he did seem to be trying for a slicker pop sound at moments on his record.
Then came 1984, and two key new works in Cohen's output -- the poetic/religious volume
The Book of Mercy and the album Various Positions (1984). The latter, recorded with Jennifer
Warnes, is arguably his most accessible album of his entire career up to that time -- Cohen's
voice, now a peculiarly expressive baritone instrument, found a beautiful pairing with
Warnes, and the songs were as fine as ever, steeped in spirituality and sexuality, with "Dance Me to the End of Love" a killer opener: a wry, doom-laden yet impassioned pop-style ballad that is impossible to forget. Those efforts overlapped with some ventures by the
composer/singer into other creative realms, including an award-winning short film that he
wrote, directed, and scored, entitled I Am a Hotel, and the score for the 1985 conceptual film Night Magic, which earned a Juno Award in Canada for Best Movie Score.
Sad to say, Various Positions went relatively unnoticed, and was followed by another
extended sabbatical from recording, which ended with I'm Your Man (1988). But during his
hiatus, Warnes had released her album of Cohen-authored material, entitled Famous Blue
Raincoat, which had sold extremely well and introduced Cohen to a new generation of
listeners. So when I'm Your Man did appear, with its electronic production (albeit still rather spare) and songs that added humor (albeit dark humor) to his mix of pessimistic and poetic
conceits, the result was his best-selling record in more than a decade. The result, in 1991, was the release of I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, a CD of recordings of his songs by
the likes of R.E.M., the Pixies, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and John Cale, which put Cohen as a songwriter pushing age 60 right back on center stage for the 1990s. He rose to the
occasion, releasing The Future, an album that dwelt on the many threats facing mankind in
the coming years and decades, a year later. Not the stuff of pop charts or MTV heavy
rotation, it attracted Cohen's usual coterie of fans, and enough press interest as well as
sufficient sales, to justify the release in 1994 of his second concert album, Cohen Live,
derived from his two most recent tours. A year later came another tribute album, Tower of
Song, featuring Cohen's songs as interpreted by Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, et al.
In the midst of all of this new activity surrounding his writing and compositions, Cohen
embarked on a new phase of his life. Religious concerns were never too far from his thinking
and work, even when he was making a name for himself writing songs about love, and he
had focused ever more on this side of life since Various Positions. He came to spend time at
the Mt. Baldy Zen Center, a Buddhist retreat in California, and eventually became a full-time
resident, becoming a Buddhist monk during the late '90s. When he re-emerged in 1999,
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Cohen had many dozens of new compositions in hand, songs and poems alike. His new
collaborations were with singer/songwriter/musician Sharon Robinson, who also ended up
producing the resulting album, Ten New Songs (2001) -- there also emerged during this
period a release called Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979, comprised of live recordings
from his tour of 22 years before.
In 2004, the year he turned 70, Cohen released one of the most controversial albums of his
career, Dear Heather. It revealed his voice anew, in this phase of his career, as a deep
baritone more limited in range than on any previous recording, but it overcame this change
in vocal timbre by facing it head-on, just as Cohen had done with his singing throughout his
career -- it also contained a number of songs for which Cohen wrote music but not lyrics, a
decided change of pace for a man who'd started out as a poet. And it was as personal a
record as Cohen had ever issued. His return to recording was one of the more positive
aspects of Cohen's resumption of his music activities. On another side, in 2005, he filed suit against his longtime business manager and his financial advisor over the alleged theft of
more than five million dollars, at least some of which took place during his years at the
Buddhist retreat.
Four decades after he emerged as a public literary figure and then a performer, Cohen
remains one of the most compelling and enigmatic musical figures of his era, and one of the
very few of that era who commands as much respect and attention, and probably as large an
audience, in the 21st century as he did in the 1960s. As much as any survivor of that decade,
Cohen has held onto his original audience and has seen it grow across generations, in
keeping with a body of music that is truly timeless and ageless. In 2006, his enduring
influence seemed to be acknowledged in Lions Gate Films' release of Leonard Cohen: I'm
Your Man, director Lian Lunson's concert/portrait of Cohen and his work and career. ~ Bruce
Eder, All Music Guide
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In His Own Words
I guess it’s legitimate not to like someone’s work, but somehow those descriptions of
my work got into the computer, you know, there was “suicide”, or “bedsit”, or
“gloom”, “depressive”, “melancholy”, and every time they’d tap out my name those
descriptions would come up. You know, as though seriousness had no place in song.
The songs we love best are the sad songs.
BBC Radio 1, 1994
I know something’s gotten into the computer under my name. And every time they
press the button out come “gloom”, “despair”, “depression”, “melancholy”. It gets a
bit tedious. But I’ve gotten accustomed to this tag. (1988)
Leonard Cohen In His Own Words, 28-29
I sometimes see myself in the Court of Ferdinand, singing my songs to girls over a
lute. (1967)
Leonard Cohen In His Own Words, 23
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I sometimes in my wilder moments consider myself the leader of a government in
exile. (1985)
Leonard Cohen In His Own Words, 28
I don’t go around looking for joy. I don’t
