Christophe Lebold’s lyrical biography of the Canadian singer and literary figure, Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw The Angels Fall (ECW Press), is definitive in its comprehensiveness. The author, a professor of literature at the University of Strasbourg in France, befriended Cohen, and his admiration of him shines through the pages of this massive book, which is 543 pages in length.
Snapshots from it:
Cohen, the Montreal-born songwriter, singer, poet and novelist, was the quintessential Wandering Jew. Born in 1934, he left his home in posh Westmount at the age 17, never to return. During his adulthood, he did not spend more than six months in one place, perfecting travel into an “art form.”
A “professional passerby,” the peripatetic Cohen first went into exile in New York City, London and the Greek island of Hydra. With concert tours constantly keeping him on the road, he passed through Paris, Rome, Berlin, Mexico, India and Morocco. He finally settled in Los Angeles, where he died in 2016 at the age of 82.
He came from an immigrant family. Cohen’s great-grandfather, Lazarus, arrived in Canada from Lithuania in 1869. He founded a brass foundary, which he passed on to his son, Lyon, a major manufacturer of men’s suits and coats and a founder of the Canadian Jewish Congress. One of Lyon’s sons, and Cohen’s father, Nathan, inherited the business. Cohen’s mother, Masha, was a Lithuanian Jew who suffered from chronic depression and mood swings and was described by one person as “raving mad.”
Cohen enrolled at McGill University in 1951, taking literature, law and business courses. With two friends, he formed a country music band that played at high school dances and fraternity parties. More importantly, he was drawn into poetry thanks to his literature professor, Louis Dudek, who knew the American poet Ezra Pound.
After joining Dudek’s circle, Cohen met literary figures such as Irving Layton, Hugh MacLennan and F.R. Scott and began honing his style. Cohen’s first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies, appeared in 1956, the year he enrolled at Columbia University for a master’s degree in law. He never finished it, focusing his attention on the urban wonders of New York and his ambition to be a published writer.
The Favorite Game, Cohen’s next work, was a novel set in Canada. It was followed by Beautiful Losers, which Lebold considers a “great” novel.
During his apprenticeship, he developed three lifetime habits. He wrote for at least five hours a day, turning out, among other things, poems, short stories and essays. He indulged in wine and hashish. And he collected a gaggle of female friends.
Cohen discovered Hydra, an island of fishermen and 2,000 inhabitants, in 1960. The novelist Henry Miller rapturously spoke of its “wild and naked perfection.” Cohen had no trouble adapting to a routine of writing, sea-bathing and meeting local bohemians and expatriate writers. It was also where he met Marianna Ihlen, a Norwegian model and single mother who would be one of his lovers.
A day after the 1973 Yom Kippur War erupted, Cohen left Hydra, flying from Athens to Tel Aviv to join a kibbutz or, as Lebold claims, to “join the war effort.” As he sat in a cafe, two Israeli singers who were putting together a show for soldiers recognized him and asked whether he would participate. For the next three weeks, he entertained troops in the Sinai Peninsula, performing six to eight brief concerts a day.
During the tour, which left a lasting impression on him, he slept in sleeping bags, ate military rations, wrote a song (Lover, Lover, Lover), and shared a drink with General Ariel Sharon, the commander of Israeli forces in the Sinai.
A turning point in his career occurred in 1967, when he met John Hammond, a recording executive who had discovered Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan. Having listened to Cohen’s songs in what would be Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen, he signed him on the spot. In Lebold’s estimation, it would be one of the most memorable first albums ever made.
There would be more astonishing albums, from Everybody Knows to You Want It Darker, which Lebold ranks as one of his masterpieces.
From 1993 onward, he spent six years in a Zen monastery on Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel mountains near Los Angeles. Cohen’s semi-official function was to be the cook, driver, drinking buddy and guard of the zen master, who spoke rudimentary English and had a strongly marked taste for fondling the breasts of his female students.
In 2000, he learned that Kelly Lynch, his manager and former lover whom he trusted completely, had defrauded him, leaving only $150,000 in his account and taxes to be paid on assets he no longer owned.
The betrayal shook him to his core, forcing him to return to road shows. He spent two-and-a-half years on tour, giving 256 concerts around the world and earning a net profit of $20 million, enough to restore his financial solvency. Lebold believes his comeback concerts were “nothing short of imperial.”
In closing, he recalls that Cohen taught him four major lessons, one of which is that we are just passing through and must try to enjoy every second. This was not a mere idle thought. Cohen lived life to the fullest, indelibly inscribing his name into the pantheon of great global artists.
To his credit, Lebold captures all the nuances of his amazing life in this accessible and profusely detailed book.