Band Review: Leonard Cohen

Band Review: Leonard Cohen: "

Leonard Cohen is one of the coolest, most introspective songwriters on the planet. To this day he continues to captivate audiences well into his fourth decade as a songwriter, an achievement only matched by Bob Dylan. When starting out Leonard Cohen couldn't be more different than your typical 1960s musician; his character was intimate, social, and intellectual. He is the crowing achievement of literary rock, and did not start performing on a regular basis, much less recording, until after he had already reached acclaim as an author. Cohen was a well established novelist and poet well before he ever picked up a guitar.  

Born on Sep 21, 1934 in Montreal, Canada, and grew up into a middle-class Jewish family. As a teenager Cohen would have his first stab at music, learning how to play the guitar, and forming a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. After this short stint as a musician he would enroll at McGill University and consume himself with writing poetry. His first published book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies was released in 1956, and he would continue to focus on writing for the better part of the next decade. 

In 1967 Cohen would move to the United States to shift his focus back to music. He would become a figure in Andy Warhol's Factory crowd. Warhol has even said that Cohen spent time listening to Nico in clubs and that this would have an influence on his musical style. By the time Cohen released his first studio album Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1967, he had already carved out the nucleus of what his sound would become. He used not only influence from contemporary Folk, but he has a great deal of early European musical influences stitched into the fabrics of his unique brand of musical storytelling. Leonard Cohen's audience was literally captured one at a time, simply by word of mouth as he did not have any sort of regular radio airplay. 

When asked today most people would probably say they first heard of Leonard Cohen through one of many artists who have covered his wonderful songs. Leonard Cohen has continued to amaze as a live performer and prolific songwriter up until his final tour. He has challenged the minds of his listeners and opened them up to some of the best crafted songs in music history. 

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