Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen is a unique figure in the contemporary music world. He has a lot of copyists and even more of those who have been greatly influenced by his work. But still his songs can not be defined by one particular genre as well as the biography of the artist doesn’t suit under the life description of the typical popular musician.
By the end of 1967, when his first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen", has been released, 33-years old Cohen has already had a very good reputation as a writer and a poet. In the middle of the 1960-s Cohen has decided the job of the writer can’t guarantee him a well-fixed life and turned to the career of the “country-singer”. He has moved from Montreal but not to Nashville, a center of country music, as it might have been expected but straight to New-York. In the Big Apple he has met some important figures of the new American musical stage, including the folk-singer Judie Collins. Judie has included two of his songs into her album released in 1966. These songs were bound to become famous in a very short time. These songs were "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag".
Despite his move for music, Cohen didn’t stop working on the poetic collections. At that time several of his books have been published: "Parasites of Heaven", "Selected Poems 1956-68" and "Energy of Slaves". After that "Live Songs", a concert album, has been released. Soon Leonard Cohen becomes fascinated with Zen Buddhism and concentrates on its practices under the tutorial of Teacher Roshi, while still working on the lyrics. In 1984 yet another album, "Various Positions", appeared. As Cohen himself said, he has always wanted to combine the Middle East or East-European sounding with the abilities of jazz or rock-and-roll rhythm section. This probably explains the extreme popularity of his songs in Russia.
During the 80-s Cohen has once again surprised his admirers experimenting in several new fields. He has written a screenplay and filmed a short-length movie "I am the Hotel", took part in the episodes of “Miami Vice” TV-series and continued publishing his books. In the beginning of the 80-s "Book of Mercy" has been published and in the beginning of the 1990-s in the bookstores appeared "Stranger Music", which included many of his song lyrics.
At different times, including nowadays, numerous different artists have been singing Leonard Cohen’s songs. There have been two tribute-albums, recorded by the most famous musicians who have gathered together especially to express their admiration for Leonard Cohen and perform his compositions. One of these albums has been named "I'm your Fan". It was released in 1991 and united many of the “independent rock” legends. Among the musicians participating in the recording were Nick Cave, John Cale, Pixies and others. The other album has been recorded in 1995 by pop-artists - "Tower of Song" features Cohen’s songs performed by Sting, Bono, Elton John, Billy Joel and many others.

Государственный Кремлевский Дворец
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