In six decades he surprised, seduced and entertained people with his music. Now Leonard Cohen has died at 82 years old.
Many will remember Cohen as an innovative artist who repeatedly changed style of shows like “Suzanne” and “Bird on a Wire” in the 1960s and 70s to more synth embossed songs like “Hallelujah” and “I’m Your Man” in the 1980s.
Cohen continued to change his style thoughout the 2000s as well, though topics such as love, religion and war continued to affect the texts.
– He is arguably one of the most important and influential songwriters of our era.
His music is just filled with more mystery and depth as time goes on, said Lou Reed when Cohen was raised in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
“So Long, Marianne”
The Canadian was 22 years old when he made his debut as a poet. He wrote several collections of poetry and novels before he released his first album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen” in 1967.
His debut album featured “So Long, Marianne” – a song written to Norwegian Marianne Ihlen, who was Cohen’s girlfriend in the 1960s.
She also graced the sequel album “Songs from a Room ‘, which was released two years later.
“We have become so old that our bodies are falling apart, and I think I follow you very soon,” wrote Cohen in a letter to Ihlen shortly before she passed away this summer.
She described Cohen as different, gruff and sexy. But often said that it was not always easy to be with a man everyone wanted a piece of – and that was very popular with other women.
– I was dead jealous of Leonard, but when we lived together, I had no reason not to trust him, she said to the newspaper VG.
Although Cohen has told the newspaper that his special relationship with Norway was partly due to the time he was with Marianne, but also that he lived in Oslo for a period. He played a total of 17 concerts in this country.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
