For this biography about the life and work of the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, journalist Sylvie Simmons not only had the privilege to talk with the poet and musician, but also with men and women who know him well: his muses and lovers, his friends and business partners, teachers, rabbis, monks and people who in one way or another are/were important for his career. The result is a very detailed report and an excellent portrait of the artist, who has had a great influence with his poetry and songs on different generations since the 60's and who even today delivers fascinating and creative work.
Leonard Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Montreal. At home the Cohens spoke English, and as a result they felt much affinity with the English minority in the predominantly French-speaking city, and because Leonards father was the owner of a successful costume factory, he felt more at ease in the financially strong English minority than in the predominantly poorer French-speaking working class. Cohen received an excellent education at an English college and after the premature death of his father, his mother - emigrated from Russia – had no problems with the fact that her son joined the cultural milieu of his hometown. After his secondary school, Leonard ended up in the office of one of his uncles, but he wanted to write and at a very young age he already read from his own work for like-minded youngsters in the coffee shops of Montreal. In 1956 - he was 22 years old - he debuted with the poetry collection Let Us Compare Mythologies. In the beginning of the sixties he belonged to the select group of well-known Canadian writers and with a scholarship he went to the Greek island of Hydra where he wrote the poetry collections Flowers for Hitler (1964), Parasites of Heaven (1966) and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966) wrote. The reactions of the press were mostly good, but sales were poor.
As a singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was a late bloomer. He released his first album when he was 33 years old, after his move to New York, where Judy Collins scored a huge hit with Suzanne (1966) and put him on the radar of Columbia Records. In England and on the European continent he was successful from the start and became one of the best-selling singer-songwriters in the late 60’s and 70’s. In Canada and America, he hardly was successful. Not until 1992 he had a megahit (The Future) in Canada, but in America most of his albums didn’t even reach the top 200 and it took another 20 years for Old Ideas to reach the Bill Board top 5. According to biographer Sylvie Simmons Americans and Canadians were never really impressed by Cohen's low voice and his patter singing style. They preferred Bob Dylan, she writes, who in both countries frequently and effortlessly reached the top 50 and even the top 10.
But the focus is not only on Cohen's literary work, his songs and his faltering international career, his private life is scrutinized as well, because he is known as a womanizer whom no woman could/can resist and the list is unlikely long. But his creativity was impeded by his relations and so they never lasted long and Cohen often wanted to be where his partner for various reasons could not or should not be. Fortunately for him they usually were strong women with a career, making family life seldom truly possible. However, their shadow haunts his poetry, his novels and his albums and he calls them Suzanne, Marianne, Nancy, Heather or Alexandra. Furthermore, the author pays attention to his sense of perfectionism. He wrote and rewrote his poems and lyrics dozens of times. Consequently, books and albums appeared with large intervals. Little is known about his interest for Eastern religions. He often spent months or even years as a monk in a monastery near Los Angeles. He meditated often, even daily, and as a monk he did very simple work, even scrubbing floors or weeding in the garden. He found peace there, even though he worked every day on his poetry and his songs, which he claimed never to perform for an audience again.
After his seventieth birthday, Cohen decided to take it easier, but his daughter brought very bad news: his manager had emptied his bank account. Leonard Cohen was virtually bankrupt, which he could not afford due to the multitude of people (former wives, children, guru) who were dependent on him. What he had avoided for a long time, namely travel and live performance, seemed the only way to escape. Surprisingly enough Cohen believed that there would be no interest for his work after such a long absence. Because he always had been much more popular in Europe, contacts were made in London, but to his surprise there was interest in America and Canada too. His first long tour in Europe and later in the US was a great success and for the first time his albums (Old Ideas, 2012 & Popular Problems, 2014) were successful in the States. Or how one is never too old to harvest worldwide success. Cohen was almost 80...
Author Sylvie Simmons tells it all in 500 pages. Her style is bright, her approach often funny and rather cynical, the material fascinating and insightful and as a consequence I'm Your Man - The Life of Leonard Cohen reads like a page turner. She could count on Cohen's cooperation and that is obviously an advantage, because that way she had access to his archives and people were more willing to talk to her. His ex-wives and girlfriends speak freely and you will find out that there never was any bitterness, because afterwards the friendship remained intact. The same goes for all the other interviewees and even those with whom Leonard Cohen did not collaborate very well. They still appreciate him as a great poet and a man with a big heart.
We read the English version of I'm Your Man - The Live of Leonard Cohen, published by Vintage Books/Random House (paperback) in 2013 and earlier by Jonathan Cape (hardcover) in 2012. The biography is not (yet) available in Dutch.