Leonard Cohen is dead

[Sousa]

"It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away," the statement read. "We have lost one of music's most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief."

My daughter is literally named Suzanne. This is fucking me up.

[apsham]

Fuck.

[Your Mom]

Fucking hell man

[Lineker]

This goddamn year...

[lws]

Hard to call a shock when he gave multiple interviews throughout the year about how he knew he was dying and stuff. Still a drag. Songs Of Love And Hate is one of the best albums ever made, and I don't think he ever made an completely bad one. I've only read Beautiful Losers of his written work, but its a strange, interesting little novel. He was an original, unique, and incomparable figure in pop culture no matter how you look at it.

"What can I tell you, my brother, my killer?
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you.
I'm glad you stood in my way."

[MalaCloudy Black]

Quote

Well Marianne it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.

Quote

 .. She lifted her hand, when you said you were right behind, close enough to reach her. It gave her deep peace of mind that you knew her condition. And your blessing for the journey gave her extra strength .. 

 

[apsham]

Quote

"For less than a second 
Our lives will collide 
The endless suspended 
The door open wide 
Then she will be born 
To someone like you 
What no one has done 
She'll continue to do 
I know she is coming 
I know she will look 
And that is the longing 
And this is the book” 
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

 

[Hobo]

I really don't know what to say about him. I was introduced to his music when I was 16. It had a profound effect on me.

I'm so glad I got to see him perform once.

[Moses Julep]

In the last year of my undergrad, I took a class on the three major Canadian poets (AM Klein, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen). Because Cohen went to my alma matter, because he had been classmates with my professor and because he was in town, Leonard Cohen was the guest lecturer for one class. It was kinda cool because it was a small class and he told us some cool stories about himself - like Irving Layton making him crawl on his hands and knees across the art building when he decided to change his major from business to English - and I also got to see old man Lenny Cohen creep on girls a third his age. Of course, as a Jewish kid, it was really cool to hear about how his roots and origin really influenced his writing. All in all, one of the experiences I cherish from my life. Really cool dude.

[Hobo]

Field Commander Cohen, he was our most important spy.

[Hobo]

 

I'm not sure if I can share the video because I don't think it's from the official source but you can get the audio of David Remnick's interview from the NY Times with Leonard Cohen from September 2016.

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

http://www.avclub.com/article/dancing-end-leonard-cohen-245785

Read the whole thing. Do it.
 

Quote

But ultimately I decided that this remembrance demands to be personal, because listening to Leonard Cohen is an unusually personal experience. My first glimmer of that came before I even knew who he was, via that oft-quoted joke on The Young Ones: “No one ever listens to me anyway. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record!” Before I’d even heard a note of his music, I got the sense of what that meant. Leonard Cohen must be dull and unenjoyable, and people only pretend to like him. It was only a little later that I understood that—the mordant synth-pop of I’m Your Man or the Phil Spector clangor of Death Of A Ladies’ Man aside—most of Leonard Cohen’s music doesn’t exactly lend itself to throwing on at parties or in polite company. No one ever listens to Leonard Cohen unless they’re able to give him the space his music deserves. Or if they need it.

 

[apsham]

Just reading that now and it's so true.

Even when I saw him live in an arena full of people it was this really odd experience that I have never had with live music where he was speaking to the audience and aside from a joke here or there when something happened - he was talking to the audience, but no one in particular and it was so easy to believe that he was talking just to you. In a room full of thousands of people and me in the bleachers furthest back from the stage.