Leonard Cohen died at age 82. I was introduced to his work in the early 1970s by a friend and colleague named Perry Youngblood. In his biography, and at other times, Cohen wrote that he was first and foremost a poet, but turned to song because he could not make a living just writing and publishing poetry. His poetry became beautiful songs, sometimes dark and sultry and sometimes spiritual and sexy.
Before his muse Marianne Ihlen died in July, Leonard Cohen penned her a final letter: ‘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.”
Norwegian filmmaker Jan Christian Mollestad was a good friend of Marianne Ihlen — the woman who inspired Leonard Cohen’s “So long, Marianne.”
One of my favorite movies is McCabe and Mrs. Miller, starring Warren Beaty and Julie Christie. Leonard Cohens songs are the sountrack for that movie which needed dark and sultry songs.
I must get his final album which was recently released.
I believe the closest to his like now living is Bob Dylan, the recent Nobel Prize winner. I believe he and Leonard were great friends.
