The Late Leonard Cohen - A Musician Like No Other
The Late Leonard Cohen - A Musician Like No Other
It was 1967 at the Mariposa Folk Festival, outdoors in the countryside north of Toronto, a cool evening when Leonard Cohen took the stage. The first thing he said was to the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) " You're wasting your time checking the audience for beer, because nobody hides their grass in beer bottles." He then sang his signature song, "Suzanne". It was such an intense moment that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was hooked. From that moment on and to this day Leonard Cohen was my favourite musician, notwithstanding that I have been friends with and close to and met many famous musicians, folk musicians, rock musicians, classical musicians.
He was a poet, an author, a songwriter and a singer, and he was exceptional at all of them. It was rumored that Bob Dylan had said "The only musician who intimidates me is Leonard Cohen." What Dylan must have meant was this meaning of the word "intimidate" from Dictionary.com: 2. to overawe or cow, as through the force of personality or by superior display of wealth, talent , etc. (emphasis is mine for clarification)
Although I don't have access to YouTube I can open concerts and individual songs on a site called bilibili. Here is a film made of his performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. It includes comments made about Leonard by Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Robert Johnson.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av8758437/?from=search&seid=12943460054200287846
He was 33 when he started singing, and went on world tours up until he was approaching his 80s, playing to incredibly loving and appreciative huge audiences. A very lengthy article about him in Wikipedia outlines his life:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen
He will be missed by many.
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An exceptional musician, and a humble, gracious human being.