Trudeau leads the tributes to an enduring icon
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LEONARD Cohen, one of his generation’s most respected musicians and poets who delved into the spiritual on songs, has died aged 82.
“We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries,” read a statement yesterday on his website and Facebook page.
Cohen, who was brought up in Montreal but lived in California late in his life, will have a memorial service in Los Angeles at a date to be announced, the statement said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Cohen, long considered one of the country’s foremost writers, as a “remarkable Montrealer.”
“Leonard, no other artist’s poetry and music felt or sounded quite like yours. We’ll miss you,” Trudeau said.
Cohen would be “fondly remembered for his gruff vocals, his self-deprecating humor and the haunting lyrics that made his songs the perennial favorite of so many generations.
“Leonard Cohen is as relevant today as he was in the 1960s, he added. His ability to conjure the vast array of human emotion made him one of the most influential and enduring musicians ever. His style transcended the vagaries of fashion,” Trudeau said.
Cohen went on to become a critical favorite with meditative songs such as “So Long, Marianne” and “Suzanne.” “Hallelujah,” a song rich in biblical reference, has been covered by a vast array of artists.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre ordered the city’s flags to fly at half-mast. “Tonight we lost one of our greatest ambassadors and icons,” he tweeted.
Cohen, who started out as a poet, spent much of his young adulthood on the Greek island of Hydra, retreated in the 1990s to a Zen Buddhist monastery near Los Angeles before returning to music.
Cohen released his final album, “You Want It Darker,” just last month, featuring the singer reflecting at length on his own mortality.
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