Leonard Cohen was the consummate American poet. For starters, he wasn’t actually American at all, but Canadian — he moved to New York in the 1960s to try to make it as a singer — and in the truest American tradition, he took the gaze afforded to the outsider and cast it scrupulously on his new land. “The cradle of the best and of the worst,” he called it once.
He’s been compared to Ginsberg, but Whitman might be more apt: his themes were universal; his psalms were epic. Over a musical career that spanned just under half a century, Cohen — his voice never not gravelly — sang of sex, of God, of sadness, and, yes, of death.
He died Thursday night, at the age of 82. In the New Yorker’s sweeping profile of him, published last month, he said he was “ready to die”; a few days later, at a listening party for his 14th and final album You Want it Dark, he decided out loud that he’d instead stick around until he was 120.
Leonard Cohen in 1967.Jack Robinson—Condé Nast/Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen performs at the Musikhalle on May 4, 1970 in Hamburg, Germany. Gunter Zint—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen performs at the Isle Of Wight Festival, on Aug. 30 1970. Michael Putland—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen in April 1972 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. GAB Archive/Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen in April 1972 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Gijsbert Hanekroot—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen in London in June 1974. Michael Putland—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen on April 25, 1976 in Frankfurt, Germany. Istvan Bajzat—APLeonard Cohen in 1985.ullstein bild/Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen performs at Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Netherlands on April 18, 1988.Frans Schellekens—RedfernsLeonard Cohen in London in 2001.Eamonn McCabe—Getty ImagesFrom left: Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins and Taylor Swift at the 41st Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony on June 17, 2010 in New York City.Larry Busacca—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York City, on March 10, 2008.
Jason DeCrow—APLeonard Cohen and Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy, attend the 52nd annual GRAMMY Awards-Special Merit Awards on Jan. 30, 2010 in Los Angeles.Frederick M. Brown—Getty ImagesLeonard Cohen accepts an award presented by Salman Rushdie at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, on Feb. 26, 2012.
Josh Reynolds—APLeonard Cohen at the O2 Arena on Sept. 15, 2013 in London.
Simone Joyner—Getty Images
