Buy Leonard Cohen - A Remarkable Life by Anthony Reynolds

Anthony Reynolds takes the reader from Cohen's early beginnings as a Montreal poet back in 1956 and his first novel in 1963 through all his many years as a very highly acclaimed singer-songwriter and musician, which all began for him really with his album Songs of Leonard Cohen back in 1967, but has continued up until this present time with 11 studio albums to his credit.

The book starts though with the author's experience of witnessing Cohen collapse on stage in Valencia, Spain, in 2009, just a short while into the performance. It was the first and only time Reynolds had been able to see Cohen live and this was how it turned out.

So whilst the author cannot claim to have had much experience of seeing Cohen perform on stage or to have personally known him he nevertheless makes up for this with the fantastic amount of research he did for this book. Details of Cohen's early background are included, his family, the women in his life such as Marianne, who became immortalised in song in So Long, Marianne , his time spent on the island of Hydra, the making of each of his albums, his books and poetry, his business associates and recording and touring deals, the highs and lows of his life, his time spent as a Zen monk, and his recent achievements and how he has attracted a lot of renewed attention - its all inLeonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life .

Reynolds brings his account vividly to life with numerous quotations from Cohen himself and from friends and associates. There is also a selection of black and white photos of Leonard Cohen taken at various points in his career, and for fans it is almost worth getting the book just for these pictures alone!

Phil Spector

A chapter that stood out for me was the one about all the madness that went on in the making of Death of a Ladies' Man. This was the album produced by Phil Spector. Two musical geniuses but the project was a mess and a recording Cohen is not proud of.

It is worth considering when reading Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life that the author is an accomplished poet and singer-songwriter himself. I found it of great interest to see what Anthony would say about Cohen as one artist writing about another.

Nico

I discovered a lot of information about Leonard Cohen that I didn't know before reading this book. For example I found out that Cohen was obsessed with Nico at one point in his life. So was I so I can fully understand why!

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