- Title: Music fans, Warren Beatty remember Leonard Cohen in Los Angeles
- Date: 12th November 2016
- Summary: POSTER OF COHEN
- Embargoed: 27th November 2016 00:09
- Keywords: Leonard Cohen Los Angeles Warren Beatty Amoeba Music
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS/NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES/SOMERSET, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/MONTREAUX, SWITZERLAND/TORONTO, CANADABOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES/OVIEDO, SPAIN
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS/NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES/SOMERSET, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/MONTREAUX, SWITZERLAND/TORONTO, CANADABOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES/OVIEDO, SPAIN
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Music
- Reuters ID: LVA0025805HL3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Music fans in Los Angeles on Friday (November 11) remembered late singer Leonard Cohen as they shopped for records in Hollywood's Amoeba Music store.
Cohen, rock music's man of letters whose songs fused religious imagery with themes of redemption and sexual desire, earning him critical and popular acclaim, died at age 82, a statement on his Facebook page said on Thursday.
"It's a dying breed. Again, he was an all-round artist, not just a singer, not just a poetry writer, not just a song writer, he was all these things and more, and (he) touched so many different people. And you don't see that a lot," said Cohen fan Jeff Ball.
"A tremendous loss, I can't even … I mean it's still very surreal. All I did last night was listen to his music and reflect and fell asleep with the record spinning. I woke up this morning and the record was still spinning on the turntable," added Andrew Estrada, another fan of the late singer.
Cohen, a native of Quebec, was already a celebrated poet and novelist when he moved to New York in 1966 at age 31 to break into the music business.
Before long, critics were comparing him to Bob Dylan for the lyrical force of his songwriting.
"I think it's really sad, it's a huge loss because of his contribution to music but also the void that's being created by all these great musicians who are leaving us that is not being filled by these people so on that level it's a huge loss," said fan Michael McKinley.
Although Cohen influenced many musicians and won many honors, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada, Cohen rarely made the pop music charts with his sometimes moody folk-rock.
But Cohen's most famous song, "Hallelujah," in which he invoked the biblical King David and drew parallels between physical love and a desire for spiritual connection, has been covered hundreds of times since he released it in 1984.
"Hallelujah's" long road to mass appeal was matched by Cohen's own painstaking approach to writing it. He spent five years penning drafts, at one point banging his head on the floor of a hotel room in frustration.
Many of Cohen's songs became hits for other artists, including Judy Collins, who helped Cohen gain fame by recording some of his early compositions in the 1960s.
Cohen's most ardent admirers compared his works to spiritual prophecy. He sang about religion, with references to Jesus Christ and Jewish traditions, as well as love and sex, political upheaval, regret and what he once called the search for "a kind of balance in the chaos of existence."
Hollywood legend Warren Beatty on Friday told Reuters there was "nobody greater" than Cohen.
"I literally found out during an interview last night. I had no idea. I'm very sad about it because he was … (there was) nobody greater," said Beatty.
"He had a great sense of humor, he was brilliant," added Beatty.
Cohen's other well-known songs include "Suzanne," "So Long, Marianne," "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "The Future," an apocalyptic 1992 recording in which he darkly intoned: "I've seen the future, brother/It is murder."
He released an album, "You Want It Darker," just last month. But the New Yorker described him as ailing, quoting him as saying he was more or less "confined to barracks" in his Los Angeles residence. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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