RasaritdeSoare: 2016

"A native of Quebec, Cohen was born to a middle class family with deep Judaic roots. His maternal grandfather was a Talmudic scholar, while his paternal grandfather founded the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father Nathan Cohen, a clothing retailer, died when Cohen was nine years old. Cohen began studying music can poetry as a youngster, taking up clarinet but turning his attention primarily to writing as he grew older and attended McGill University. He published his first book of poetry, "Let Us Compare Mythologies," and his first novel, "Beautiful Losers," in 1966.
It was Collins' success with "Suzanne" that led to his recording career. Columbia signed him and released "The Songs of Leonard Cohen," the first of 13 studio albums, in 1967. His singles did not chart in the U.S. -- his sonorous, semi-spoken vocals were not the stuff of the pop mainstream -- but the masses began catching on with 2012's "Old Ideas," which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and 2014's "Popular Problems," which debuted at No. 15. That didn't keep the material from becoming celebrated and analyzed, however, whether it was "Chelsea Hotel," a dry observation about a brief afternoon fling with Janis Joplin, relationship paeans such as "So Long, Marianne" and "Dance Me to the End of Love" or the starkly political tracts like "First We Take Manhattan" and "Democracy." (News - 11/11/2016)