LeonardCohenSearch

The items on this page are some of the online material about Leonard Cohen that I’ve found especially helpful, insightful, or entertaining. The content on this page is also displayed in a more traditional format (with reference items grouped under headings rather than linked to them), which may make for more enjoyable browsing and a more aesthetic appearance.

1. Leonard Cohen Discography, Lyrics, and Cover Art
2. List of Covers of Leonard Cohen Songs
3. Find Words/Phrases In Leonard Cohen’s Songs & Writings
4. Films, Video, & TV About Leonard Cohen or Featuring His Work
5. Leonard Cohen Tours (Before 2008)
6. Leonard Cohen Nicknames
   
7. Articles: General Biography
8. Articles: The Mount Baldy-Zen Monk Experience
9. Articles: The Influence of Judaism On Leonard Cohen’s Music
10. Articles: Sui Generis
11. Articles: Critiques Of Leonard Cohen’s Work In General
12. Articles: Essays On Specific Leonard Cohen Song(s)
13. Articles: Articles On Cohen Sources Once Removed (Articles dealing with works based on Leonard Cohen but not on Cohen’s own productions)
14. Articles: Special Collections
15. Online Audio-Video: Leonard Cohen Interviews
16. Treats: Leonard Cohen Rare Songs
17. Treats: Handwritten Notebooks Leonard Cohen Used To Create Songs
18. Treats: Leonard Cohen Chords
19. Treats: Art (Other Than Standard Cover Art)
20. Treats: Covers of Hallelujah

1. Leonard Cohen Discography, Lyrics, and Cover Art

   • Discography (LeonardCohenFiles)

2. List of Covers of Leonard Cohen Songs

   • A Thousand Covers Deep Listed By Artist (LeonardCohenFiles)¹
   • A Thousand Covers Deep Listed By Title (LeonardCohenFiles)²

3. Find Words/Phrases In Leonard Cohen’s Songs & Writings

   • Songs (Cohen Concordance)
   • Poems (Cohen Concordance)
   • Novels and Stories (Cohen Concordance)

4. Films, Video, & TV About Leonard Cohen or Featuring His Work

   • Leonard Cohen Filmography (LeonardCohenFiles)
   • Diamonds In The Mine

5. Leonard Cohen Tours (Before 2008)

   • Tours and Musicians (LeonardCohenFiles)

6. Leonard Cohen Nicknames
   

   • Leonard Cohen, AKA - The Nicknames

7. Articles: General Biography

   • Salon Brilliant Careers: Leonard Cohen by Sean Elder
   • Wikipedia: Leonard Cohen

8. Articles: The Mount Baldy-Zen Monk Experience

   • Leonard Cohen Unplugged By Pico Iyer (In Buzz, Los Angeles, April 1998)

9. Articles: The Influence of Judaism On Leonard Cohen’s Music

   • Under The Spell Of Stranger Music - Leonard Cohen’s Lyrical Judaism by Paul Monk (In The Australian Financial Review, June 8, 2001)

10. Articles: Sui Generis

    • Who held a gun to Leonard Cohen’s head? (The Guardian, September 17, 2004) 70 facts about Leonard Cohen on the occasion of his 70th birthday
    • Leonard Cohen by John Walsh (Mojo, September 1994)

11. Articles: Critiques Of Leonard Cohen’s Work In General

    • Leonard Cohen: The Romantic in a Ragpicker’s Trade by Paul Williams (Originally published in Crawdaddy magazine, March 1975)
    • The Essential Leonard Cohen by Pico Iyer
    • The Fiction Of Leonard Cohen by T.F. Rigelhof (Originally appeared in Paragraph: Canadian Fiction Review, Volume 19, No. 4, Spring 1998, pp. 2-5)

12. Articles: Essays On Specific Leonard Cohen Song(s)

    • “And she feeds you tea and oranges…” The Story of Suzanne By Paul Kennedy
    • “It Doesn’t Matter Which You Heard”: the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” by Michael Barthel
    • Leonard Cohen’s Poems-Songs (Studies in Canadian Literature/Études En Littérature Canadienne , Vol. 2.1 1977) by Judith Skelton Grant. (This is a close textual analysis but has few technical terms. It is not a casual read but rewards the effort)

13. Articles: Articles On Cohen Sources Once Removed (Articles dealing with works based on Leonard Cohen but not on Cohen’s own productions)

    • Nocturnal Admissions: Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man by D.K. Holm. Review of film, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man

14. Articles: Special Collections

    • New York Times Topics: Leonard Cohen A collection of NY Times articles about Leonard Cohen (23 as of 15 May 2008), links to Cohen references, and other Leonard Cohen resources³

15. Online Audio-Video: Leonard Cohen Interviews

    • CBC Archives - Leonard Cohen: Canada’s Melancholy Bard 5 television clips and 7 radio clips recorded at CBC from 1961-1993⁴

16. Treats: Leonard Cohen Rare Songs

    • Leonard Cohen - Rare Live Songs
      MP3 files of unusual Cohen songs, improvisations, and conversations with concert audiences available for download

17. Treats: Handwritten Notebooks Leonard Cohen Used To Create Songs

    • “Closing Time” Notebook - Page 1
    • “Alexandra Leaving” Notebook - Page 1
    • “Field Commander Cohen” Notebook - Page 1

18. Treats: Leonard Cohen Chords

    • Cohen Chords
      Chords to Leonard Cohen Songs - Entire site available as download

19. Treats: Art (Other Than Standard Cover Art)

    • Rarities - LeonardCohenFiles
    • Leonard Cohen Art at Richard Goodall Gallery

20. Treats: Covers of Hallelujah

    • Covers Of Hallelujah
      MP3 files of “almost all the covers of Hallelujah” (Post is from May 2006 and does not include covers of Hallelujah done since then) available for download

Footnotes

1. On occasion, the number of covers of a given Cohen song is needed. This can be a problematic task because the list of covers is not numbered and some of the songs have well over 100 covers. Counting covers by hand is likely to induce errors and, at best, is annoying. There is, however, a simple means of calculating this number: (1) Open Excel or any spreadsheet. If no spreadsheet is available, open a text editor such as Microsoft Word. (2) Copy the group of covers to be counted, taking care to include all of the covers but not copying extra lines. (3) Paste this into the upper left margin of the spreadsheet. Each cover should automatically be placed into one row of the spreadsheet. The row numbers on the left indicate the number of covers. If Microsoft Word is used instead of a spreadsheet, take care to paste the contents such that the first cover is on the first line of the Word document. Go to Preferences-Properties. In the box that opens, click the “statistics” tab. The number of lines listed will be the same as the number of covers. [↩]
2. On occasion, the number of covers of a given Cohen song is needed. This can be a problematic task because the list of covers is not numbered and some of the songs have well over 100 covers. Counting covers by hand is likely to induce errors and, at best, is annoying. There is, however, a simple means of calculating this number: (1) Open Excel or any spreadsheet. If no spreadsheet is available, open a text editor such as Microsoft Word. (2) Copy the group of covers to be counted, taking care to include all of the covers but not copying extra lines. (3) Paste this into the upper left margin of the spreadsheet. Each cover should automatically be placed into one row of the spreadsheet. The row numbers on the left indicate the number of covers. If Microsoft Word is used instead of a spreadsheet, take care to paste the contents such that the first cover is on the first line of the Word document. Go to Preferences-Properties. In the box that opens, click the “statistics” tab. The number of lines listed will be the same as the number of covers. [↩]
3. Thanks to Dick Straub, who introduced me to this excellent resource [↩]
4. My vote for Best Of Show among the clips comprising Leonard Cohen: Canada’s Melancholy Bard is On the road to singing sensation , which was originally broadcast in conjunction with the publication of Cohen’s novel, “Beautiful Losers,” in 1966 on This Hour Has Seven Days. See my post, The Leonard Cohen CBC Interviews [↩]