Winnipeggers reflect on the life of Leonard Cohen

Swapping out the piano with a softly-picked, slightly fuzzy electrical guitar, late American singer Jeff Buckley recorded his version of “Hallelujah” for his first and only album, 1994’s Grace. His family requests some privacy during these days, it informed fans of the memorial, which will take place in Los Angeles at a later date.

It didn’t take long for Cohen’s death to create shockwaves around the world. Having started as a writer, he adapted quickly to writing in the music format and became revered as a songwriter.

“How sad to part from this man whose voice and face accompanied us for so many years”. The news, announced via his official Facebook page, comes three weeks after the release of his fourteenth album You Want It Darker. “His extraordinary talent had a profound impact on countless singers and songwriters, as well as the wider culture”. He was also a poet and author. In all, he recorded almost two dozen albums and won a lot of musical awards during his lifetime.

Cohen’s “Hallelujah” went from cult hit to modern standard, now an unending staple on movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, reality shows and high school choir concerts. A photo of her also featured on the back cover of his second album, Songs From A Room.

“There are few artists in the realm of popular music who can truly be called poets, in the classical, arts-and-letters sense of the word”, his tribute on the museum’s website states. He performed it twice in his concerts. “One of the great things about Cohen is he didn’t get down in the muck of Montreal politics and language divisions the way Richler did”. In the song, there are biblical references to David, Bathseba, and Samson.

With Cohen and Bill Elliott, Warnes co-wrote “Song of Bernadette”, a lovely ballad that deserves to be a standard like “Hallelujah”.

Covered by several renowned singers over the years, this touching song about romance and distances resonated with lovers everywhere. “There’s definitely this turn towards a more and more experimental style, and it is often a much less audience-pleasing style”.

But he once said that he got into music because he could not make a living as a poet.

The Canadian’s influence has even been noted by his Government, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling him a “perennial favourite of so many generations”.