I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen Paperback – August 27, 2013

It was in the winter of 1969, June to be precise, and it was refreshingly cool for a change. An interlude. Seven days away from the war, and I am not speaking of the one between the sexes. As would happen so often in subsequent years, the lyrics rolled around in my brain, as I stood on the shore of Sydney harbor: "...and the sun poured down like honey, on our lady of the harbor." The sun indeed felt like honey in the coolness... and there was so much more, just in that one song: that eternal aspiration for someone who liked his physics: "...and she gets you on her wavelength, and makes the river answer, that you have always been her lover..." `Lo these many years later, and thanks to the truly excellent biography by Sylvie Simmons that I finally learned that the harbor was Montreal, and the China that had been (relatively) so near to me, for the past ten months, the origin of those famous teas and oranges that Suzanne so graciously provided, had a local market run by some folks equally far from home, in that most beautiful of Canadian cities. Sure, the version that I loved was sung by Judy Collins, but I had tucked away in one of those cranial recesses, that the man who had provided a bit of peace, tranquility, inspiration, and even a bit of hope was Leonard Cohen.Cohen actively collaborated with Simmons in this impressive work. Typical of the ever so self-deprecating Cohen, he just wanted to make sure it was not a "hagiography," and it is not, and is all the stronger for it. It is a fitting tribute to him, and proved to be an essential read. There were so many missing pieces between the lyrics, and so much background for them, and Simmons provides much, but is content to leave some ambiguity on the table, just as Leonard would have.Leonard Cohen's ancestors, Lithuanian-Russian Jews arrived in Canada in 1860. When Leonard came around, in 1934, the family was prosperous upper middle class clothiers, and hence his tastes for suits, which is referenced in the title to the first chapter. He explored the docks and bars of Montreal in his youth, attended McGill University, wrote some good poetry, but as most folks know, you can't make a living that way, which forced him into music. Off to NYC, a couple of the right intros, and he was off to continued obscurity in the United States, but developed a strong following in Europe. He lived on the Greek Island of Hydra, where he met the Norwegian model, Marianne. He is a "Lady's Man," but not the type that would "notch a bedpost"... with the right chemistry, things just seem to happen. He lived with fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell for a year, and told the world once about a tribute from Janis Joplin in the Chelsea Hotel. "You can't tell the players without a scorecard," as they once upon a time cried at the stadium entrance. But Leonard seemed to be scorecard-less, summed up with his classic line: "I can't keep track of each fallen robin."Like Sir Richard Francis Burton before him, he tried on a few religions, reflecting the spirituality of his lyrics. He found a guru, of sorts, but mainly a friend, in Roshi, Joshu Sasaki, who is still alive at 107, and is famous for saying "Excuse me for not dying." (The most recent controversies concerning Roshi, surfacing in 2013, did not make this bio, published in '12). Cohen became an "ordained" Buddhist monk under Roshi's guidance... but then went off to India, in search of a Hindu guru. While being a monk, he was betrayed by his long-time financial manager, Kelley Lynch, and lost all his retirement money. The world, and perhaps Leonard, is better off for it. He "dusted himself off" and at the age of 73, skipped back out on the world stage, performing concert after concert to sell-out crowds, recouping his losses and more. And it was no "farewell tour," some of his best work may have been produced in conjunction with it, complementing the subject "Hallelujah". On tour, his wit was always with him, and he'd tell the audiences that the last time he was on tour he was "sixty years old, just a kid with a crazy dream."His most fervent fan-base will appreciate his comments on aging:"Everything changes as you get older; I never met a woman until I was sixty-five. Instead, I saw all kinds of miracles in front of me."And there is so much else in this very excellent biography, in which Simmons weaves his lyrics, for the "au courant," and presents balanced assessments, just as you might imagine Leonard doing. Europe and the United States. I thought Simmons nailed the qualities of Cohen's music perfectly: "dark humor, old-world romance, existential gloom and poetry." Why is this so much more popular in Europe than in the United States? A question to discuss, but never to answer, so cherie, just "Dance Me to the End of Love." 6-stars.

Sylvie Simmons' exhaustive biography of Leonard Cohen tells you practically all you will ever need to know about this poet/songwriter/singer who means so much to so many of us. She appears to cover every aspect of his life, having interviewed literally dozens of people including Mr. Cohen, himself. She notes near the end of the book that he neither asked her to write the book nor asked to read it. That tells me something about the integrity of the man. Throughout this long biography-- it weighs in at over 550 pages including voluminous notes-- there is hardly an unkind word to be said by anyone about him. (The only exception that comes to mind is that one man said that he didn't like Mr. Cohen, that he would not look you in the eye. The comment may say more about the speaker than Mr. Cohen.) He is portrayed as generous with his money, kind to a fault, a loyal friend, keeping friends for life, and loved by the many women in his life even after they are no longer involved with him. (Not one of the women has a derogatory comment to make about Cohen.) He was taken advantage of-- he was rooked out of any money for "Suzanne," one of his two most famous songs, and, more recently lost a fortune to Kelly Lynch, the trusted manager of his financial affairs. (Ms. Simmons notes that Lynch did receive an eighteen month prison sentence and an additional five years' probation for various charges.)Ms. Simmons' biography of course brings us current on Mr. Cohen's stay in the Zen Buddhist monastery on Mt. Baldy, California, what he called a "hospital for the broken-hearted," and his recently highly successful world-wide tour of which I had the good fortune to take in when he came to Atlanta, Georgia. He certainly makes it look easy to be a septuagenarian.Some intriguing facts about Canada's great poet I did not know: he read and liked Gore Vidal's MYRA BRECKENRIDGE, he is not a big fan of Frank Sinatra, and he enjoys watching Jerry Springer. And on at least one occasion he apparently was able to heal a very sick cat that IV fluids and an enema by the vet did not help by chanting to the cat for about ten minutes the "Ooooooooooooooooom" that he would have done in the monastery. When things are going rough with Mr. Cohen, he takes his mother's advice of long ago and shaves. Finally, he has often played at mental hospitals. Ms. Simmons tell of his visit to a mental hospital in Montreal when a young kid screamed at him, asking what this big-shot of a poet and singer with all the pretty girls with him thought of him. Mr. Cohen left the stage and hugged the mental patient. Surely such loving behavior on the part of him does come as a surprise to those of us long familiar with his novels, poetry and songs.What makes this biography unique and separates it from too many life histories where the writer plods on with fact after fact, often making an exciting life dull, is Ms. Simmons' adroit turn of phrase. Here are just a few examples: Albums that have been recorded but not yet released are "waiting their turn to come out, like buses in a depot." His unpublished or unfinished autobiographical short stories she sees as stacked-up "mirror-lined Leonard Cohen Russian dolls." About Suzanne Verdal, the inspiration for Cohen's famous song "Suzanne," Ms. Simmons writes that "Leonard the magician sawed her down the middle, then put the two parts back together--the carnal and the spiritual and made her more perfect than before." She says of the album "Various Positions," released in America in January 1986, that "it did not trouble the U. S. charts." And in her description of Cohen's THE FAVORITE GAME she says: "Each chapter of his account of how his life led to his becoming the writer of this story is presented as a separate scene, which he scripts, directs, stars in, and at the same time observes from the back row, smiling, while perfectly executing the popcorn-box trick on the girl in the next seat." I had to read that sentence three times to convince myself that what I thought Ms. Simmons was saying is, in fact, what she said.This biography is required reading for Leonard Cohen fans the world over.