Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City on March 10, 2008. Lou Reed gave the induction speech and Damien Rice provided the vocal tribute to Leonard's music.
On March 10, 2008 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted a Columbia alumnus. And no, it wasn’t Madonna. His name is Leonard Cohen, and the odds are good that you’ve never heard of him. Don’t worry. Few have.
The Quebecois-born Cohen published his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1956 as a McGill University undergraduate. After an aborted attempt at law school, Cohen traveled south to Morningside Heights. Here Cohen enrolled as a graduate student in the English department. The independent-minded Cohen lasted just one forgettable year in the program. As George State, professor emeritus of English and comparative literature, recalls, “I don’t remember coming across Leonard. The courses were mostly lectures with no assigned papers or tests, so I might have been in a course with him, but I just don’t remember.” The young poet proved quite unmemorable. Apparently, so did Columbia. We lost Cohen to the Greek island of Hydra.
Cohen spent the better part of a decade on the undeveloped island. There he wrote his third book of poetry, Flowers For Hitler, the follow-up to the 1961 much-celebrated Spice-Box of Earth, and two novels, The Favorite Game and the cult classic Beautiful Losers. 30 years later, in the updated preface to the new Chinese edition of Losers, Cohen, in his classically self-depreciating manner, wrote of his magnum opus:
“Beautiful Losers was written outside, on a table set among the rocks, weeds and daisies, behind my house on Hydra, an island in the Aegean Sea. I lived there many years ago. It was a blazing hot summer. I never covered my head. What you have in your hands is more of a sunstroke than a book. Dear Reader, please forgive me if I have wasted your time.”
The critics were kinder.
“James Joyce is not dead,” wrote the Boston Globe. “He lives in Montreal under the name of Cohen ... writing from the point of view of Henry Miller.”
Cohen’s first record, the eponymous Songs of Leonard Cohen, came relatively late in life at 33 years old. He released the now classic album during 1967’s Summer of Love. Although critically well-received, Cohen’s sullen, morose, and decidedly reactionary brand of folk rock did not quickly catch on. The poet-cum-musician had entered the music scene amid levels of artistry, talent, and experimentation not since replicated. A standout album any other year, his songs had to compete with the Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper, Cream’s Disraeli Gears, Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic masterpiece Surrealistic Pillow, and debut albums from Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and The Velvet Underground and Nico. It would take 22 years for the RIAA to certify the album gold in the United States. His music, like his career, would never be “mainstream.” Cohen, however, was and remains a musician’s lyricist.
Admittedly, Cohen was never a particularly great musicologist. In an interview with the BBC he mused, “I’m a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time—you know, people said I only knew three chords when I knew five.” He was first and foremost a writer. Few would disagree. Cohen’s work has garnered a cult following. Artists as varied as Johnny Cash, U2, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, k.d. Lang, Philip Glass, Regina Spektor, and Bob Dylan have covered his songs. R.E.M., so influenced by Cohen’s “Suzanne,” gave the Canadian bard co-songwriting credit on their song, “Hope.”
40 years later, the 73-year-old practicing Jew and Zen Buddhist monk is as influential as ever before.
His songs, like his poems, took months and years to perfect. Accompaniments were few, usually a guitar and later, in the 80s, a dated synthesizer. Cohen’s lyrics reflect a certain cynical nepotism. He finds beauty in anguish, in each tempestuous goodbye and unresolved couplet. “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld,” scribbled Kurt Cobain, “So I can sigh eternally.” The beleaguered rocker was onto something. Despite the brief respites and movements of levity, darkness pervades Cohen’s work. If his albums are divine cantos, then his songs are psalms. This 20th-century David has done more than most popular artists to accurately depict the human condition. “There’s a crack in everything,” Cohen writes. “That’s how the light gets in. That sums it up—it is as close to a credo as I’ve come.”
I write about politics, not art. I know I’ve done Cohen no great justice, but this was one opportunity I could not pass up. Cohen, like Federico García Lorca, Jack Kerouac, and the great Columbians before him, has a divine gift. He is a master poet and a humble soul. I say with the greatest respect and admiration, “Congratulations, Mr. Cohen.” This award was a long time coming.
Chris Kulawik is a Columbia College senior majoring in history and political science. Chris Shrugged runs alternate Wednesdays. Opinion@columbiaspectator.com
Leonard Cohen, one of the few true poets to ever cross the musical charts -- he has also written some of the sharpest "political" songs ever -- called his induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame on Monday night an "unlikely" event, surely the understatement of the week. Perhaps, as he once sang, "Democracy is coming to the USA." (more below)
His fellow inductees included Madonna and the Dave Clark Five. Iggy Pop performed. Lou Reed, former god of "Heroin" who has published a few poems himself, gave Leonard's induction speech, although Bono is considered Cohen's greatest rock fan. To top it off, The New York Times reports today that Leonard will be launching his first tour in ages, June 6, in Toronto.
Reed read some of the inductee's lyrics/poems, and then Leonard, grey-haired and dapper in a tux, recited his "Tower of Song," with the audience cheering individual lines, such as "I ache in the places/ where I used to play." For one night he was truly "back on Boogie Street." No songs followed. Poetry reigned, for once.
I've been a Cohen fanatic for 35 years, from back in the years when I was senior editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. One of the most memorable concerts for me ever came in the mid-1970s, when Leonard appeared at, I believe, Carnegie Hall. His backup group included a trio of lovely women in white -- probably including Jennifer Warnes.
As some may know, Leonard was known as, shall we say, a ladies man (he later recorded an album, with Phil Spector, titled Death of a Ladies Man). Let's just say that he lived with actress Rebecca DeMornay back when she was considered virtually the most beautiful woman in the world. I recall the party for Leonard at the Plaza Hotel after a concert. I have never seen since such a public display: one striking woman after another surrounding him (Judy Collins was one) like moths to a flame, for over an hour. John Mayer, eat your heart out.
But back to the lyrics. I can't or won't try to do justice to them here, from "Take This Longing" to "Hallelujah." In my new book, I even manage to quote a couple of his lines, applied to Iraq and the media, such as "a scheme is not a vision."
But since this is Huff Post, let me close with a few lines from the aforementioned "Democracy." Obama campaign, sign this one up!
*
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A....
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat...
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
NEW YORK - Leonard Cohen's towering songbook fits no category save its own, but they finally found a house big enough to hold it. Cohen's overdue induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came during Monday night's ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Between inductions of Madonna, John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Gamble & Huff and Little Walter, Lou Reed took the podium to offer a generous tribute to his fellow rock poet.
"I first met Leonard Cohen at the Chelsea Hotel," Reed said. "We were talking and - I thought it was sweet of him - he said, ‘You wrote a song called I'll Be Your Mirror and it made me want to keep writing songs.'"
Reed went on to mention William S. Burroughs and Cohen as contemporaries, citing the former's novel Naked Lunch and Cohen's Beautiful Losers and saying, "one of them got more attention. I was always surprised by that."
Reed then quoted lavishly from the Cohen oeuvre, from First We Take Manhattan, Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye, Anthem, and Cohen's latest work, Book of Longing. It was, appropriately, a most writerly induction for one of Canada's most celebrated poets.
Cohen thanked Reed for reminding him that he'd written "a couple of good lines. I inducted you into my own ghostly hall of fame years ago."
He pronounced the induction "an unlikely event" and "not a distinction I coveted," while joking that Jon Landau had once said, "I have seen the future of rock ‘n' roll, and he is not Leonard Cohen." Then came a perfect recital of Tower of Song before Damien Rice serenaded the hall with Hallelujah.
Cohen, 73, appeared backstage briefly for a lightning-barrage of photos, but did not take questions.
The evening was accompanied by the announcement of Cohen's first live dates in Montreal in 15 years, with three shows as part of this year's Montreal International Jazz Festival.
There is also talk of an album.
Of course, Cohen was already a celebrated - and starving - poet and novelist by the time he moved into pop music with Songs of Leonard Cohen in 1967. His memories of the career, in the documentary I'm Your Man, are typically humble: "The title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune."
"If it is your destiny to be this labourer called a writer, then you know that you've got to go to work every day. But you also know that you're not gonna get it every day. You have to be prepared, but you really don't command the enterprise."
Madonna was inducted by Justin Timberlake and had apparently suggested Iggy and the Stooges pay tribute to her by performing her hits Burning Up and Ray of Light.
Shirtless and enduringly deranged, Pop cruised down into the crowd to sit by Madonna during the former, and leered during the latter, drawing a priceless reaction shot from the Marilyn-coiffed inductee.
The Dave Clark 5 was inducted by Tom Hanks, John Mellencamp by Billy Joel, Little Walter by Ben Harper, the Ventures by John Fogerty, and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff by Jerry Butler.
Before the ceremony, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Joel Peresman said Cohen was "not someone who sold a hundred million albums, but who had a profound effect" on music.
Justin Timberlake had the most piquant line of the night, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the world has long been full of Madonna wannabes, and I might even have dated a couple," before the lady herself came out to deliver a deadly serious, almost gawkily vulnerable speech.
Dave Clark said the occasion was "very bittersweet. It'd have been lovely if it was the five of us here. And at least (singer) Mike (Smith) knew he was a Hall of Famer."
Cohen has said his reputation as a ladies' man was "a joke, which caused me to laugh bitterly during the 10,000 nights I spent alone." He would have been chuffed to hear a drop-dead gorgeous Christy Turlington cite him backstage as her favourite on the bill.
Rolling Stone - March 11, 2008 by Jonathan Cohen (Kane/Wireimage and Gries/Getty )
As Iggy Pop and the Stooges pounded through punked-up reinventions of inductee Madonna’s “Burning Up” and “Ray of Light” Monday night at the 23rd annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, it was only the most extreme example of what the show did all night long: find unexpected common ground between disparate genres and eras of music. The broad range of newly inducted artists included John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Leonard Cohen and the Dave Clark Five, the last of whom inspired the evening’s most impassioned speech: fan Tom Hanks vividly described hearing the British Invasion band’s hits coming out of a “speaker the size of a soda can” as a kid. “Joy is eternal,” Hanks said. “Joy was in the music of the Dave Clark Five. Their records still jump out of any speaker.”
Justin Timberlake inducted Madonna with a light-hearted, flirtatious speech. “The world is full of Madonna wannabes. I might have even dated a couple. But there truly is only one Madonna,” he said, adding, “Though I’m pretty sure Little Richard would disagree, the truth is that nobody has ever gotten into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while still looking this damn fine.” He also told a story about Madonna giving him a B-12 shot: “That’s what Madonna was and will continue to be for all of us: A shot in the ass when we need it most,” Timberlake said.
Madonna seemed moved by the occasion, appearing close to tears at a couple points as she gave a lengthy, heartfelt talk. She offered a brief history of her career, describing her first stabs at music: playing drums along with Elvis Costello records, and strumming four chords on a guitar. She thanked an old ballet teacher “who told me I was special,” and talked about songwriting in mystical terms: “Luckily, I have been miraculously and mysteriously possessed by some kind of magic.” And she introduced Iggy Pop as a kindred spirit, “another ass-kicker from Michigan.”
In his affectionate induction speech for Mellencamp, Billy Joel celebrated him as an American rebel at a time when the nation needs one. “This country has been hijacked,” Joel said. “People need to hear a voice like yours to echo the discontent in the heartland … Someone’s got to tell ‘em don’t take any shit, and John, you do that very well.”
Mellencamp traced his fighting spirit to his youth, beginning with surviving spinal bifida as an infant. “I’m lucky to be standing here for any number of reasons,” said Mellencamp, who choked up as he thanked his mom and dad, who both attended the ceremony. Before kicking into a fierce version of “Authority Song” (backed by a band that included his teenage son, Speck, on guitar), which he turned into an audience sing-along, Mellencamp said, “I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it twenty-five years ago.”
Lou Reed inducted Leonard Cohen, reading selections from his lyrics. “We are so lucky to be alive at the same time Leonard Cohen is,” he said. Of all the honorees, Cohen seemed most surprised to be there. “This is a very unlikely occasion for me. It is not a distinction that I coveted or even dared dream about,” he said, adding a joke that played off a famous quote about Bruce Springsteen: “So I’m reminded of the prophetic statement of Jon Landau in the early Seventies: I have seen the future of rock and roll and it is not Leonard Cohen.”
As John Fogerty inducted instrumental rockers the Ventures, he recalled that he and his Creedence bandmates spent time “picking apart these Ventures songs to see how they work and getting a great education along the way.” The Ventures then played note-perfect, reverb-swamped versions of two of their biggest hits, “Walk Don’t Run” and “Hawaii Five-O.” Early in the show, Ben Harper inducted the late blues harpist Little Walter, and Jerry Butler of the Impressions inducted the Philly soul production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
The evening ended with Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Joan Jett and Billy Joel jamming on an explosive, garage-y version of the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad All Over” that recalled the all-star jams of the Hall of Fame’s early years. The Dave Clark Five’s singer, Mike Smith, died of pneumonia just two weeks before the ceremony. But drummer and bandleader Clark said that he was grateful that Smith was aware of the honor. “Mike tried desperately to be here with us tonight,” he said. “But at least he knew he was a hall of famer.”
Ottawa Citizen - March 11, 2008 by Mark Lepage (Photo: Lucas Jackson, Reuters and AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Leonard Cohen's towering songbook fits no category save its own, but they finally found a house big enough to hold it. Cohen's overdue induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came during Monday night's ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Between inductions of Madonna, John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Gamble & Huff and Little Walter, Lou Reed took the podium to offer generous commentary on his old pal.
"I first met Leonard Cohen at the Chelsea Hotel," Reed said. "We were talking and - I thought it was sweet of him - he said 'You wrote a song called I'll Be Your Mirror and it made me want to keep writing songs'."
Reed when on to mention Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Cohen's novel Beautiful Losers, saying "one of them got more attention. I was always surprised by that."
Reed quoted lavishly from the Cohen oeuvre, citing First We Take Manhattan, Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye, Anthem and Cohen's latest work, Book of Longing. It was, appropriately, a most writerly induction one of Canada's most celebrated poets.
Cohen thanked Reed for reminding him that he'd written "a couple of good lines. I inducted you into my own ghostly hall of fame years ago."
He pronounced the induction "an unlikely event" and "not a distinction I coveted" while joking that Jon Landau had once said "I have seen the future of rock 'n' roll, and he is not Leonard Cohen." Then came a perfect recital of Tower of Song before Damien Rice serenaded the hall with Hallelujah.
Cohen, 73, appeared backstage briefly for photos but did not take questions.
The evening was accompanied by the announcement of Cohen's first live dates in Montreal in 15 years, with three shows as part of this year's Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Of course, Cohen was already a celebrated - and starving - poet and novelist by the time he moved into pop music. His memories of his career, in the documentary I'm Your Man, are typically humble: "The title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune."
"If it is your destiny to be this labourer called a writer, then you know that you've got to go to work every day. But you also know that you're not gonna get it every day."
Madonna was inducted by Justin Timberlake and had apparently suggested Iggy and the Stooges play her hits Ray of Light and Burning Up.
The Dave Clark 5 was inducted by Tom Hanks, John Mellencamp by Billy Joel, Little Walter by Ben Harper, the Ventures by John Fogerty and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff by Jerry Butler.
Before the ceremony, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Joel Peresman said Cohen was "not someone who sold a hundred million albums, but who had a profound effect" on music.
On the evening of his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Leonard Cohen released details of his first world tour in fifteen years. Confirmed by the Canadian artist’s official website, the much-anticipated tour will commence on June 6 with a two-night stand in Toronto. Three consecutive dates later in the month at the Montreal Jazz Festival mark the only other North American performances on the issued itinerary, but additional dates are expected to surface soon. A series of European dates fill out the schedule, including appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival as well as at England’s mammoth Glastonbury Festival.
On Monday night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, the music and literary legend received a distinguished welcome as he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Following a sprawling yet heartfelt tribute by Lou Reed, Cohen took to the podium, his hands a bit shaky with age, but his deep voice – as well as his wit – still very much in command. Modifying a famous and prophetic line once written about a young Bruce Springsteen, he deadpanned, “I have seen the future of Rock and Roll, and he is not Leonard Cohen.” Indeed, he appeared a bit bemused by his inclusion in the Rock and Roll pantheon, but his humble appreciation of the honor was nothing short of genuine. He concluded his remarks by reciting the words to “Tower of Song,” punctuating each verse with a cadence equally assertive and insightful. His rendering of the last stanza, in particular, seemed strikingly appropriate:
Now I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back
They’re moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you’ll be hearing from me baby, long after I’m gone
I’ll be speaking to you sweetly from my window in the Tower of Song
Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice delivered a sparse and inspired performance of “Hallelujah,” evocative more of the late Jeff Buckley’s somber rendition than Cohen’s original. Regardless, the song’s author certainly received his due.
Toronto Star - March 11, 2008 by The Associated Press
NEW YORK–Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night in a star-studded ceremony that included the induction of quick-change-artist Madonna, heartland hitmaker John Mellencamp, British rockers the Dave Clark Five, surf instrumentalists the Ventures, Philly soul producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and a posthumous honour for sideman Little Walter, who died in 1968.
Lou Reed, who was inducting Cohen, carried a sheaf of papers to the stage and read several examples of Cohen's lyrics. "We're so lucky to be alive at the same time Leonard Cohen is," Reed said.
Cohen, dressed in a black tux, recited the lyrics to his song "Tower of Song" in a hushed voice.
"This is a very unlikely occasion for me," the Montreal-born poet who has been writing and recording his music since the 1960s said. "It is not a distinction that I coveted or even dared dream about."
Cohen is one of music's most highly regarded, if not best-known, songwriters, through pieces like "Suzanne" and the much-covered "Hallelujah," the latter song Damien Rice sang in tribute.
Madonna, who didn't perform but asked Iggy Pop and the Stooges to sing two of her songs, paid tribute to people who encouraged her and even critics who panned her for helping drive her career, recalling a teacher who encouraged her when she was only 14.
"Thirty-five years later, people are still encouraging me to believe in my dreams," she said at the Waldorf Astoria induction ceremony. "What more could I ask for?''
Even the people who "said I was talentless, that I was chubby, that I couldn't sing, that I was a one-hit wonder, they helped me, too. They inspired me because they made me question myself repeatedly and pushed me to be better.''
Justin Timberlake, who helped produce Madonna's upcoming album, inducted her with an innuendo-laden speech. "The world is full of Madonna wannabes. I might have even dated a couple," said Britney Spears' ex. "But there is truly only one Madonna.''
Mellencamp, with his son Speck playing guitar and his parents watching from a balcony, joined the rock-kicking with a rumbling version of "Authority Song.''
"I wrote this song, and I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it 25 years ago," he said.
Fellow Hall of Fame member Billy Joel, who inducted Mellencamp, said, "the world needed Mellencamp's voice.
"They need to hear somebody out there feels like they do, in the small towns or the big cities," Joel said. "And it doesn't matter if they hear it on a jukebox in a gin mill or on a ... truck commercial.''
Patti LaBelle performed a chandelier-shaking rendition of "If You Don't Know Me By Now" to introduce Gamble and Huff, while John Fogerty recalled how Creedence Clearwater Revival learned the songs of the Ventures, who performed their first hit, "Walk, Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O."
The Dave Clark Five followed the Beatles in the original British Invasion, with catchy hits like "Glad All Over." Led by drummer and songwriter Clark, the band enters the hall at a tragic time: singer Mike Smith died at age 64 of pneumonia less than two weeks ago.
Pop superstar Madonna, heartland rocker John Mellencamp, singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, British Invasion pioneers the Dave Clark Five and instrumental rock legends the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night (March 10) during a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The event was televised live by VH1 Classic.
Blues harmonica virtuoso Little Walter was posthumously inducted in the sideman category, while Philadelphia-bred producers/songwriters Gamble & Huff received the Ahmet Ertegun award in the non-performer category.
Timberlake, who collaborated with Madonna on half of her upcoming album, "Hard Candy," told the audience, "She's done it by working harder and being smarter than everybody else. As she made MTV the place to be seen, she racked up the greatest track record in music history -- 47 top 40 hits. She became the biggest name on the planet the old-fashioned way -- she earned it."
"It is a great honor to receive this award, and I'm grateful and appreciate for the acknowledgement that this implies," said Madonna, who thanked many of the Sire executives (Seymour Stein, Michael Rosenblatt, Liz Rosenberg) who helped get her career off the ground, and also quoted the Talmud during her acceptance speech.
Afterward, Iggy & the Stooges barreled through punked-up versions of Madonna's second single, "Burning Up," and her latter-day hit, "Ray of Light," with the artist bopping up and down in her seat as they played.
While inducting Mellencamp, Billy Joel humorously recalled playing flag football against the artist in the 1980s, a game in which Mellencamp was using players from nearby Indiana University as ringers. "Don't let this club membership change you, John," he said. "Stay ornery, stay mean. We need you to stay pissed off and restless."
"As long as I can hear a song that puts a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat, I know there's still hope," said Mellencamp, a longtime advocate for American farmers through the Farm Aid benefit concerts, which he helped create. He and his trusty band then took the stage to perform three of their most definitive songs: "Pink Houses," "Small Town" and the storming "Authority Song."
The evening began with Patti LaBelle belting out the Gamble and Huff-penned "If You Don't Know Me By Now," popularized by Harold Marvin and the Blue Notes, and Jerry Butler's rendition of the pair's "Only the Strong Will Survive."
"You must have a team, and we had a great team," said Gamble, who added that "just to mention Gamble & Huff in the same breath that you mention Ahmet Ertegun is just a wonderful honor to us." "This is the thrill of a lifetime. This is beyond my wildest dreams," Huff added.
Lou Reed inducted Leonard Cohen, saluting the influence of his poetry on his generation. Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice then performed the Cohen classic "Hallelujah," which has become closely associated with the late Jeff Buckley in the past decade.
The famously soft-spoken Cohen, looking dapper in a tuxedo and sunglasses, posed for photos solo and with Rice in the backstage press room, but did not answer any questions. The 73-year-old artist is rumored to be returning the road this fall for the first time in years.
In his induction speech, Tom Hanks recalled obsessing over the Dave Clark Five while growing up in suburban California, raising his voice to a fever pitch to declare, "the Dave Clark Five made a joyful sound!" The group's eponymous leader made special mention of singer Mike Smith, who died Feb. 28. He had been paralyzed in a 2003 accident.
"Mike tried desperately to be here tonight, but sadly he passed away just a few days ago," Clark said. "But at least he knows he's a Hall of Famer. Mike, you're with us in spirit, my friend, and always will be."
After receiving their trophies, the Ventures charged through two of their best-known compositions, "Walk, Don't Run" and the theme from "Hawaii Five-O."
"We just got back from Japan in January," founding member Don Wilson said backstage. "We did 17 shows in nine days without a day off, and I’m 75. People ask me, 'How do you do it?' My answer is, 'I don’t know.' I just do it. I’ve been doing it for so many years it just comes natural."
The ceremony wrapped with an all-star jam on the Dave Clark Five's "Glad All Over," featuring Mellencamp, Joel, Joan Jett and John Fogerty, among others.
Damien Rice, who performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" just after Cohen's induction, talked to Billboard backstage about what makes the song so special for him. "There's an amazing connection between sex and spirituality, and it's something Leonard Cohen hints at in that song," he said. "It's almost like a Buddhist master giving you a hint, but not the whole story. You have to take that hint and go sit with it."
Rice added that he's presently in the studio in Los Angeles, but has no timetable to release his next album. "I'm just floating, seeing where the wind takes me," he said.
Leonard Cohen (vocals, guitar; born September 21, 1934)
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. Among them are Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and Phil Ochs. Leonard Cohen heads this elite class. In fact, Cohen was already an established poet and novelist before he turned his attention to songwriting. His academic training in poetry and literature, and his pursuit of them as livelihood for much of the Fifties and Sixties, gave him an extraordinary advantage over his pop peers when it came to setting language to music. Along with other folk-steeped musical literati, Cohen raised the songwriting bar.
Cohen’s recording career spans 40 years, commencing with the 1967 release of his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. He was in his early thirties and seven years older than Dylan, and his age set him apart from the young musicians who dominated the rock and folk worlds. Cohen was born and raised in the city of Montreal, a city whose rich history and thriving culture served to train his writer’s muse on three fundamental preoccupations: romance, religion and politics. His first musical group, the Buckskins, played traditional music at square dances. He studied poetry at Montreal’s McGill University and published his first collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies, as part of the McGill Poetry Series. His favorite literary figures included the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, the Canadian poet Irving Layton, and Beat Generation figurehead Jack Kerouac.
In 1958, Cohen lived in New York, where he briefly attended Columbia University. He received a grant for his writing that allowed him to travel the world and make the Greek island of Hydra his on-and-off home for a fertile seven-year period. Cohen relocated to the States in 1966 and tried his hand at songwriting, largely as a reaction to having experienced the starving lot of the poet and novelist. By then he’d published four books of poetry and two novels (including the celebrated Beautiful Losers). “But I found it was very difficult to pay my grocery bill,” Cohen said in 1971. “I’ve got beautiful reviews for all my books, and I’m very well thought of in the tiny circles that know me, but…I’m really starving.”
Beyond the promise of better income, his entrée into the music world greatly increased the audience for his poetry. Cohen has always been adamant about the power of words to change individual lives and even entire societies for the better. “I always feel that the world was created through words, through speech in our tradition, and I’ve always seen the enormous light in charged speech,” Cohen told interviewer Robert Sward. “That’s what I’ve tried to get to [and] that is where I squarely stand.”
Cohen found an early supporter and sponsor in Judy Collins, who introduced his songs to the world via her recordings of “Suzanne” (still his best-known song) and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” on her 1966 album In My Life. Legendary A&R man John Hammond signed Cohen to Columbia Records, and his first three albums for the label – Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room and Songs of Love and Hate - represent the fruitful first phase in an episodic recording career. The hallmarks of Cohen’s style were his plainspoken vocals, spare arrangements, deep but accessible lyrics, and an abiding preoccupation with the feminine mystique. Cohen’s tightly constructed verses served the rhyming and meter demands of pop-song form without sacrificing the higher ends of poetry.
As a songwriter, Cohen seemed somewhat less comfortable in the Seventies than he had in the Sixties, recording only four albums of new material – Songs of Love and Hate (1971), New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974), Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977) and Recent Songs (1979) – in that decade. The first and last of these were marked by strong songwriting and sympathetic production, whereas Death of a Ladies’ Man was marked by difficulties with producer Phil Spector.
Cohen’s output was lesser still in the Eighties, but the pair of albums he did release – Various Positions (1984) and I’m Your Man (1988) – are indisputable classics. The first of these found Cohen writing about spirituality; one of its songs (“Hallelujah”) is among his best-loved and most-recorded, having been covered by Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and Allison Krauss. The release of Various Positions was accompanied by the publication of Book of Mercy, a self-described “book of prayer.” I’m Your Man was arguably Cohen’s greatest set of songs since his 1967 debut, containing such classics as “Tower of Song,” “Everybody Knows” and “First We Take Manhattan.” In 1992, some of rock’s most respected acts, including R.E.M., the Pixies, and Nick Cave, contributed to the Leonard Cohen tribute album I’m Your Fan. Another Cohen tribute album, Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (1995), included cover versions from more mainstream artists, including Don Henley, Billy Joel and Elton John.
Cohen’s most disenchanted and apocalyptic work, The Future, appeared in 1992. In the title track, he sang, “Get ready for the future, it is murder.” Not surprisingly, Cohen retreated to a mountaintop monastery in Southern California for five years, during which he studied with and served his Zen master, Joshu Sasaki-Roshi. “It was one of the many attempts I’ve made in the past 30 or 40 years to address acute clinical depression,” he acknowledged in a 2001 interview. That year, he released Ten New Songs, his first studio album in nearly a decade. He has since issued Dear Heather (2004) and produced Blue Alert (2006), an album by backup singer Anjani. Between their releases came the documentary I’m Your Man, which featured live performances of Cohen’s songs from U2, Beth Orton and others.
On his ties to Columbia Records, similar in mutual loyalty and longevity to the careers of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Cohen told writer William Ruhlmann: “I never sold enough records to make them dependent on my next record or to make them anxious about it. On the other hand, I never lost them any money. [The records] seem to sell themselves in modest quantities with very little money necessary for promotion.”
Cohen has earned a better living as a singer-songwriter than he would have as a poet and novelist alone. Yet he’s enjoyed the poet’s advantage of not having to compromise his dignity by indulging in the often-distasteful rituals of pop celebrity. In other words, he’s drawn the best from both worlds, forging a wholly unique and remarkable niche for himself. There’s no denying that Cohen’s voice has deepened and coarsened over the years, but there’s still a marvelous musicality to his phrasing and poetical lilt to his lyrics that attests to an unquenchable spirit.
In his notes for The Essential Leonard Cohen, writer Pico Iyer noted, “The changeless is what he’s been about since the beginning…Some of the other great pilgrims of song pass through philosophies and selves as if through the stations of the cross. With Cohen, one feels he knew who he was and where he was going from the beginning, and only digs deeper, deeper, deeper.”
Cohen’s artistic outlook might best be expressed in his own words with this lyric from “Anthem”: On Anthem (1992), he wrote: “There is a crack, a crack in everything/ That’s how the light gets in.” He remarked, “That’s the closest thing I could describe to a credo. That idea is one of the fundamental positions behind a lot of the songs.”
TIMELINE
September 21, 1934: Leonard Cohen is born in Montreal, Canada.
1956: Let Us Compare Mythologies, Leonard Cohen’s first book of poetry, is published in Canada as part of the McGill Poetry Series.
1966: Beautiful Losers, Leonard Cohen’s second novel, is published.
December 1967: Songs of Leonard Cohen, the poet/novelist’s debut as a singer-songwriter, is released. It contains “Suzanne” and “Sisters of Mercy,” among his best-known songs.
April 1969: Songs from a Room, Leonard Cohen’s second album, is issued. From it comes “Bird on the Wire” and other favorites.
March 1971: Songs of Love and Hate, Leonard Cohen’s third album, is released. It is highlighted by “Famous Blue Raincoat” and “Joan of Arc.”
November 1974: New Skin for the Old Ceremony, Leonard Cohen’s fourth album of original material, is released. Its original cover is banned in the U.S.
November 1977: Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies’ Man –a Phil Spector production – is released. It will be followed by Cohen’s book Death of a Lady’s Man.
September 1979: Leonard Cohen’s Recent Songs, is released. The Songs of Leonard Cohen, a documentary, is filmed in Canada and Europe the same year.
December 1984: Various Positions, Leonard Cohen’s is released abroad. PVC Records issues it in the U.S. two months later after his label, Columbia Records, passes on it.
January 1987: Jennifer Warnes, who has sung backup with Leonard Cohen as Jennifer Warren, issues Famous Blue Raincoat, an album of covers from Cohen’s songbook.
November 10, 1989: Songs of Leonard Cohen, the singer/poet’s 1967 debut, is certified gold by the RIAA.
October 25, 1990: I’m Your Man, by Leonard Cohen, is released. Arguably the poet-singer’s best album since his first, it includes “Tower of Song” and “Everybody Knows.”
November 26, 1991: The Leonard Cohen tribute album I’m Your Fan is released. It includes cover versions by R.E.M., the Pixies and other indie-rock acts.
November 24, 1992: Leonard Cohen releases The Future, a dyspeptic album reflecting a mental state that inspires a five-year retreat.
November 2, 1993: Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs, by Leonard Cohen, is published by Pantheon Books. The 432-page collection was assembled by the poet/singer himself.
September 26, 1995: Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen is released. Contributors include Don Henley, Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, and other stars.
October 9, 2001: Leonard Cohen releases Ten New Songs, his tenth studio album, his first new album in nine years, and his first to chart in the U.S. since 1973’s Live Songs.
October 22, 2002: The Essential Leonard Cohen, a double-disc retrospective compiled by the artist, is released.
August 31, 2004: Judy Collins, whose recordings of Leonard Cohen’s songs introduced the world to the singer/poet in the late Sixties, releases Democracy: Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen.
October 26, 2004: Dear Heather, Leonard Cohen’s second studio album of the new millennium and the 11th of his career, is released shortly after the artist turns 70.
September 2005: Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man, premieres at the Toronto Film Festival. The documentary includes tribute-concert footage from Sydney, Australia.
February 2007: Leonard Cohen’s first three albums – Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room and Songs of Love and Hate – are reissued in expanded editions to mark his 40th anniversary as a recording artist.
December 11, 2007: Composer Philip Glass’ Book of Longing – a double-disc song cycle based on the poetry and images of Leonard Cohen – is released on the Orange Mountain Music label.
March 10, 2008: Leonard Cohen is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 23rd annual induction dinner.
Essential Recordings
Suzanne
Tower of Song
Famous Blue Raincoat
Hallelujah
Everybody Knows
So Long, Marianne
The Future
Came So Far for Beauty
Bird On the Wire
You Have Loved Enough
Recommended Reading
Billboard magazine
November 28, 1998. (Note: This issue pays tribute to Leonard Cohen.)
Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs.
Leonard Cohen. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Mellencamp traced his fighting spirit to his youth, beginning with surviving spinal bifida as an infant. “I’m lucky to be standing here for any number of reasons,” said Mellencamp, who choked up as he thanked his mom and dad, who both attended the ceremony. Before kicking into a fierce version of “Authority Song” (backed by a band that included his teenage son, Speck, on guitar), which he turned into an audience sing-along, Mellencamp said, “I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it twenty-five years ago.”
As John Fogerty inducted instrumental rockers the Ventures, he recalled that he and his Creedence bandmates spent time “picking apart these Ventures songs to see how they work and getting a great education along the way.” The Ventures then played note-perfect, reverb-swamped versions of two of their biggest hits, “Walk Don’t Run” and “Hawaii Five-O.” Early in the show, Ben Harper inducted the late blues harpist Little Walter, and Jerry Butler of the Impressions inducted the Philly soul production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. 
Between inductions of Madonna, John Mellencamp, the Ventures, Gamble & Huff and Little Walter, Lou Reed took the podium to offer generous commentary on his old pal.
"If it is your destiny to be this labourer called a writer, then you know that you've got to go to work every day. But you also know that you're not gonna get it every day."