By Michael Barclay1969
Cohen scores a #2 British hit with "The Old Revolution." He serves as best man for his friend Steve Sanfield, whom he met on Hydra, at a wedding officiated by Joshu Sasaki Roshi, who will later become Cohen's Zen master. Selected Poems 1956-1968 wins the Governor General's Award for Poetry, which Cohen turns down, the only English Canadian to ever do so: "Much in me strives for this honour, but the poems themselves forbid it absolutely." Nonetheless, he shows up to Jack McClelland's party for the winners, where Mordecai Richler pulls him into a bathroom and demands to know Cohen's reason for refusal. "I don't know," Cohen mutters. "Any other answer and I would have punched you in the nose," Richler replies.
1970
Cohen embarks on his first tour, of Europe only (he will not tour North America until 1974-75). His band calls him Captain Mandrax, after the downer he's taking; tempos grind to a virtual halt. He greets German audiences with a "sieg heil," brings the Copenhagen audience back to his hotel, and plays before 10,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London. At Aix-en-Provence, France, Cohen and his band of mostly Texan musicians avoid a traffic jam leading into a festival venue by corralling horses and riding them all the way on stage. At the Isle of Wight, a Quaalude-addled Cohen has to follow up a literally inflammatory performance by Jimi Hendrix at 3 a.m. The tour has a galvanizing effect on him. "I decided I couldn't live as a coward," he tells one magazine. "I had to sing or I was nothing. I knew all about solitude and nothing about unity." Nonetheless, after returning home to Nashville, he begins to question his art and his relationship with Suzanne, takes a lot of drugs and sinks into a deep depression ― all of which is evident on his next album, 1971's Songs of Love and Hate.
1972
Another European tour, during which Suzanne is at home pregnant with Cohen's son, Adam, is filmed for the 1974 documentary Bird on a Wire. His band features Jennifer Warnes as one of two backing vocalists. At a show in Copenhagen, Cohen grapples with terrible P.A. feedback and stops the show. The film captures Cohen complaining to his road manager ― "I'm not an unreasonable person, but, man, this is the 16th show without any sound" ― and personally refunding disgruntled patrons. In Jerusalem, he stops mid-show, citing exhaustion, and leaves the stage, returning only after he hears the audience singing the Hebrew song "We Bring You Peace." He decides to take a shave and drop acid with his band before returning for an emotionally wrenching encore, during which he weeps and has Biblical visions. He publishes The Energy of Slaves, considered his darkest collection, including lines like, "I have no talent left / I can't write a poem anymore." Back in Montreal, he buys a house off St. Dominique Street in the Plateau. Immediately after the birth of Adam, Cohen goes to California to seek out Roshi and spends time at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center. "Roshi is Japanese, and the head monk was German; I thought it was the revenge of World War Two, making Americans walk through the snow." Cohen can't handle the harsh living conditions and runs away to Mexico, where Suzanne and Adam join him.
1973
The liner notes to Live Songs consist of a letter written to Cohen by Daphne Richardson, a London poet who was frequently hospitalized for mental illness and corresponded with Cohen; he commissioned her to illustrate The Energy of Slaves, but she commits suicide three days before his agent calls her. He is mentioned in her suicide note. Rumours spread of Cohen's retirement from music; he denies them, but adds, "What is there to quit?" In October, he travels to Israel just before the Yom Kippur War, "to recover from the vanities of the singing profession." He has a series of sexual affairs there before signing on to entertain the troops, coming under fire in Egypt and performing by flashlight.
1974 to 1976
Despite Cohen's deteriorating relationship with Elrod, they have another child together, daughter Lorca. Shortly after, he is having numerous affairs, is increasingly depressed and is writing scathing prose. Cohen invites Roshi, with whom he is increasingly fascinated, to recording sessions for 1974's New Skin For the Old Ceremony; Roshi tells Cohen, "You should sing sadder." The album flops in North America and Britain, but sells 250,000 copies in Europe. When asked why, Cohen tells a journalist, "Maybe it's because they can't understand my lyrics." However, his first North American tour, in 1974, features many sold-out shows, including a three-night stand at the Troubadour in L.A., a gig at Toronto's Massey Hall, and a psychiatric hospital in London, Ontario. The Best of Leonard Cohen, handpicked by Cohen, comes out in 1975. He tours Europe in 1976; Laura Branigan ("Gloria") is a backing vocalist. Cohen closes 1976 by spending New Year's Eve with Suzanne, Roshi, and Joni Mitchell ― who cautions him against his plan to record with Phil Spector.
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Posted by Edge61 On 2012-02-23 14:32:12Always have and will continue to be an admirer of his poetry
Posted by Smith On 2012-02-23 14:53:48I went to this timeline anticipating prose worthy of Leonard Cohen. Ugh. It was awful. Love Leonard Cohen and always have, but this is dreadful dribble.
Posted by Duncan Gillies MacLaurin On 2012-02-23 15:05:47This is a laidback, irreverent and humorous appraisal of a brilliant human being, Thank you!
Posted by T.M. Hewth On 2012-02-23 15:22:22Marianne was Norwegian, get your facts straight.
Posted by Sheila Pratt On 2012-02-23 15:50:19Love to learn more about Leonard!
Posted by paula On 2012-02-23 16:18:14I have such admiration for this man. I agree with u Duncan...laidback and irreverent. Can't tell u how many times i've watched the 2005 I'm Your Man tribute.
Posted by Wesley On 2012-02-23 16:45:24He's the man!
Posted by Wilma Chornopysky On 2012-02-23 16:46:02LOVE HIS MUSIC ALWAYS DID AND ALWAYS WILL.. LONG LIVE OUR CANADIAN KING OF POETRY... I ADORE YOU...
Posted by ventifactoid On 2012-02-23 17:19:28Love Leonard's music especially as the "golden voice" has grown deeper with age. Fascinating to read about his background--a very colorful life. And with respect to his 3 year affair with Rebecca de Mornay--he's my man; he's THE MAN. I still have images of Rebecca in "Risky Business" in the back of my mind--she was extremely sexy. And a grandchild with the Wainwright clan--a merging of two great Canadian voices.
Saw Leonard in concert in Seattle a couple years back and think back on that memory with great fondness.
And now that I know that another favorite of mine was his bedmate at the Chelsea Hotel I'll always listen to that song with a little bit of a different perspective.
I'm typically not a celebrity fanboy who makes comments but Leonard is in a whole 'nother category for me.
Posted by George On 2012-02-27 10:59:18Well written......post, thanks.
Posted by Pam On 2012-03-30 05:24:56When will the next UK tour be, does anyone know? Had hoped that we were part of the scheduled European one but it would seem this is not the case. Have followed his music for over 45 years, last saw him in Cardiff on most recent tour here. Epic
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