5 Years Ago Today: RIP Leonard Cohen

5 years ago today the world lost one of the greatest - yet under appreciated - music poets of all time, though the news did not break publicly about his passing till four days later. Leonard Cohen was - and still is - a massive influence and inspiration to me as a songwriter. He is up there next to Bob Dylan and Bernie Taupin as one of my all time favourite lyricists. Having recently read back a blog post I wrote on Leonard's death via Tumblr, which will be five years old as of Thursday next week, I thought it would be worth reflecting on that now that I finally have an official website of my own. Plus, this one should surely be more professionally written as I was only 17 years old when I wrote that last blog post, and since then I've actually gone on to achieve a Grade 4 in GCSE English - a little bit late, I know! - and been to university, so I think it's fair to say I'm a lot more smarter and have more of a way with words now! When I was at uni, I also studied a Music Journalism elective, which I got a 1:1 in, and from that I started to become interested in blogging again, having not written a blog since 2016. Funnily enough, I think my post about Leonard was my last ever blog post! I certainly haven't used Tumblr since then - but then, does anyone else still use it these days?

For those of you unaware, Leonard Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, most famous for writing the song "Hallelujah", which was first released in December 1984 on his Various Positions album - one of my favourite albums of all time - and has since been covered by a wide range of other artists. First live by Leonard's contemporary folk poet, Bob Dylan in 1988, and first recorded by John Cale - formerly of The Velvet Underground - in 1991, whose version would later be featured in the DreamWorks Animation feature, Shrek (2001), though it was Rufus Wainwright's cover that was featured on the motion picture soundtrack, and most famously by the legendary Jeff Buckley on the 1994 album Grace - another one of my favourite albums of all time - whose version was inspired by Cale's.The song became a larger mainstream hit when it was released as The X Factor winner's single for series 5 winner Alexandra Burke in 2008, which prompted a chart war with Buckley's version. Amongst others, other artists who recorded and performed covers of the song include k.d. lang in 2004 on her Hymns of the 49th Parallel album, a fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe on her 2004 album Tidings, Kate Voegele on her 2007 Don't Look Away album, Damien Rice at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the year Leonard was inducted, Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi in 2008 at Madison Square Garden, Susan Boyle on the 2010 album The Gift, Tori Kelly, whose version was featured in the 2016 animated-musical film, Sing, YouTube musicians Boyce Avenue, Jordan Jansen and ortoPilot, and even yours truly, as featured on both my debut self-titled album and covers compilation album.

As a religiously devoted fan of animated movies as a child (and even now as a 22 year old), I was first drawn to "Hallelujah" through Shrek. I still remember watching that film on VHS over and over again with my brother as a child, and singing along to the song every time. The song's beautiful lyrics were so captivating to the mood and circumstances of that one scene, it was heartbreaking and enough to make a young boy like me cry. To this very day, John Cale's version is still my favourite version of the song.

But "Hallelujah" was more than a mere childhood favourite song of mine, it also raised the roof for me in one of my school assemblies back at Bower Grove School. It was 2012, and I was currently working on my debut single "Mean Mikey" with my maths and music teacher Mr. Croft, and outside of that, I was having singing lessons with my music LSA, Toby Starks - lead singer and guitarist of local Kent bands, Wheeler Street, The Starks Family Band, and more recently, The Lowly Strung. Mr. Starks and I would sing songs together during our sessions, and one week I happened to suggest "Hallelujah". I was 13 years old at the time and hadn't heard of Leonard, until Mr. Starks told me about him and Jeff Buckley (whose version is Mr. Starks' favourite). The only versions I was aware of at the time were the respective covers by John Cale and Alexandra Burke. Mr. Starks wasn't a fan of Burke's version, and definitely didn't want our version of the song to be anywhere near hers, so John Cale's version it was! Ironically, I'd often find myself listening and practicing to Burke's version at home - which I would listen to on a physical CD release of the single that my brother leant me - but that was strictly for me behind closed doors, I certainly wouldn't have been able to live with the embarrassment of anyone at school finding out! Mr. Starks and I performed the song - along with Ed Sheeran's "Lego House" - in the school music assembly in July 2012. It was my first ever solo performance - though I had previously performed "Angels" by Robbie Williams three year earlier, that was briefer and part of a Christmas production, not to mention I could hardly even sing at the time, whereas now in 2012 I had actually had proper singing lessons - and I was very nervous. My mum was in the audience, my entire class was watching and everything! I stood there singing with my eyes closed throughout the entire performance, and opened them afterwards to an unexpected standing ovation and tears from the staff ("It's not a cry you can hear at night!). Even my fellow classmates, who would often mock and slag me off for my singing (with the whole "you/he can't sing") were proud of me! Though I'm sure I could have done a lot better today, given how much I've since developed vocally, it is still a performance that I'm proud of to this very day. Me and Mr. Starks were so proud of it that we just had to record the cover, which was published to YouTube - along with a studio recording of our "Lego House"cover - in January 2013, which we followed up in 2014 with an acoustic remake, as an ode to Jeff Buckley.

I didn't get Leonard at first upon initially hearing him, because as a vocalist - though I don't know if you could call me that at the time when I first heard him, due to my lack of experience - the main attraction of a song for me is always the singer's voice, and Leonard's vocal approach to "Hallelujah" was not at all like Jeff Buckley or John Cale, it was more a statement than a vocal performance, but then, I felt the same way when I first heard Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits and I grew to love him too. The thing that made Leonard - as well as Knopfler and Dylan - special, was not vocal quality nor range, but his way with lyrics and telling stories through songs (which was a huge influence on the songs I wrote for my 2019 Dreamer album which I was writing at the time of Leonard's death, before and after), and his distinctive bass voice, which is just as soothing and captivating in its own way as Mariah Carey's whistle register is to her, and is so unique and instantly recognisable, and as far as I'm concerned only Barry White comes close to matching it, and as a poet, pure genius, an oeuvre and legacy that is only comparable to Dylan (I remember Dylan winning the Nobel Prize award for literature in 2016, and I was hoping Leonard would win one next), both of whom to me are probably the greatest and most important poets, not just in music, but of all time. I can't think of any other songwriters or lyricists that even come close to them!

I still remember where I was when the news of Leonard's passing broke; we all remember the terrible year 2016 was - though in retrospect, it was actually a pretty decent year, compared to everything that's happened since with COVID-19 - what with all the greats that passed away; David Bowie, George Martin (producer of The Beatles), Prince and Rod Temperton (one of my favourite songwriters, who wrote many '70s and '80s disco hits, including a number of tracks from Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and Thriller albums), who all died before Leonard, and George Michael who died after on Christmas Day. I was in bed and up at 3:00am, unable to sleep, and just so happened to be coincidentally listening to "Hallelujah" whilst browsing through Twitter when I saw Leonard Cohen trending, and was left heartbroken with what I read next. Discovering Leonard had died was devastating but also surreal and concerning, as I recall reading an article a month earlier of an interview he did with The Guardian in which he stated: "I'm ready to die", which had me worried at the time, but now with the strange convince of him passing away right after that interview, I was left with the speculation that he may have been depressed and taken his own life, but at the same time he was 82, so it was likely he could have just died due to age. Regardless, this was still a great loss. It was later revealed he died of cancer, just like Bowie; which started to make sense to me when listening to his final album You Want It Darker - released in October 2016 - which gave off a similar atmosphere to me as Bowie's final album Blackstar; you could really hear the pain, agony and emotion in his voice of a poor man suffering.

The following year, I went back to Bower Grove School to perform at the annual Christmas fair with my old pal Mr. Croft and we performed "Hallelujah" as a special tribute to Leonard. But as iconic as it is, there is much more to Leonard than just "Hallelujah"; the fact that most people only know him as "The guy who wrote 'Hallelujah'" really frustrates me. I only hope his other work is finally getting the recognition it deserves, and that it will continue to inspire many generations to come - it certainly continues to inspire me today with every listen.

God bless you, Leonard. Thanks for everything. Rest well.