Leonard Cohen's Death and Final Album: A Poet's Farewell

Leonard Cohen died on November 7, 2016, in Los Angeles at age 82, with the news announced on his Facebook page on November 11. His final album, 'You Want It Darker,' released on October 21, 2016, foreshadowed his death, featuring lyrics like 'I'm leaving the table / I'm out of the game.' In a letter to his former muse and partner Marianne Ihlen, who died on July 29, 2016, at 81, Cohen wrote, 'I think I will follow you very soon.' The album's title track, 'The Sisters of Mercy,' references the British rock band and explores themes of love, death, sex, and religion, blending Judaism and Buddhism. Cohen's career spanned 14 studio albums from 1967, with a hiatus in the 1990s spent in a Buddhist retreat in California. He was born in 1934 in Montreal to a middle-class Jewish family, began music at 30 after publishing novels and poetry, including 'The Spice Box of Earth' and 'Beautiful Losers' (1966). Folk singer Judy Collins convinced him to write songs and perform, and she recorded his early composition 'Suzanne,' which became a radio hit. His song 'Hallelujah' gained worldwide fame through Jeff Buckley's cover. Cohen performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 before 600,000 attendees despite stage fright. He influenced artists like Nick Cave and Morrissey. On Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize, Cohen remarked, 'It's like giving the Everest the prize for the highest mountain.'