At 75, Leonard Cohen, who appears in a rare concert at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday, is still winning new fans and influencing generations of musicians — which is remarkable when you consider he stopped touring in 1993.
But after spending five years in a Zen Buddhist monastery near Los Angeles, Cohen went back on the road in May 2008, prompted in large measure by the sudden realization that while he was living as a monk, his former business manager had stolen all his money.
From the very first album — “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” released in 1967, with the emblematic song “Suzanne” — there was something singular about the music and the man. He wasn’t a ’60s Village folkie or a Woodstock rocker. He was a poet and novelist, who’d grown up in Montreal as the grandson of a Rabbi and the son of a clothier, and lived on the Greek island of Hydra.
A consummate ladies’ man in an Armani suit, a mystic and a sensualist, an observant Jew and a Zen monk, and a 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Cohen embraces both the material and the transcendent. His tunes and lyrics, moving from gypsy jazz to country to synth pop, can be scared and profane, profound and schmaltzy, often in the same song.
In “Anthem” (1992) he wrote: “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Later, he said of the song: “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.”
Cohen’s songs have been embraced or given new life by the likes of Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright. The classic, “Hallelujah,” has been recorded some 200 times (and even performed on “American Idol”), prompting Cohen to ask for a moratorium on new covers. In July, he told the Guardian newspaper, “I think it’s a good song, but too many people sing it.”
Music producer Hal Wilner’s Cohen concert series, “Came So Far for Beauty,” which toured the world in 2004 and 2005, stands as one of the best and the most recent Cohen tributes. It spawned a 2006 film, “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man,” featuring Nick Cave, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Antony, Beth Orton, Linda and Teddy Thompson, and a surprise performance of “Tower of Song” by Cohen and U2.
Here’s a glimpse of a few more notable Cohen songs recorded by various artists.
● “Sisters of Mercy” — by Judy Collins on her 1967 album, “Wildflowers,” which also featured “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell, and two other Cohen songs, “Priests” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.”
● “Suzanne” — by Nina Simone on her 1971 “Best Of” collection, which also featured “I Shall Be Released” by Bob Dylan.
● “Bird on a Wire” — by Cohen collaborator Jennifer Warnes on her 1987 tribute album, “Famous Blue Raincoat,” which also featured the Cohen song “Came So Far for Beauty.”
● “First We Take Manhattan” — by R.E.M. on the 1991 Cohen tribute album, “I’m Your Fan,” which also featured a cover of Cohen’s “I Can’t Forget” by the Pixies.
● “Hallelujah” — by Jeff Buckley on his 1994 album, “Grace,” later released on several live albums, including “Live at Sin-E.” Also recorded by John Cale and Rufus Wainwright, among many, many others.
● “I’m Your Man” — by Nick Cave on the 2006 soundtrack recording, “Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man,” which also featured Cave’s version of “Suzanne.”
Concert preview
Leonard Cohen
8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, $49.50-$252, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E. 404-881-2100, www.foxtheatre.org.
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