You Wanted It Darker? Leonard Cohen Just Passed Away.

Image by Getty Images
Leonard Cohen passed away on November 7 at the age of 82, it was announced on November 10. His influence over half a century was phenomenal. He will be missed. Tributes are already pouring in, including tweets from Bette Midler, Mia Farrow and Marc Maron.
Leonard Cohen has died. Another magical voice stilled.
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) November 11, 2016
Oh no!!! Best of the best This is awful https://t.co/3hDeuxwUQK
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) November 11, 2016
RIP Leonard Cohen. He got out just in time.
— marc maron (@marcmaron) November 11, 2016
Cohen’s recent album, “You Want It Darker” was hailed as a haunting masterpiece and, especially in the kaddish-like title song, a possible foreshadowing of his death (“I’m ready My Lord”), which now seems prescient.
Hailing from Montreal, he inspired several generations of songwriter poets and, in this beautiful long piece by our own Ezra Glinter, reinvented a perception of the metropolis of French Canada.
This recent version of “Hallelujah” by Daniel Kahn, in Yiddish, really highlights the beautiful, plaintive majesty of the original.
The date of Leonard Cohen’s death has been amended to reflect the fact that the announcement was on November 10, but he passed away on November 7.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
