It was also observed and chosen, as if he realized early on the power of a man who could occupy the shape of a doomed romantic, who would be able to control and master, even subconsciously, gendered social conventions that would earn him favour with women and men, that would make him something of a legend or a hero on his artist's journey. His charm was old-world and European, but it was not pure instinct or birthright. His pursuit of beauty, appreciation of beauty, the ways in which he exulted and coveted and captured beauty in his words - what man couldn't understand that? What woman wouldn't be flattered to be the focus of such a fiercely artistic, intellectual, romantic man? In 1967, Cohen told the Village Voice, 'I really am for the matriarchy.'Ĭohen's charisma was part prophecy (he claimed to be a direct descendant of Aaron), inheritance (his father died at the age of nine, leaving him the de facto 'man of the house'), and learned behaviour.

He was a gentleman, prone to a self-deprecation that has come off as self-confidence since his youth. He was at least 10 years older than most of his disciples and fans, the women and men who worshipped at his feet, eager to manifest their connection to the man's works with the man himself. He was already a master of words by the age of 33 thanks to early successes: a published poet at age 15 the author of two critically acclaimed novels by 32.

His reservations, though, were tempered by his age, and the relative vastness of a grownup life already lived and abandoned by the time he hit New York. Wise and articulate, tender and alive, Cohen the songwriter was somehow even more compelling in this naked state, his vulnerabilities heightened, his confidence tilted by slight outsider/imposter feelings about claiming a space occupied by the likes of Judy Collins and Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Phil Ochs. It's easy to imagine a small chuckle bouncing off the page, him shaking his head a little, a slight smile on his lips.Ĭohen was in his early 30s when he stepped into the spotlight, guitar in hand, a poet's worth of evocations pouring from his mouth. This is from an interview that 57-year-old Leonard Cohen did with Q in 1991. If that was the only way I'd exploited a relationship then I'm going straight to heaven. Interviewer: Do you ever feel that you have exploited relationships by writing about them? Leonard Cohen: That's the very least way in which I have exploited relationships.

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