Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah: A New Biography

by Tim Footman

Chronicling the highs and lows that have punctuated the life of a musical genius, this in-depth biography reveals new insight into the legendary songs of Leonard Cohen. Covering each stage in his prolific careercited as one of the most dramatic periods in the life of this eloquent songwriter.

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tim Footman (born 1968) is an English author, journalist and editor. He was educated at Churcher's College, Appleby College in Canada, the University of Exeter, and Birkbeck University.
He is the author of a number of books about popular music, including Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album, a study of Radiohead's groundbreaking 1997 album OK Computer and its impact on contemporary music. He also contributed a chapter on Baudrillard and Radiohead to the volume Radiohead and Philosophy. His most recent books are The Noughties 2000-2009: A Decade That Changed the World and Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah - A New Biography.
His work has appeared in The Guardian, Mojo, Time Out, Prospect, the Bangkok Post, The National, the Sunday Post, Yorkshire Post, BBC Online, CNNGo, Drowned in Sound, Careless Talk Costs Lives, Aeon, Zembla, Twill and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. He is a contributor to the Guardian's comment website Comment is Free and the Prospect blog First Drafts. He appeared in the BBC2 documentary TV series History of Now (2010) and the Arte documentary film The World According to Radiohead (2019).
From 1999 to 2001, he was the editor of Guinness World Records, during which time its emphasis became markedly more light-hearted. Before this he was editor of the PUSH Guide to University.
He has made appearances on several UK television and radio quiz show including Mastermind, University Challenge, The Weakest Link, Brain of Britain, Counterpoint and Win Beadle's Money.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I really wanted to point out was that the old groaner after years of zero chart response managed to write a song that’s now almost compulsory in all those craptastic Simon Cowell Britain’s Got Oddballs X Factor shows and which because of that was No 1 AND No 2 in the charts in Britain a year or so back – yes, Hallelujah. It rules! It went viral! Everybody sings it! Even people that hate Leonard Cohen – especially those people. They sing it and they record it, and then they find out who wrote it! Imagine! So it occurred to me that I want to write one of the Goodreads versions of Hallelujah, one of those reviews that get 1000-plus votes – I want that glory and that fame! I wanna be No 1 and No 2 in the charts! I want the groupies! And much better drugs! How do I do it? Let me think…

Now I've heard there was a great review
That pleased the many and not the few
But you don't really care for votes much, do ya?
If I could bring myself to read Twilight
Or something popular and trite
My parody would earn your Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Gonna have to pursue ya
Hallelujah
Yes I mean to accrue ya

I did my best, it was all for you
I couldn't write, so I tried to review
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Goodreads throng
And every vote inspires my Hallelujah !

All those Joyces and Dickens, DeLillos, Capotes
The reviews were great but inspired no votes
You couldn’t even get one from Tallulah
At the library you told her about Goodreads
And mentioned your insatiable needs
But as she stamped your Marcel Proust she looked straight through ya

She didn’t accede to ya
Didn’t attach herself to ya

Sock it to ya
Gonna have to glue ya
Oooh ya
Boo ya

[Kattermerrang · Rating 2 out of 5]

I inherited my appreciation of Leonard Cohen from my mother and I feel like his lyrical songs have marked important parts of my life. I was quite sad when he died and interested to find out more about his past and the kind of person he was.

The book was very informative about certain events in Cohen's life and the chronology of the records he brought out but I felt it was a lot of information at the cost of really getting close / getting to know Cohen. Maybe I would have preferred to read something from someone who knew him more personally. A lot of the book details Cohen's womanising and partying, with a few quotes from him, and doesn't actually present him as a very likable character. Maybe Footman can't be faulted for reporting what he's researched but I would have preferred something more personal, to make me feel like I am getting to know the man himself rather than Footman's opinion of him and how much he dislikes his album covers.

That said, I did learn something and enjoyed parts of the books. Towards the end, Footman talks about Cohen aging gracefully and ponders what it is that has made him go down in musical history in a way that feels quite poignant. I was inspired to listen to albums of his I hadn't heard yet as well as some covers and in the end I am in awe of Cohen's unique voice, style and way of being.

[Gary Patella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give this book two and a half stars. I feel that it is somewhere between two and three, and up until the last few chapters, it was leaning towards two.

The book is described as a biography-- don't believe it. This is NOT what I would call a biography. In my opinion, this book is best described as a descriptive anthology, interspersed with a few tidbits of biographical information.

For the most part, the book describes the works of Leonard Cohen in chronological order. First the book of poems, then another book of poems, the novel, the album, the next novel, the second album, etc. It is a chronological catalogue of everything Leonard Cohen has created. While it does now let me know about some books I may want to read, it does little more than that through most of the book.

The author describes everything in painstaking detail. Cohen released such and such album in such and such year. The cover of the album merely consisted of..., the songs on the album are..., the first track sounds like this, the second song on the album also sounds like this, the third track sounds different, the fourth and sixth tracks...

Hopefully, you get the point. A description of the cover of every album and every song and every book of poems or novel is NOT a biography.

It is also pretty obvious that the author is not a fan of Leonard Cohen. It is a project he was given, and only listened to the albums before writing. It is mentioned at the beginning that the same author wrote a book on Radiohead and the album OK Computer. Although the two musical styles are nothing alike (though both great in their own ways), the author makes comparisons between Leonard Cohen and Radiohead two or three times. There really is no comparison, and the analogies seem forced to say the least. But it was probably the only thing the author knew.

Towards the end, a bit more of the biographical information comes out. The loss of his funds comes up, and for the first time it seems, you get through about two full pages about an event in his life without the additional mention of a book or an album. Not that his books and albums are unimportant. Quite the contrary, no one would read his "biography" if that stuff didn't exist. But everything is so focused on the anthology that the actual biography part of the book just seems to quietly observe from the sidelines.

Actually, after writing this, I've changed my own mind. I'm rounding back down to two stars again.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotable:

Montreal’s prestigious McGill University, which Leonard Cohen would enter in 1951, was known to keep discreet tabs on the ethno-religious affiliations of its undergraduates, following the tradition of Harvard and other American Ivy League colleges. It was scant consolation that the main worry was that Jews were considered “too clever” and might outshine the hearty sons of the Anglo-Saxon elite.

It could of course be argued that imposing empirical, historical meaning upon a song or a poem or other work of art is just asking for trouble.

Judaism is far more than a religion. It’s a culture, a tradition, a heritage, a set of rituals, a way of life, a community, an ethnicity. While it is possible to be converted to Judaism, it’s a fairly uncommon practice; the easiest way to become a Jew is to have the right parents. And once you’re there, it’s pretty much impossible to get out. Even if you renounce God and reject all aspects of Jewish life, you’re still Jewish; many non-believers were sent to death camps.

“Leonard Cohen’s fans are word people,” as one journalist put it. “For most of them, words have become the first aid station in the preventive detention camp of the feelings.”

[T]he separation of words from their meaning – that unites all the religious traditions that have fascinated Cohen over the years. Many Jews have only a loose grasp of Hebrew, and rely on phonetic transliterations to take part in ceremonies, chanting words as sounds rather than signifiers; for hundreds of years, the Catholic Mass was celebrated only in Latin, leaving a substantial majority of worshippers unaware of its literal meaning… As far as ordinary participants are concerned, what specific meaning there might be in the rituals is implicit, emotional, perhaps not liable to articulation by mere mortals. Sometimes this can be a conscious decision to protect the mysteries of the religion from the uneducated, the lower orders.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are better books about Cohen, this unfortunately reads like a end of year essay and a large portion of the book are chunks of quotations. He has written this from an arm chair and hasn’t approached Cohen or anyone else who may have anything interesting to add. The writing is dry and lacks any personality there’s only 3 things worth taking away from this and they are 3 pieces of music I hadn’t heard before
- nick cave drunkenly covering tower of song
-Jesus and the Mary chain also covering tower of song
-Philip glass did an album for book of longing.

They are all worth a listen and are on Spotify.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t usually leave reviews for bios or real-life accounts but this is barely a bio. It studies the release of each book and album and how they were received by the world but there wasn’t anything on a personal level. I know that LC spent time living in a monastery but I know as much after reading his ‘bio’ as I did before.

I also knocked off points for describing REMs cover of First We Take Manhattan as ‘particularly disappointing’ and being generally dismissive of people trying to break into the industry.

I also could have done without the chapter comparing him to Bob Dylan but the discography pages were very useful.

[Beram Slaven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of information, but dry and boring as fuck.

[Deedee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.... Includes a few nice photos of Leonard.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I learnt more about Bob Dylan than Leonard Cohen the man and as I am not a fan of Dylan I was disappointed.

[Brook Bakay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, but calling it a biography is a lie. Interestingly, Footman calls it a "New Biography", by which I think he means it's in a new biography style, not that it is "yet another Cohen biography." He spends a lot of time admiring the precision of Cohen's language, and I suspect he put a fair bit into that word choice himself.

The first line is "Very well, let's play this as straight as we can." Footman does make an effort at biography but it is very half-hearted, and he needn't have bothered. You can see how this came together - a publisher saw that Cohen's new touring persona was quite popular and thought there was money to be made, so he hired Footman to do it. But there is no new information here. As far as I can tell, the author did only one interview on his own, and that wasn't with Cohen, but with his old producer. Everything factual presented in the book is publicly available. He goes through all the documentary footage, the album covers, songlists, interviews, etc., and presents them to us again.

But all of that is just a skeleton for the author to drape the meat of his commentary on (or perhaps it was actually a con to fool the publisher into thinking it was a legitimate biography). And fortunately for us he gives up playing it straight quite quickly.

As a biography, this is an excellent piece of rock journalism. Each of the well-worn facets of the Cohen mythology are held up and wryly commented upon. Footman seems to particularly revel in Cohen's faults and mistakes -- his cracks -- that a conventional biography wouldn't have the balls to touch. What emerges is a glowing portrait of a flawed man, but definitely a man, who wrote some beautiful poetry. Seeing Leonard Freaking Cohen struggle with crippling self-doubt really helps the reader identify with the finished product. And that's how the light gets in.

A lot of the best work in the book is in the appendices and footnotes where Footman dispenses with the charade of biography and concentrates on the work and what he thinks its importance is. Make sure you read through that stuff.

If you are looking for juicy anecdotes about Janis Joplin or Rebecca de Mornay, you won't find them here. You'll find something much better - some very funny, and very heavy criticism of Cohen's work, his life and his place in history. Footman is an excellent writer writing about a stupendous writer, and it's well worth the read. I only wish he'd had the courage to write the book he clearly wanted to.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘I don’t have much of a memory, and I’m not at all given to reflection and nostalgia.’

I’ve been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen music lately, I have at least one book of his poems on the shelves, and I know he’s been around for a long time. But apart from that, I knew next to nothing about him. So, I read this book and while I’m dissatisfied with it, I came away knowing a little more.

Why the dissatisfaction? After all, there’s lots of detail included about the lives and loves of Leonard Cohen, about his early years as a poet and author in Canada, his time in a Buddhist monastery, and information right up to 2009, the year he turned 75, when he went on tour. But this is Leonard Cohen at a distance: information gleaned from various sources and apparently from interviews with others who’ve known or worked with him. All this is fairly neatly worked into various themes: the role of religion, of sex, of drugs (and not to mention drugs and sex). There’s mention, too, of complex interpersonal relationships, and of various (and often differing) answers that Leonard Cohen has given to different questions.

There’s a lot of discussion about ‘Hallelujah’, and of covers of Cohen songs that various people have made. There’s some mention of his fiction and his poetry, and Tim Footman has kindly provided a list of his own personal top ten Leonard Cohen songs:

Tower of Song; Famous Blue Raincoat; Paper-Thin Hotel; Hallelujah; Bird on the Wire; Who By Fire; Anthem; A Thousand Kisses Deep; Suzanne; and The Great Event.

There is as well, quite a lot of commentary about how bad Tim Footman considers most of the cover art is on various releases. In fact, I think I learned more about some aspects of Tim Footman than I did about Leonard Cohen.

Still, I did like aspects of the book: there’s information about other sources, a discography and a list of Leonard Cohen’s published books.

Leonard Cohen, who turned 77 last month, is quoted as having once said: ‘I don’t have much of a sense of my own work.’ Perhaps not. But there are plenty of us who continue to enjoy it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Leonard Cohen for a long time, but knew only a small collection of anecdotes about him gleaned from stories my parents told me. Tim Footman does an excellent job of looking at a compelling individual in a smart, analytical, respectful, and humorous way without rhetorically fellating his subject (and subsequently ending up a sony lyric? Ahem, sorry.)

Footman shows many sides to Cohen, weaving in Cohen's lyrics, poetry, and relevant quotes to set off new chapters. He describes Cohen's artistic endeavors, affairs, and trials and tribulations with an analytical eye. The book got a little bit scholarly (not overly so, but with a marked shift in tone) when comparing/contrasting Cohen with Bob Dylan. The humor returns when Footman takes on the subject of Cohen's most famous son "Hallelujah" as a potentially unwitting cultural touchstone.

The book is a really fun read, and I think Cohen fans would love it. Even more so, somebody who has never heard of him might even like the book, and want to discover the man with the golden voice after reading it.

[John Eliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this a lot, as it was not a 'fan' book but a serious consideration of Cohen's work. There are times when Mr Footman is positively critical of Cohen's work. Very good on looking at all the published books of poetry, two novels as well as the music. I enjoyed the essay on Hallelujah and comparison of Cohen and Dylan. Probably in need of an update. Worth looking out for though. I got mine for 20p in a charity shop.

[Bob Peru · Rating 4 out of 5]

LC=hero.

[Captain_Howdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad as far as a review of his life. I wasn't that impressed with the writing style.

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

At under 200 pages a gloss on his life. It's also a little sloppy and the writing gets a tad cute sometimes. However, anything about Mr. Cohen can't help but be interesting.

[Manny]

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every so often I have to relearn the lesson that I've learned a million times. Music biographies suck, they are ALWAYS about the author. STUPID STUPID STUPID. I can't recommend this book.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

56 I don't really remember this book at all.