The world can be cruel, and few people could express this more eloquently than Leonard Cohen.
The world can be cruel, and few people could express this more eloquently than Leonard Cohen.
On Nov. 7, the Canadian poet, singer, songwriter, and author passed away at the age of 82. His words have helped many through dark times in their lives, and his wryly macabre sentiment has been a comforting solace for others. After a year of the world being sent further and further into that inky abyss, never have we more needed creative voices such as Cohen’s than we do right now.
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Much of Cohen’s music can make you feel as if the world is crumbling in around you, suffocating you with an absolute yet gentle embrace. But as there’s enough of that sentiment floating around this week as it is, we’ve instead put together a rare collection of his hopeful lyrics. It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth.
UPDATE: Thank you to my fellow Cohen devotees for digging up more positive affirmations from the ”godfather of gloom.” If you tweet me your suggestions to @georgiafrancesk, I’ll add them here over the course of the day so that we can collate a collection of hopeful, uplifting lyrics from Leonard.
“Anthem $ELV”
“Dance Me To The End of Love”
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin.
“The Future”
“Closing Time”
“Suzanne”
“Sisters of Mercy”
“Joan of Arc”
“Avalanche”
“Chelsea Hotel #2”
“Recitation / A Thousand Kisses Deep”
“I Tried to Leave You”
Correction: owing to an autocorrect error, an earlier version of this story described Leonard Cohen as the “grandmother” of gloom instead of the “godfather”. We regret the confusion.
