Leonard Cohen

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  • Year:
    2008
  • Inducted by:
    Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground)
  • Category:
    Performers
Leonard Cohen

Introduction

For six decades, Leonard Cohen revealed his soul to the world through poetry and song—his deep and timeless humanity touching our very core.

Simply brilliant. His music and words will resonate forever.

Hall of Fame Essay

2008

Anthony DeCurtis

I always experience myself as falling apart, and I’m taking emergency measures,” Leonard Cohen said fifteen years ago. “It’s coming apart at every moment. I try Prozac. I try love. I try drugs. I try Zen meditation. I try the monastery. I try forgetting about all those strategies and going straight. And the place where the evaluation happens is where I write the songs, when I get to that place where I can’t be dishonest about what I’ve been doing.”

For four decades, Cohen has been a model of gut-wrenching emotional honesty. He is, without question, one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 2008
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2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Leonard Cohen
We’re so lucky to be alive at the same time Leonard Cohen is.
Lou Reed