Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)
Filed under the name Leonard · July 24, 2026
Leonard Cohen was a singer-songwriter and poet whose song "Hallelujah" became, over time, one of the most covered songs in modern music, admired above all for its lyrical depth, the kind that rewards a person for actually sitting with the words instead of just humming along. I've logged more hours than I'd like to count listening to that particular song across a couple dozen different versions on long overnight drives, and every single cover manages to find something a little different hiding inside the same set of lyrics, which tells you the original had more depth in it than any one performer could fully use up. I don't write poetry myself, more of a podcast-and-audiobook man, but I understand the appeal of a song that changes on you every time you actually listen close instead of letting it just play in the background. Cohen apparently built that kind of layered depth into his lyrics on purpose, which is a harder trick than most songwriters ever pull off even once.