The Best of Haydn

Leonard Cohen obituary It is a remarkable testament to the scope of popular music that Leonard Cohen could ever have been filed under the headings of rock or pop. A poet and novelist as well as a songwriter, Cohen, who has died aged 82, was as much a literary figure as a musical one. Early in his career, his novel Beautiful Losers (1966) caused the Boston Globe to declare that “James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under the name of Cohen.” Yet Cohen was determined to establish himself as a songwriter, having been smitten as profoundly as any of his contemporaries by the emergence of rock’n’roll music. “I always loved rock,” he said.