“There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time”.
This week saw the passing of one of the greatest songwriters and poets of all time, Leonard Cohen. The Canadian artist died peacefully at home at the age of 82, and shortly after the sad news was announced, Cohen’s son, Adam, paid tribute to his father in Rolling Stone.
“My father passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles with the knowledge that he had completed what he felt was one of his greatest records. He was writing up until his last moments with his unique brand of humour”, he said.
Adam, also a successful singer-songwriter, elaborated on these sentiments in a very moving tribute to his father on Facebook.
“My sister and I just buried my father in Montreal. With only immediate family and a few lifelong friends present, he was lowered into the ground in an unadorned pine box, next to his mother and father. Exactly as he’d asked. As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work”.
He continues: “There’s so much I wish I could thank him for, just one last time. I’d thank him for the comfort he always provided, for the wisdom he dispensed, for the marathon conversations, for his dazzling wit and humor. I’d thank him for giving me, and teaching me to love Montreal and Greece. And I’d thank him for music; first for his music which seduced me as a boy, then for his encouragement of my own music, and finally for the privilege of being able to make music with him. Thank you for your kind messages, for the outpouring of sympathy and for your love of my father”.
