Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Leonard Cohen Songs

“I’m Your Man”

Few people were paying attention to Leonard Cohen by 1988. The miraculous resurrection of "Hallelujah" was still years away, and to many he seemed like an aging 1960s folk singer destined to play clubs for the rest of his life. But then he released I'm Your Man, a brilliant album full of synthpop songs about everything from neo-nazi's to the art of songwriting to whatever the hell "Jazz Police" is about. The title track is a profoundly horny song of pure lust. "And if you want a doctor," Cohen sings. "I'll examine every inch of you." He's played it at virtually every concert he's done since 1988, and it never fails to make the ladies in the audience coo. 

“Anthem”

Leonard Cohen has written a ridiculous amount of great lines over his long career, but few can compare to "Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." It's the key line on "Anthem," one of the standout tracks from his 1992 disc The Future. The song has sent comfort to people in hard times for many years, including famed blogger/journalist Andrew Sullivan. "[That line] that has always stayed with me," he wrote in 2005.  "It kept me going in a bleak moment in my life, when I thought, as we all sometimes do, that I couldn’t see how good could come out of the dreck I had turned my life into."

“Tower of Song”

A lot of people were surprised when Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, including Cohen himself. "I'm reminded of the the prophetic statement by Jon Landau in the early 1970s," he said. "He said, 'I've seen the future of rock and roll and it is not Leonard Cohen.'" From there, he couldn't do much else but read the lines to his 1988 classic "Tower of Song." The crowd laughed at lines like "I ache in the places where I used to play," but they slowly realized he was delivering a profound statement about his life's work and hushed up. 

“Dance Me to the End of Love”

Back in May of 1988, Leonard Cohen decided to push "Heart With No Companion" towards the end of the night and open up his show with "Dance Me to the End of Love." He must have really thought it was a good move because, as far as we can tell, it's opened up every single concert he's done ever since — and we're talking well north of 400 consecutive shows. The 1984 song was written on a dinky Casio synthesizer he found in a tourist shop in Times Square. As author Sylvie Simmons tells it in her incredible Cohen biography I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, the machine didn't even have an output jack. Cohen insisted they find a way to make it work in the studio, and the result is a tune that sends chills down the spine of many Cohen fans because they know it means a magical night of music is just beginning. 

“So Long, Marianne”

Long before he released a single note of music, Leonard Cohen encountered Marianne Ihlen, a beautiful Norwegian woman that would serve as his lover and muse for many years. She was married to writer Axel Jensen when they met and she'd later have his child, but the attraction between Ihlen and Cohen was intense and they eventually they found room in their lives for each other. She inspired many of his most passionate love songs off his early albums, including "So Long, Marianne." He spent months trying to get it just right, and the end result kicks off side two of his 1967 debut LP Songs of Leonard Cohen. 

“Bird on a Wire”

Leonard Cohen was going through a bout of depression while living on the Greek Island of Hydra when he noticed a bird sitting by himself on a telephone wire. He began writing a poem comparing himself to the lonely bird, but it would be a long time before he turned it into a song he was happy with. During the 1968 Songs From a Room sessions in Nashville, Cohen ran through the song over and over until he got so frustrated that he sent most of the musicians home and gave up. Days before the final session, he simply walked up to the microphone and spontaneously found a whole new way to approach the work. It became one of his most beloved songs, and a staple of his live show for decades. 

“Everybody Knows”

"Everybody Knows" must be the most pessimistic song in Cohen's vast catalog. Here are things that everybody supposedly knows: The dice are loaded, the boat is leaking, the captain lied, the poor stay poor, the rich get rich, the plague is coming and moving fast. It's quite the bummer, but somehow packaged all together you get the feeling we're going to survive this parade of horrors together. Over the years it's been covered by everyone from Don Henley to Concrete Blonde to Rufus Wainwright. 

“Famous Blue Raincoat”

“Suzanne”

There was a real Suzanne. Contrary to what the song implies, she never had sex with Leonard Cohen. The stunningly gorgeous Suzanne Verdal did, however, serve tea and oranges when he visited her and her boyfriend, renowned Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, at their home in Montreal. Cohen was forced, as the song says, to "touch her perfect body with his mind." The song began as a poem and was first recorded by Judy Collins in 1966. Cohen cut the song himself the following year. It's the first track on his debut record, kicking off one of the most incredible careers in music history. 

“Hallelujah”