E245 - Perla Batalla - Top 5 Leonard Cohen Songs

Artist. Poet. Friend. This week, we celebrate the music, life, and legacy of Leonard Cohen with someone who knew him well - Perla Batalla.

Grammy-nominated Singer/songwriter Perla Batalla first came to prominence as a backing singer for Leonard Cohen during his 1988 I’m Your Man tour and on the 1992 album The Future, in the process forging a deep friendship.  With Cohen’s encouragement, Perla stepped out as an artist in her own right, releasing a beautifully diverse range of magnificent albums such as Mestiza and Discoteca Batalla, performing at the world’s best venues, co-writing and appearing in two one-woman shows, honored by UN and Focus on the Masters.  But she has always kept the words and works of Leonard Cohen close to her heart.  Her latest album, A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend, is her second album of her unique interpretations of Cohen’s music, following 2005’s Bird on the Wire.  It was released the day before what would have been his 90th birthday.

Leonard Norman Cohen was born in Quebec on September 21, 1934.  Spending the latter part of the ‘50s and first half of the ‘60s as a published poet and author, he shifted his focus to songwriting.  From 1967 to 1971, he established himself as a major musical talent with the trilogy of classic albums Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room, and Songs of Love and Hate, as well as interpretations by the likes of Judy Collins, Nina Simone, Joe Cocker, and Roberta Flack.  He would continue to record and tour sporadically throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s to widespread acclaim and with some commercial success in Europe.  In the late ‘80s & early ‘90s, Cohen gained a new underground audience through his two synth-driven productions, I’m Your Man and The Future, prominent soundtrack placements, a beloved album of interpretations by Jennifer Warnes, Famous Blue Raincoat, and the 1991 high profile tribute album, I’m Your Fan, where a who’s who of alternative music disciples like REM, Ian McCulloch, Pixies, James, The House of Love, Robert Forster, Nick Cave, and John Cale paid their respects to the man.  The latter artist, John Cale, performed a breathtaking piano version of a song from 1984’s Various Positions called “Hallelujah,” in an arrangement that would be borrowed and transcribed to guitar by Jeff Buckley a few years later, which further elevated Leonard Cohen’s already mythical status.  After spending the latter half of the ‘90s in a monastery as an ordained Buddhist monk, Leonard Cohen returned in the twenty first century to finish what he started, adding six additional studio albums to his catalogue, including the album released weeks before his November 7, 2016 death, You Want It Darker, and the posthumous followup completed by his son Adam, 2019’s Thanks For The Dance, as well as multiple live albums, both archival and contemporary.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

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