Leonard Cohen on tour in Europe
Imagine you’ve saved for years for retirement. You wake up one day and discover that your accountant has left you penniless. You almost 70 years old and you divide your time between the Buddhist monastery where you practice meditation and your home, where you write and make music. What to do after making this kind of discovery. In the case of Leonard Cohen, you get back to work full steam ahead. In the last five years, since he discovered that his manager was stealing from him, he has recorded several new albums and is touring constantly. This year, the legend will tour Europe and Australia. On September 1, you will have the opportunity to see him live in Florence in the historic Piazza Santa Croce.
Over the years, his music has gained a reputation for being incredibly poetic, depressing and spiritually rich. His songs place themes of love, sex, art, depression and divine grace under the microscope. Before establishing herself as a musician and songwriter, he had already published two novels and several editions of poetry. But he decided to leave Canada, his native country, to migrate to the United States in 1967, because he thought that he might be more successful as a singer than a writer, and at that time, folk music was very fashionable. He frequented the Andy Warhol’s Factory and hung out with figures like Janis Joplin. During this period he released several albums and was acclaimed for being one of the best lyricists of his generation. However, he avoided the trap of getting stuck in the world of folk, and throughout his career he has released several albums inspired by various genres such as jazz, cabaret and experimental music.
Singers like Judy Collins, Jeff Buckley, Martha Wainwright and John Cale have sung versions of his songs which in some cases even surpassed the commercial success of the original songs. Rent apartments in Florence to live your spiritual adventures of love and self-knowledge. They might not be the Chelsea Hotel of the 70s, but they are comfortable, and safe to say that seeing this legend perform will be a magical experience.
