The Demons of Leonard Cohen

'With my jingle in your brain, allow the Bridge to arch again'. How are we to understand Leonard Cohen's plea? Who speaks to whom in this oeuvre spanning six decades? Francis Mus considers the different guises or 'demons' that the Canadian singer-songwriter assumes.

The wide international circulation of Cohen's work has resulted in a partial severing with the context of its creation. Much of it has filtered through the public image forged by the artist and his critics in concerts, interviews and reflective texts. Consequently, The Demons of Leonard Cohen is less a biography than a reception study, supplemented with extensive archival research, unpublished documents, and interviews with colleagues and privileged witnesses. At the same time, this book sheds new light on the dynamic of a comprehensive oeuvre spanning a period of sixty years.