SiriusXM Remembers ‘Hallelujah’ Songwriter Leonard Cohen

It seems as though the year 2016 will inevitably go down as the year the music (once again) died. Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, best known for penning frequently covered classics like “Hallelujah,” “Suzanne,” and “Sisters of Mercy,” has died at age 82. The news was announced on his Facebook page on Thursday night.

“It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away,” the social media update read. “We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief.”

Cohen’s death comes just weeks after he spoke to The New Yorker in a wide-ranging interview about topics including mortality, a theme in his recent 14th studio release, “You Want It Darker,” available now on Sony Music Entertainment.

“I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me,” he told editor David Remnick.

Co-host of VOLUME’s morning show, “Feedback,” Nik Carter, took to Twitter as news broke, remembering the influential songwriter and noting that he and his co-host, Lori Majewski, would be speaking about his legacy.

Alan Light, VOLUME host and author of “The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah,” spoke with Nik Carter and Lori Majewski about the legacy of Cohen:

“It gets tossed around a lot that anybody who’s a good songwriter is really a poet,” Light said. “Leonard Cohen was a poet. I mean, he was somebody who was a novelist and a poet and a scholar for years before he started recording songs. There’s nobody who wrote lyrics with the precision, control, and power that Leonard wrote. I mean, he really is the only songwriter that I think you can talk about sort of alongside Bob Dylan in terms of the craft of their work. Leonard had a distinctive and not-easy-to-listen-to, big, rumbling bass voice, and so a lot of times his songs needed to come through other singers for people to really connect with them.”

Join Franny Thomas and Mike Marrone in The Loft for a two-hour celebration of the music of Leonard Cohen on Friday, November 11, at 7pm ET. The special will also be available on the SiriusXM app. Special thanks to Columbia Records for making this possible. You can find Leonard Cohen’s extensive catalog at https://www.leonardcohen.com/albums.

SiriusXM’s folk channel, The Village, is airing a special show dedicated to Cohen at 5pm ET today (November 10).

Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Radio pays tribute to the 2008 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee with reflections and classics from Cohen spotlighted every hour through Sunday night.

On Outlaw Country, Steve Earle dedicates his “Hardcore Troubadour Radio” show to Cohen on November 12 at 9pm ET and November 13 at 9am ET.