I'm Your Man

The Life of Leonard Cohen

By: Sylvie Simmons

Narrated by: Joshua Pollock

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The legend behind such songs as "Suzanne", "Bird on the Wire", and "Hallelujah" and the poet and novelist behind such groundbreaking literary works as Beautiful Losers and Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential artists of our era, a man of powerful emotion and intelligence whose work has explored the definitive issues of human life - sex, religion, power, meaning, love. Cohen is also a man of complexities and seeming contradictions: a devout Jew, who is also a sophisticate and ladies' man, as well as an ordained Buddhist monk whose name, Jikan - "ordinary silence" - is quite the appellation for a writer and singer whose life has been anything but ordinary. I'm Your Man is the definitive account of that extraordinary life.

Acclaimed music journalist Sylvie Simmons crafts a portrait of Cohen as nuanced as the man himself, drawing on a wealth of research that includes Cohen's personal archives and more than 100 exclusive interviews with those closest to Cohen - from his lovers, friends, monks, professors, rabbis, and fellow musicians to his muses, including Rebecca De Mornay, Marianne Ihlen, Suzanne Elrod, and Suzanne Verdal - and most important, with Cohen himself, whose presence infuses these pages.

Starting in Montreal, Cohen's birthplace, where he first found fame as a poet in the '50s, Simmons follows his trail, via London and the Greek island of Hydra, to New York in the '60s, where he launched his music career. From there she traces the arc of his prodigious achievements to his remarkable retreat in the mid-'90s - when on the cusp of marriage to a beautiful actress and enjoying the success of his best-selling album to date, he entered a monastery on a rocky mountaintop above Los Angeles - and finally to his reemergence for a sold-out world tour almost 15 years later. Whether navigating Cohen's journeys through the back streets of Mumbai or the countless hotel rooms where he has stayed along the way, Simmons explores with equal focus every complex, contradictory strand of Cohen's life - from the halls of academia to the arenas of rock 'n' roll - and presents a deeply insightful portrait of both the artist and the man whose vision, spirit, depth and talent continue to move people like no one else.

©2012 Sylvie Simmons (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Excellent portrait of a complicated man

I leaned so much about Mr. Cohen from this book. I came to understand his complicated system of values and to see that he deserves great respect. I learned to appreciate the man, the music, and the great amount of effort he put into his life and work.

Highly Recommend !!!

What did you love best about I'm Your Man?

The writing was thorough, and well done, the story is fascinating, and the performance excellent. What more can I say?

What did you like best about this story?

This story of a man I just discovered through his music a few years ago, answered a lot of questions for me. Such as, "This guy is fantastic, why have I not heard of him before?"
He was known world wide as a celebrity, but not in America, why?

I was also fascinated by his spiritual journey, and the extremes he went to, to find his answers.

What about Joshua Pollock’s performance did you like?

Joshua Polluck never wavered, I could listen to him all day.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and no, I found the book one, that I could not put down, but also, wanted to savor, each little morsel.

Any additional comments?

This book could be displayed not only in biography, but as stands alone as a historical document of the music industry.

Sloppy Narrator Interferes with Excellent Story

I think the book is in the top tier of popular music biographies--well written, great details, impressive research.

The problem with the audio version is the narrator's use of upspeak in the MIDDLE of sentences, an annoying and unprofessional tic that accelerates as the book progresses. The cloying Valley Girl habit of stating declarative sentences as questions here becomes the more recent affectation of intra-sentence questions, as if the narrator is begging the listener to ok each detail of a sentence (as in "On that day? Leonard walked to the studio? Sat down? And started to play."). Can you imagine Cohen (or the author, for that matter) talking this way? It's a depressing and lazy American habit that is robbing oral communication of its potential power to move the reader.

I'm astounded that so many narrators of books seem to have had no performance training. As a listener now for four years, I've found British narrators to be far more professional, appropriately dramatic, and understandable than most American narrators.

Great book about a remarkable person

Just finished this book. Beautifully written! A must read for the fans of Leonard Cohen, as myself.

Leonard Choen is my man ! Hallelujah !

Couldn't be better. great music, great man. Now he's in The Tower of Song singing Hallelujah with Hank.

Intriguing story of an artist’s life

What feels like a thorough dive into this artist’s life career. Of special note are the author’s evocation of 1940s-60s Montreal, life on the Greek island of Hydra, and finally the terrain of Leonard’s spiritual journey. The book contains fascinating episodes of his Isle of Wight festival performance and Captain Mandrax phase, his life at the Chelsea Hotel, and, after all the drugs and sex and poetry, only being cured of his depression at age 60 in a Zen monastery! Lots of great references and insightful analyses of certain songs. A fine biography, which Leonard apparently cooperated with.

A remarkable biography of a remarkable man!

As a lifetime lover of Leonard Cohen I am always hungering to know more about him. The book was comprehensive and an easy listen. A great narration as well. It struck a great balance of covering a lot, without droning on with too much detail that becomes hard to listen to. Anyone interested in knowing more about the late great L. Cohen should give this a listen.

Biography from a room

Any additional comments?

last week I took Ms. Simmons "I'm your man" out on the road with me for a second read. Here are my thoughts after that pass.
This book reads like literature, and to me, that is everything. The authors idiosyncratic voice and style shine through just enough to light the many rooms her subject (Mr. Cohens life) inhabits. This is a working journalist, writer and songwriter doing what she does best, working.
I honestly did not know about her vast body of work before reading this book and so have had the luxury of going back through years of the top music publications that are rich with her prose. I suggest you do the same, you will be better for it.
"I'm your man" is excellent and I want to Thank Ms. Simmons for writing this gem of a biography.
Now on to "A fistfull of Gitanes."

Sincerely,
John Reynolds

INTERESTING STORY BUT MUCH TOO LONG

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if they enjoyed Leonard Cohen's songs, poetry or books. His achievements are well-documented in this book.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the stories within the story. The friendships, loves and quest for answers.

What does Joshua Pollock bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I think Joshua Pollock did a great job of narrating what would otherwise have been an extremely long, dry story.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Rosanne showing up at Leonard's house in Greece with his baby son in her arms. She tells his then girlfriend it's time for her to move out. That scene said a lot about Leonard Cohen, the women and the times.

The story of an extraordinary man

An extraordinary man who touched many lives.

I enjoyed a lot listening again to the songs after they were mentioned in the book