Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology.

The term ''adaptation'' may also refer to a feature which is especially important for an organism's survival and reproduction. For example, the adaptation of horses' teeth to the grinding of grass, or their ability to run fast and escape predators. Such adaptations are produced in a variable population by the better suited forms reproducing more successfully, that is, by natural selection.

General principles

Adaptation is, first of all, a ''process'', rather than a physical part of a body. An internal parasite (such as a fluke) can illustrate the distinction: such a parasite may have a very simple bodily structure, but nevertheless the organism is highly adapted to its specific environment. From this we see that adaptation is not just a matter of visible traits: in such parasites critical adaptations take place in the life-cycle, which is often quite complex. However, as a practical term, adaptation is often used for the ''product'': those features of a species which result from the process. Many aspects of an animal or plant can be correctly called adaptations, though there are always some features whose function is in doubt. By using the term ''adaptation'' for the evolutionary ''process'', and ''adaptive trait'' for the bodily part or function (the product), the two senses of the word may be distinguished.

Adaptation is one of the two main processes that explain the diverse species we see in biology, such as the different species of Darwin's finches. The other is speciation (species-splitting or cladogenesis), caused by geographical isolation or some other mechanism. A favourite example used today to study the interplay of adaptation and speciation is the evolution of cichlid fish in African lakes, where the question of reproductive isolation is much more complex.

Adaptation is not always a simple matter, where the ideal phenotype evolves for a given external environment. An organism must be viable at all stages of its development and at all stages of its evolution. This places ''constraints'' on the evolution of development, behaviour and structure of organisms. The main constraint, over which there has been much debate, is the requirement that each genetic and phenotypic change during evolution should be relatively small, because developmental systems are so complex and interlinked. However, it is not clear what "relatively small" should mean, for example polyploidy in plants is a reasonably common large genetic change. The origin of the symbiosis of multiple micro-organisms to form a eukaryota is a more exotic example.

All adaptations help organisms survive in their ecological niches. These adaptive traits may be structural, behavioral or physiological. Structural adaptations are physical features of an organism (shape, body covering, armament; and also the internal organization). Behavioural adaptations are composed of inherited behaviour chains and/or the ability to learn: behaviours may be inherited in detail (instincts), or a tendency for learning may be inherited (see neuropsychology). Examples: searching for food, mating, vocalizations. Physiological adaptations permit the organism to perform special functions (for instance, making venom, secreting slime, phototropism); but also more general functions such as growth and development, temperature regulation, ionic balance and other aspects of homeostasis. Adaptation, then, affects all aspects of the life of an organism.

Definitions

The following definitions are mainly due to Theodosius Dobzhansky. :1. ''Adaptation'' is the evolutionary process whereby an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat or habitats. :2. ''Adaptedness'' is the state of being adapted: the degree to which an organism is able to live and reproduce in a given set of habitats. :3. An ''adaptive trait'' is an aspect of the developmental pattern of the organism which enables or enhances the probability of that organism surviving and reproducing.

Adaptedness and fitness

From the above definitions, it is clear that there is a relationship between adaptedness and ''fitness'' (a key population genetics concept). Differences in fitness between genotypes predict the rate of evolution by natural selection. Natural selection changes the relative frequencies of alternative phenotypes, insofar as they are heritable. Although the two are connected, the one does not imply the other: a phenotype with high adaptedness may not have high fitness. Dobzhansky mentioned the example of the Californian redwood, which is highly adapted, but a relict species in danger of extinction. Elliott Sober commented that adaptation was a retrospective concept since it implied something about the history of a trait, whereas fitness predicts a trait's future.^p210

:1. Relative fitness. The average contribution to the next generation by a genotype or a class of genotypes, relative to the contributions of other genotypes in the population.^p552 This is also known as ''Darwinian fitness'', ''selective coefficient'', and other terms. :2. Absolute fitness. The absolute contribution to the next generation by a genotype or a class of genotypes. Also known as the Malthusian parameter when applied to the population as a whole. :3. Adaptedness. The extent to which a phenotype fits its local ecological niche. This can sometimes be tested through a reciprocal transplant experiment.

Brief history

Adaptation as a fact of life has been accepted by all the great thinkers who have tackled the world of living organisms. It is their explanations of how adaptation arises that separates these thinkers. A few of the most significant ideas:

Empedocles did not believe that adaptation required a final cause (~ purpose), but "came about naturally, since such things survived". Aristotle, however, did believe in final causes.

In natural theology, adaptation was interpreted as the work of a deity, even as evidence for the existence of God. William Paley believed that organisms were perfectly adapted to the lives they lead, an argument that shadowed Leibniz, who had argued that God had brought about the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire's Dr Pangloss is a parody of this optimistic idea, and Hume also argued against design. The ''Bridgewater Treatises'' are a product of natural theology, though some of the authors managed to present their work in a fairly neutral manner. The series was lampooned by Robert Knox, who held quasi-evolutionary views, as the ''Bilgewater Treatises''. Darwin broke with the tradition by emphasising the flaws and limitations which occurred in the animal and plant worlds. Lamarck's is a proto-evolutionary theory of the inheritance of acquired traits, whose main purpose is to explain adaptations by natural means. He proposed a tendency for organisms to become more complex, moving up a ladder of progress, plus "the influence of circumstances", usually expressed as ''use and disuse''. His evolutionary ideas, and those of Geoffroy, fail because they cannot be reconciled with heredity. This was known even before Mendel by medical men interested in human races (Wells, Lawrence), and especially by Weismann.

Many other students of natural history, such as Buffon, accepted adaptation, and some also accepted evolution, without voicing their opinions as to the mechanism. This illustrates the real merit of Darwin and Wallace, and secondary figures such as Bates, for putting forward a mechanism whose significance had only been glimpsed previously. A century later, experimental field studies and breeding experiments by such as Ford and Dobzhansky produced evidence that natural selection was not only the 'engine' behind adaptation, but was a much stronger force than had previously been thought.

Types of adaptation

Adaptation is the heart and soul of evolution. ''Niles Eldredge''

Changes in habitat

Before Darwin, adaptation was seen as a fixed relationship between an organism and its habitat. It was not appreciated that as the climate changed, so did the habitat; and as the habitat changed, so did the biota. Also, habitats are subject to changes in their biota: for example, invasions of species from other areas. The relative numbers of species in a given habitat are always changing. Change is the rule, though much depends on the speed and degree of the change.

When the habitat changes, three main things may happen to a resident population: habitat tracking, genetic change or extinction. In fact, all three things may occur in sequence. ''Of these three effects, only genetic change brings about adaptation''.

Habitat tracking

When a habitat changes, the most common thing to happen is that the resident population moves to another locale which suits it; this is the typical response of flying insects or oceanic organisms, who have wide (though not unlimited) opportunity for movement. This common response is called ''habitat tracking''. It is one explanation put forward for the periods of apparent stasis in the fossil record (the punctuated equilibrium thesis).

Genetic change

Genetic change is what occurs in a population when natural selection acts on the genetic variability of the population; moreover, some mutations may create genetic variation that will lead to differing characteristics of offspring and hence abet adaptation. The first pathways of enzyme-based metabolism may have been parts of purine nucleotide metabolism, with previous metabolic pathways being part of the ancient RNA world. By this means, the population adapts genetically to its circumstances. Genetic changes may result in visible structures, or may adjust physiological activity in a way that suits the changed habitat.

It is now clear that habitats and biota do frequently change. Therefore, it follows that the process of adaptation is never finally complete. Over time, it may happen that the environment changes little, and the species comes to fit its surroundings better and better. On the other hand, it may happen that changes in the environment occur relatively rapidly, and then the species becomes less and less well adapted. Seen like this, adaptation is a genetic ''tracking process'', which goes on all the time to some extent, but especially when the population cannot or does not move to another, less hostile area. Also, to a greater or lesser extent, the process affects every species in a particular ecosystem.

Van Valen thought that even in a stable environment, competing species had to constantly adapt to maintain their relative standing. This became known as the Red Queen hypothesis.

Intimate relationships: co-adaptations

In co-evolution, where the existence of one species is tightly bound up with the life of another species, new or 'improved' adaptations which occur in one species are often followed by the appearance and spread of corresponding features in the other species. There are many examples of this; the idea emphasises that the life and death of living things is intimately connected, not just with the physical environment, but with the life of other species. These relationships are intrinsically dynamic, and may continue on a trajectory for millions of years, as has the relationship between flowering plants and insects (pollination).

Pollinator constancy: these honeybees selectively visit flowers from only one species, as can be seen by the colour of the pollen in their baskets:

Co-extinction

Infection-resistance

Mimicry

Mutualism

Parasite-host

Pollination syndrome

Predator-prey

Symbiosis

The gut contents, wing structures, and mouthpart morphologies of fossilized beetles and flies suggest that they acted as early pollinators. The association between beetles and angiosperms during the early Cretaceous period led to parallel radiations of angiosperms and insects into the late Cretaceous. The evolution of nectaries in late Cretaceous flowers signals the beginning of the mutualism between hymenopterans and angiosperms.

Mimicry

Henry Walter Bates' work on Amazonian butterflies led him to develop the first scientific account of mimicry, especially the kind of mimicry which bears his name: Batesian mimicry. This is the mimicry by a palatable species of an unpalatable or noxious species. A common example seen in temperate gardens is the hover-fly, many of which – though bearing no sting – mimic the warning colouration of hymenoptera (wasps and bees). Such mimicry does not need to be perfect to improve the survival of the palatable species.

Bates, Wallace and Müller believed that Batesian and Müllerian mimicry provided evidence for the action of natural selection, a view which is now standard amongst biologists. All aspects of this situation can be, and have been, the subject of research. Field and experimental work on these ideas continues to this day; the topic connects strongly to speciation, genetics and development.

More on mimicry: Warning Colour and Mimicry Lecture outline from University College London

The basic machinery: internal adaptations

There are some important adaptations to do with the overall coordination of the systems in the body. Such adaptations may have significant consequences. Examples, in vertebrates, would be temperature regulation, or improvements in brain function, or an effective immune system. An example in plants would be the development of the reproductive system in flowering plants. Such adaptations may make the clade (monophyletic group) more viable in a wide range of habitats. The acquisition of such major adaptations has often served as the spark for adaptive radiation, and huge success over long periods of time for a whole group of animals or plants.

Compromise and conflict between adaptations

It is a profound truth that Nature does not know best; that genetical evolution... is a story of waste, makeshift, compromise and blunder. ''Peter Medawar''.

All adaptations have a downside: horse legs are great for running on grass, but they can't scratch their backs; mammals' hair helps temperature, but offers a niche for ectoparasites; the only flying penguins do is under water. Adaptations serving different functions may be mutually destructive. Compromise and make-shift occur widely, not perfection. Selection pressures pull in different directions, and the adaptation that results is some kind of compromise.

Since the phenotype as a whole is the target of selection, it is impossible to improve simultaneously all aspects of the phenotype to the same degree. ''Ernst Mayr''.

Consider the antlers of the Irish elk, (often supposed to be far too large; in deer antler size has an allometric relationship to body size). Obviously antlers serve positively for defence against predators, and to score victories in the annual rut. But they are costly in terms of resource. Their size during the last glacial period presumably depended on the relative gain and loss of reproductive capacity in the population of elks during that time. Another example: camouflage to avoid detection is destroyed when vivid colors are displayed at mating time. Here the risk to life is counterbalanced by the necessity for reproduction.

The peacock's ornamental train (grown anew in time for each mating season) is a famous adaptation. It must reduce his maneuverability and flight, and is hugely conspicuous; also, its growth costs food resources. Darwin's explanation of its advantage was in terms of sexual selection: "it depends on the advantage which certain individuals have over other individuals of the same sex and species, in exclusive relation to reproduction". The kind of sexual selection represented by the peacock is called 'mate choice', with an implication that the process selects the more fit over the less fit, and so has survival value. The recognition of sexual selection was for a long time in abeyance, but has been rehabilitated. In practice, the blue peafowl ''Pavo cristatus'' is a pretty successful species, with a big natural range in India, so the overall outcome of their mating system is quite viable.

The conflict between the size of the human foetal brain at birth, (which cannot be larger than about 400ccs, else it will not get through the mother's pelvis) and the size needed for an adult brain (about 1400ccs), means the brain of a newborn child is quite immature. The most vital things in human life (locomotion, speech) just have to wait while the brain grows and matures. That is the result of the birth compromise. Much of the problem comes from our upright bipedal stance, without which our pelvis could be shaped more suitably for birth. Neanderthals had a similar problem.

Shifts in function

Adaptation and function are two aspects of one problem. ''Julian Huxley''

Pre-adaptations

This occurs when a species or population has characteristics which (by chance) are suited for conditions which have not yet arisen. For example, the polyploid rice-grass ''Spartina townsendii'' is better adapted than either of its parent species to their own habitat of saline marsh and mud-flats. White Leghorn fowl are markedly more resistant to vitamin B deficiency than other breeds. On a plentiful diet there is no difference, but on a restricted diet this preadaptation could be decisive.

Pre-adaptation may occur because a natural population carries a huge quantity of genetic variability. In diploid eukaryotes, this is a consequence of the system of sexual reproduction, where mutant alleles get partially shielded, for example, by the selective advantage of heterozygotes. Micro-organisms, with their huge populations, also carry a great deal of genetic variability.

The first experimental evidence of the pre-adaptive nature of genetic variants in micro-organisms was provided by Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück who developed fluctuation analysis, a method to show the random fluctuation of pre-existing genetic changes that conferred resistance to phage in the bacterium ''Escherichia coli''.

Co-option of existing traits: exaptation

The classic example is the ear ossicles of mammals, which we know from palaeontological and embrological studies originated in the upper and lower jaws and the hyoid of their Synapsid ancestors, and further back still were part of the gill arches of early fish. We owe this esoteric knowledge to the comparative anatomists, who, a century ago, were at the cutting edge of evolutionary studies. The word ''exaptation'' was coined to cover these shifts in function, which are surprisingly common in evolutionary history. The origin of wings from feathers that were originally used for temperature regulation is a more recent discovery (see feathered dinosaurs).

Related issues

Non-adaptive traits

Some traits do not appear to be adaptive, that is, they appear to have a neutral or even deleterious effect on fitness in the current environment. Because genes have pleiotropic effects, not all traits may be functional (i.e. spandrels). Alternatively, a trait may have been adaptive at some point in an organism's evolutionary history, but a change in habitats caused what used to be an adaptation to become unnecessary or even a hindrance (maladaptations). Such adaptations are termed vestigial.

Vestigial organs

Many organisms have vestigial organs, which are the remnants of fully functional structures in their ancestors. As a result of changes in lifestyle the organs became redundant, and are either not functional or reduced in functionality. With the loss of function goes the loss of positive selection, and the subsequent accumulation of deleterious mutations. Since any structure represents some kind of cost to the general economy of the body, an advantage may accrue from their elimination once they are not functional. Examples: wisdom teeth in humans; the loss of pigment and functional eyes in cave fauna; the loss of structure in endoparasites.

Fitness landscapes

Sewall Wright proposed that populations occupy ''adaptive peaks'' on a fitness landscape. In order to evolve to another, higher peak, a population would first have to pass through a valley of maladaptive intermediate stages. A given population might be "trapped" on a peak that is not optimally adapted.

Extinction

If a population cannot move or change sufficiently to preserve its long-term viability, then obviously, it will become extinct, at least in that locale. The species may or may not survive in other locales. Species extinction occurs when the death rate over the entire species (population, gene pool ...) exceeds the birth rate for a long enough period for the species to disappear. It was an observation of Van Valen that groups of species tend to have a characteristic and fairly regular rate of extinction.

Co-extinction

Just as we have co-adaptation, there is also co-extinction. Co-extinction refers to the loss of a species due to the extinction of another; for example, the extinction of parasitic insects following the loss of their hosts. Co-extinction can also occur when a flowering plant loses its pollinator, or through the disruption of a food chain. "Species co-extinction is a manifestation of the interconnectedness of organisms in complex ecosystems ... While co-extinction may not be the most important cause of species extinctions, it is certainly an insidious one".

Flexibility, acclimatization, learning

''Flexibility'' deals with the relative capacity of an organism to maintain themselves in different habitats: their degree of specialization. ''Acclimatization'' is a term used for automatic physiological adjustments during life; ''learning'' is the term used for improvement in behavioral performance during life. In biology these terms are preferred, not adaptation, for changes during life which improve the performance of individuals. These adjustments are not inherited genetically by the next generation.

Adaptation, on the other hand, occurs over many generations; it is a gradual process caused by natural selection which changes the genetic make-up of a population so the collective performs better in its niche.

Flexibility

Populations differ in their phenotypic plasticity, which is the ability of an organism with a given genotype to change its phenotype in response to changes in its habitat, or to its move to a different habitat.

To a greater or lesser extent, all living things can adjust to circumstances. The degree of flexibility is inherited, and varies to some extent between individuals. A highly specialized animal or plant lives only in a well-defined habitat, eats a specific type of food, and cannot survive if its needs are not met. Many herbivores are like this; extreme examples are koalas which depend on eucalyptus, and pandas which require bamboo. A generalist, on the other hand, eats a range of food, and can survive in many different conditions. Examples are humans, rats, crabs and many carnivores. The ''tendency'' to behave in a specialized or exploratory manner is inherited – it is an adaptation.

Rather different is ''developmental flexibility:'' "An animal or plant is developmentally flexible if when it is raised or transferred to new conditions it develops so that it is better fitted to survive in the new circumstances". Once again, there are huge differences between species, and the ''capacities'' to be flexible are inherited.

Acclimatization

If humans move to a higher altitude, respiration and physical exertion become a problem, but after spending time in high altitude conditions they ''acclimatize'' to the pressure by increasing production of red blood corpuscles. The ''ability'' to acclimatize is an adaptation, but not the acclimatization itself. Fecundity goes down, but deaths from some tropical diseases also goes down.

Over a longer period of time, some people will reproduce better at these high altitudes than others. They will contribute more heavily to later generations. Gradually the whole population becomes adapted to the new conditions. This we know takes place, because the performance of long-term communities at higher altitude is significantly better than the performance of new arrivals, even when the new arrivals have had time to make physiological adjustments.

Some kinds of acclimatization happen so rapidly that they are better called reflexes. The rapid colour changes in some flatfish, cephalopods, chameleons are examples.

Learning

Social learning is supreme for humans, and is possible for quite a few mammals and birds: of course, that does not involve genetic transmission except to the extent that the capacities are inherited. Similarly, the ''capacity to learn'' is an inherited adaptation, but not what is learnt; the capacity for human speech is inherited, but not the details of language.

Function and teleonomy

Adaptation raises some issues concerning how biologists use key terms such as ''function''.

Function

To say something has a function is to say something about what it does for the organism, obviously. It also says something about its history: how it has come about. A heart pumps blood: that is its function. It also emits sound, which is just an ancillary side-effect. That is not its function. The heart has a history (which may be well or poorly understood), and that history is about how natural selection formed and maintained the heart as a pump. Every aspect of an organism that has a function has a history. Now, an adaptation must have a functional history: therefore we expect it must have undergone selection caused by relative survival in its habitat. It would be quite wrong to use the word adaptation about a trait which arose as a by-product.

It is widely regarded as unprofessional for a biologist to say something like "A wing is for flying", although that is their normal function. A biologist would be conscious that sometime in the remote past feathers on a small dinosaur had the function of retaining heat, and that later many wings were not used for flying (e.g. penguins, ostriches). So, the biologist would rather say that the wings on a bird or an insect usually had the ''function'' of aiding flight. That would carry the connotation of being an adaptation with a history of evolution by natural selection.

Teleonomy

Teleonomy is a term invented to describe the study of goal-directed functions which are not guided by the conscious forethought of man or any supernatural entity. It is contrasted with Aristotle's teleology, which has connotations of intention, purpose and foresight. Evolution is teleonomic; ''adaptation hoards hindsight rather than foresight''. The following is a definition for its use in biology: :Teleonomy: The hypothesis that adaptations arise without the existence of a prior purpose, but by the action of natural selection on genetic variability.

The term may have been suggested by Colin Pittendrigh in 1958; it grew out of cybernetics and self-organising systems. Ernst Mayr, George C. Williams and Jacques Monod picked up the term and used it in evolutionary biology.

Philosophers of science have also commented on the term. Ernest Nagel analysed the concept of goal-directedness in biology; and David Hull commented on the use of teleology and teleonomy by biologists: :Haldane can be found remarking, "Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he’s unwilling to be seen with her in public". Today the mistress has become a lawfully wedded wife. Biologists no longer feel obligated to apologize for their use of teleological language; they flaunt it. The only concession which they make to its disreputable past is to rename it ‘teleonomy’.

See also

Adaptive radiation

Co-adaptation

Co-evolution

Ecological trap

Evolvability

Exaptation

Intragenomic conflict

Mimicry

Polymorphism (biology)

References

Category:Evolutionary biology

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Coordinates	51°43′35″N20°27′45″N
birth name	Mary Louise Streep
birth date	June 22, 1949
birth place	Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
nationality	American
spouse	Don Gummer(m.1978–present; 4 children)
children	4 (including Mamie Gummer and Grace Gummer)
partner	John Cazale(1976-78, his death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1971–present }}

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented and respected actresses of the modern era.

Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's ''The Playboy of Seville'', before her screen debut in the television movie ''The Deadliest Season'' in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with ''Julia''. Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. She later won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982).

Streep has received 16 Academy Award nominations, winning two, and 25 Golden Globe nominations, winning seven, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, four New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, a BAFTA award, an Australian Film Institute Award and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Early life and background

Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson), a commercial artist and former art editor, and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive. She has two brothers, Dana and Harry. Her paternal ancestry originates in Loffenau, Germany, from where her second great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, emigrated to the United States, and where one of her ancestors served as mayor. Another line of her father's family was from Giswil, a small town in Switzerland. Her maternal ancestry originates in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Her eighth great-grandfather, Lawrence Wilkinson, was one of the first Europeans to settle Rhode Island. Streep is also a distant relative of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and records show her family were among the first purchasers of land in Pennsylvania.

She was raised a Presbyterian, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. She received her B.A., in Drama at Vassar College in 1971 (where she briefly received instruction from actress Jean Arthur), but also enrolled as an exchange student at Dartmouth College for a quarter before it became coeducational. She subsequently earned an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. While at Yale, she played a variety of roles onstage, from the glamorous Helena in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' to an eighty-year old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato. "It was immediately apparent," said then-dean Robert Brustein, "that she was destined for greatness."

Career

Early career

Streep performed in several theater productions in New York after graduating from Yale School of Drama, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ''Henry V'', ''The Taming of the Shrew'' with Raúl Juliá, and ''Measure for Measure'' opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, who became her fiancé. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical ''Happy End'', and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung off-Broadway production of ''Alice at the Palace''. Streep began auditioning for film roles, and later recalled an unsuccessful audition for Dino De Laurentiis for the leading role in ''King Kong''. De Laurentiis commented to his son in Italian, "She's ugly. Why did you bring me this thing?" and was shocked when Streep replied in fluent Italian. Streep's first feature film was ''Julia'' (1977), in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. Streep was living in New York City with her fiancé, Cazale, who had been diagnosed with bone cancer. He was cast in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), and Streep was delighted to secure a small role because it allowed her to remain with Cazale for the duration of filming. She was not specifically interested in the part, commenting, "They needed a girl between the two guys and I was it."

She played a leading role in the television miniseries ''Holocaust'' (1978) as an Aryan woman married to a Jewish artist in Nazi era Germany. She later explained that she had considered the material to be "unrelentingly noble", and had taken the role only because she had needed money. Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while Cazale remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death on March 12, 1978. She spoke of her grief and her hope that work would provide a diversion; she accepted a role in ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' (1979) with Alan Alda, later commenting that she played it on "automatic pilot", and performed the role of Katherine in ''The Taming of the Shrew'' for Shakespeare in the Park. With an estimated audience of 109 million, ''Holocaust'' brought a degree of public recognition to Streep, who was described in August 1978 as "on the verge of national visibility". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

''The Deer Hunter'' (1978) was released a month later, and Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Streep played a supporting role in ''Manhattan'' (1979) for Woody Allen, later stating that she had not seen a complete script and was given only the six pages of her own scenes, and that she had not been permitted to improvise a word of her dialogue. Asked to comment on the script for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), in a meeting with the producer Stan Jaffee, director Robert Benton and star Dustin Hoffman, Streep insisted that the female character was not representative of many real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles, and was written as "too evil". Jaffee, Benton and Hoffman agreed with Streep, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a mother and housewife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set. Benton allowed Streep to write her dialogue in two of her key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman. Jaffee and Hoffman later spoke of Streep's tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting, "She's extraordinarily hardworking, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else but what she's doing."

Streep drew critical acclaim for her performance in each of her three films released in 1979: the romantic comedy ''Manhattan'', the political drama ''The Seduction of Joe Tynan'' and the family drama, ''Kramer vs. Kramer''. She was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her collective work in the three films. Among the awards won for ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' were the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

1980s

After prominent supporting roles in two of the 1970s' most successful films, the consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''The Deer Hunter'' and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and praise for her versatility in several supporting roles, Streep progressed to leading roles. Her first was ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981). A story within a story drama, the film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story as well as the Victorian era drama they were performing. A ''New York Magazine'' article commented that while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "chameleon", willing to play any type of role. Streep was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work.

Her next film, the psychological thriller, ''Still of the Night'' (1982) reunited her with Robert Benton, the director of ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', and co-starred Roy Scheider and Jessica Tandy. Vincent Canby, writing for ''The New York Times'' noted that the film was an homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough".

As the Polish holocaust survivor in ''Sophie's Choice'' (1982), Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise. William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie, but Streep was very determined to get the role. After she obtained a pirated copy of the script, she went to Alan J. Pakula and threw herself on the ground begging him to give her the part. Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, as she found shooting the scene extremely painful and emotionally exhausting. Among several notable acting awards, Streep won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Roger Ebert said of her performance, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine."

She followed this success with a biographical film, ''Silkwood'' (1983), in which she played her first real-life character, the union activist Karen Silkwood. She discussed her preparation for the role in an interview with Roger Ebert and said that she had met with people close to Silkwood to learn more about her, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of Silkwood. Streep concentrated on the events of Silkwood's life and concluded, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside."

Her next films were a romantic drama, ''Falling in Love'' (1984) opposite Robert De Niro, and a British drama, ''Plenty'' (1985). Roger Ebert said of Streep's performance in ''Plenty'' that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms."

''Out of Africa'' (1985) starred Streep as the Danish writer Karen Blixen and co-starred Robert Redford. A significant critical success, the film received a 63% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Streep co-starred with Jack Nicholson in her next two films, the dramas ''Heartburn'' (1986) and ''Ironweed'' (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the television movie, ''Secret Service'', in 1977. In ''A Cry in the Dark'' (1988), she played the biographical role of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter in which Chamberlain claimed her baby had been taken by a dingo. Filmed in Australia, Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for several other awards for her portrayal of Chamberlain.

In ''She-Devil'' (1989), Streep played her first comedic film role, opposite Roseanne Barr. Richard Corliss, writing for ''Time,'' commented that Streep was the "one reason" to see the film and observed that it marked a departure from the type of role for which she had been known, saying, "Surprise! Inside the Greer Garson roles Streep usually plays, a vixenish Carole Lombard is screaming to be cut loose."

1990s

From 1984 to 1990, Streep won six People's Choice Awards for Favorite Motion Picture Actress and, in 1990, was named World Favorite.

In the 1990s, Streep continued to choose a great variety of roles, including a drug addicted movie actress in a screen adaptation of Carrie Fisher's novel ''Postcards from the Edge'', with Dennis Quaid and Shirley MacLaine. Streep and Goldie Hawn had established a friendship and were interested in making a film together. After considering various projects, they decided upon ''Thelma and Louise'', until Streep's pregnancy coincided with the filming schedule, and the producers decided to proceed with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. They subsequently filmed the farcical black comedy, ''Death Becomes Her'', with Bruce Willis as their co-star. ''Time'''s Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "''She-Devil'' with a make-over".

Biographer Karen Hollinger describes this period as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, which reached its nadir with the failure of ''Death Becomes Her'', attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious but commercially unsuccessful dramas, and more significantly to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties. Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family, a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care."

Streep appeared with Glenn Close in the movie version of Isabel Allende's ''The House of the Spirits'', the screen adaptation of ''The Bridges of Madison County'' with Clint Eastwood, ''The River Wild'', ''Marvin's Room'' (with Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio), ''One True Thing'', and ''Music of the Heart'', in a role that required her to learn to play the violin, She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "The Bridges of Madison County", "Music of the Heart" (where she plays the role of Roberta Guaspari) and "One True Thing".

2000s

Streep entered the 2000s with Steven Spielberg's ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'', a science fiction film about a child-like android, played by Haley Joel Osment, uniquely programmed with the ability to love, voicing the Blue Fairy. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert with Liam Neeson in Oslo, Norway, and began work on Spike Jonze's comedy-drama ''Adaptation'' (2002), in which she portrayed real-life journalist Susan Orlean. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, and won Streep her fourth Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. Also in 2002, Streep appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in Stephen Daldry's ''The Hours'', based on the 1999 novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham. Focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel ''Mrs. Dalloway'' by Virginia Woolf, the film was generally well-received and won all three leading actresses a Silver Bear for Best Actress the following year.

thumb|right|upright|Streep in 2004 The following year, Streep had a cameo as herself in the Farrelly brothers comedy ''Stuck on You'' (2003) and reunited with Mike Nichols to star with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play ''Angels in America'', the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan Era politics. Streep, who was cast in four different roles in the mini-series, received her second Emmy Award and fifth Golden Globe for her performance. In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute, and appeared in Jonathan Demme's moderately successful remake ''The Manchurian Candidate'', co-starring Denzel Washington, playing a U.S. senator and a manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate. The same year, she played the supporting role of Aunt Josephine in ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' alongside Jim Carrey, based on the first three novels in Snicket's book series. The black comedy received generally favorable reviews from critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Streep's was next cast in the 2005 comedy ''Prime'', directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she played Lisa Metzger, the Jewish psychoanalyst of a divorced and lonesome business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, who enters a relationship with Metzger's 23-years-old son (Bryan Greenberg). A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. In 2006, she, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed the last two members of what was once a popular family country music act in Robert Altman's final film ''A Prairie Home Companion''. A comedic ensemble piece featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Woody Harrelson, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film grossed over US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. Commercially, Streep fared better with a role in ''The Devil Wears Prada'' (2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Portraying the powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor and boss of a recent college graduate (played by Anne Hathaway) Miranda Priestly, Streep's performance drew rave reviews from critics and later earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. Upon its commercial release, the film became Streep's biggest commercial success yet, grossing more than US$326.5 million worldwide.

In 2007, Streep was cast in four different films. She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi-zheng's much-delayed feature drama ''Dark Matter'' (2007), a film about of a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university. Inspired by the events of a 1991 tragedy at the University of Iowa. and initially scheduled for a 2007 release, producers and investors decided to shelve ''Dark Matter'' out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 released. Streep played a U.S. government official, who investigates an Egyptian foreign national in Washington, D.C. suspected of terrorism in the Middle East, in the political thriller ''Rendition'' (2007), directed by Gavin Hood. Keen to get involved into a thriller film, Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre she usually was not offered scripts for and immediately signed on to the project. Upon its release, ''Rendition'' became a failure, and received mixed reviews.

Also in 2007, Streep had a short role alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer in Lajos Koltai's drama film ''Evening'', based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. Switching between the present and the past, it tells the story of a bedridden women, who remembers her tumultuous life the mid-1950s. The film was released to lukewarm reactions by critics, who called it "beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull [and] a colossal waste of a talented cast." Streep's last film of 2007 was Robert Redfords ''Lions for Lambs'', a film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor.

thumb|right|220px|Streep with her fellow cast and all four members of ABBA at the Swedish premiere of ''Mamma Mia!'' in July 2008. In 2008, Streep found major commercial success when she starred in Phyllida Lloyd's ''Mamma Mia!'', a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, based on the songs of Swedish pop group ABBA. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth, she played a single mother and a former backing singer, whose daughter (Seyfried), a bride-to-be who never met her father, invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding on an idyllic Greek island. An instant box office success, ''Mamma Mia!'' became Streep's highest-grossing film to date, with box office receipts of US$602.6 million, also ranking it first among the highest-grossing musical films of all-time. Nominated for another Golden Globe, Streep's performance was generally well-received by critics, with Wesley Morris of the ''Boston Globe'' commenting "the greatest actor in American movies has finally become a movie star." Streep's other film of 2008 was ''Doubt'' featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. A drama revolving around the stern principal nun (Streep) of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 who brings charges of pedophilia against a popular priest (Hoffman), the film became a moderate box office success, but was hailed by many critics as one of the best of 2008. The film received five Academy Awards nominations, for its four lead actors and for Shanley's script.

In 2009, Streep played chef Julia Child in Nora Ephron's ''Julie & Julia'', co-starring Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. The first major motion picture based on a blog, it contrasts the life of Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell (Adams), who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, ''The Julie/Julia Project'', that would make her a published author. The same year, she also starred in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy ''It's Complicated'', with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. She also received nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for this film. Streep also lent her voice to Mrs. Felicity Fox in the stop-motion film ''Fantastic Mr. Fox''.

2010s

In July 2010, it was announced that Streep will star in an upcoming comedy entitled ''Mommy & Me'' alongside Tina Fey who will play her daughter. The film is being directed by Stanley Tucci. Streep has also been cast as Margaret Thatcher in ''The Iron Lady'', a look at the Prime Minister during the Falklands War and her years in retirement.

Accents and dialects

Streep is well known for her ability to imitate foreign and domestic accents, from Danish in ''Out of Africa'' and Italian in ''The Bridges of Madison County'' to a Midwestern dialect in ''A Prairie Home Companion''. In ''A Cry in the Dark'' she colored Australian English with New Zealand tonalities. For her role in the film ''Sophie's Choice'', she took a language course in Polish for four months, so as to interpret a young Pole perfectly. Despite the accolades accorded to her, Streep has responded to praise with the assertion that adopting accents is an element she simply considers an obvious part of her task in creating characters. When asked whether accents help her get into character, she responded, 'I'm always baffled by this question... How could I play that part and talk like me?' When questioned as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied, 'I listen.'

Theatre

In New York City, she appeared in the 1976 Broadway double bill of Tennessee Williams' ''27 Wagons Full of Cotton'' and Arthur Miller's ''A Memory of Two Mondays''. For the former, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her other early Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's ''The Cherry Orchard'' and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical ''Happy End'' in which she originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Once Streep's film career flourished, she took a long break from stage acting.

In July 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in the Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's ''The Seagull''. The staging, directed by Mike Nichols, also featured Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Goodman.

In August and September 2006, she starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The Public Theater production was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner (''Angels in America''), with songs in the Weill/Brecht style written by composer Jeanine Tesori (''Caroline, or Change''); veteran director George C. Wolfe was at the helm. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton in this three-and-a-half-hour play in which she sang and appeared in almost every scene.

Music

After appearing in ''Mamma Mia!'', Streep's rendition of the song "Mamma Mia" rose to popularity in the Portuguese music charts, where it peaked at #8 in October 2008.

At the 35th People's Choice Awards, her version of ''Mamma Mia'' won an award for "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack". In 2008, Streep was nominated for a Grammy Award (her fifth nomination) for her work on the ''Mamma Mia!'' soundtrack.

Personal life

Meryl Streep was engaged to actor John Cazale until his death in March 1978. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer on September 15, 1978. They have four children: Henry "Hank" Wolfe Gummer (born November 13, 1979), Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born May 9, 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born June 12, 1991). Both Mamie and Grace are actresses. Hank is a musician who performs under the name Henry Wolfe.

When asked if religion plays a part in her life in an interview in 2009, Streep replied, "I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram."

Awards

Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated sixteen times since her first nomination in 1979 for ''The Deer Hunter'' (thirteen for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress). Streep is also the most-nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (with 25 nominations) and, with her overall seventh win for ''Julie & Julia'' in 2010, has won the most Golden Globes (excluding special awards).

In 1998, Women in Film awarded Streep with the Crystal Award for outstanding women who have helped expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

In 2003, Streep was awarded an honorary César Award by the French ''Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.'' In 2004, at the Moscow International Film Festival, Streep was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school. Also in 2004, Streep received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Princeton University. In 2010, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Harvard University.

Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, and May 27, 2004 was proclaimed "Meryl Streep Day" by Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

Filmography

See also

List of people from New Jersey

List of American actresses

References

Bibliography

Napoleon, Davi (1991). ''Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater.'' Includes discussion of Streep's performance in Robert Kalfin's production of ''Happy End'' at the Chelsea Theater and on Broadway. Iowa State University Press. ISBN-0-8138-1713-7.

''Finding Herself: The Prime of Meryl Streep'' by Molly Haskell, ''Film Comment'', May/June 2008.

External links

merylstreeponline.net, Streep's official website

Meryl Streep at BAFTA forty-minute webcast, January 2009

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Coordinates	51°43′35″N20°27′45″N
name	David Crowder Band
background	group_or_band
origin	Waco, Texas, United States
genre	Christian rockElectronic rockWorship
years active	1996–present
label	sixstepsrecords
website
current members	David CrowderJack ParkerB-WackMike DHoganMark Waldrop
past members	Robert RocheJason SolleyTaylor Johnson
notable instruments	BanjoTurntableElectric violinKeytarGuitar Hero ControllerThereminUkuleleSteve 3P0 (drumming robot) }}

The David Crowder Band (marketed as David Crowder*Band) is a six-piece Christian Modern Worship band from Waco, Texas.

Band history

The band began when David Crowder, from Texarkana, Texas, realized that almost half of the students at Baylor University were not attending church. Finding this very surprising, since it is a Christian university, he and Chris Seay started University Baptist Church (Waco, Texas) in 1995 while he was still a student. Crowder led worship there and continued to do so throughout the year. The church's congregation grew, as did the band's lineup.

Crowder began writing songs to incorporate into the worship times at the church and eventually the church released an independent CD, ''Pour Over Me'', followed by ''All I Can Say'' in 1999. These CDs brought the band to a wider audience and invitations to festivals and events followed. The band was signed to sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records and has released six more albums to date (see discography). The band tours the United States continuously, but make it back to their home church in Waco, Texas relatively often. It has been said that Kyle Lake, University Baptist Church's former pastor and also longtime friend of the band, had a strong influence on the band's music in terms of content and inspiration both during his life and after his death.

With their September 2005 release, ''A Collision'', David Crowder Band explored a new realm of musical diversity. The album houses a mix of bluegrass, folk, alternative, and worship, woven together with a touch of electronic ambience. This release landed them the No. 2 spot on the iTunes Music Store and the No. 39 spot on Billboard 200 only one day after its release.

On the same day as the release of ''A Collision'', their song "Turkish Delight" was released on the ''Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia'' compilation CD. This song, which is a reference to the magical Turkish Delight in C. S. Lewis's book ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', has an old-school disco feel.

On March 19, 2007, the band officially started recording its album titled ''Remedy''; the band also revealed the album's website, http://www.remedyiscoming.com/, which allows fans to follow the band via live webcams, and discover more about the album. Famously controversial rock musician Ted Nugent made a special guest appearance on the album, on the song "We Won't Be Quiet". ''Remedy'' was released on September 25, 2007. The day after its release, it reached No. 4 on the iTunes Music Store.

On July 16, 2008, the band announced via its website that it would be releasing a brand new live album and DVD set on August 19, 2008. The title was announced as being ''Remedy Club Tour - Live'', and the cover art was released along with a trailer for the DVD.

On David Crowder's Xanga entry from January 31, 2009, he mentioned the preproduction of the band's next studio album. On Mike Hogan's MySpace entry from March 4, 2009, he confirmed that actual recording and production had commenced and provided directions for getting to the live webcam feed, which is in a page simply titled "Church Music". This is the name of the new album, released on September 22, 2009. The first single off the album is a cover of John Mark McMillan's song "How He Loves".

The band hosted Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference September 30 through October 2, 2010 at Baylor University in Waco, TX. Other presenters at the conference included Louie Giglio, Rob Bell, Israel Houghton, Hillsong London, Matt Redman, Jars of Clay, Matt Maher, Leeland, David Dark, Gungor, Derek Webb and others.

On February 5, 2011 the band announced the official start to recording of a new album.

The band often incorporates unconventional instruments and elements into their music, such as making use of Smule's "I Am T-Pain" iPhone app.

On July 21, 2011 the band announced that a Christmas album, ''Oh For Joy'', would be released on October 4, 2011.

Disbanding

On May 21, 2011, the band announced through their website that the band will end after the completion of the Fall 2011 "The 7 Tour" and the release of their sixth album. David said that "For a long while, we have had a good idea what we were going to do for album number 6; we were going to record a 'Mass'... Fittingly enough, it seems our little 'Mass' has turned itself into a 'Requiem.'"

Members

Current members

David Crowder – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, programming, theremin, keytar, electric guitar

Jack Parker – electric guitar, background vocals, Rhodes piano, mandolin, and banjo

Mike Dodson – bass guitar, keyboard, cello,

Mike Hogan – violin/strings, turntables, guitar, keyboard

Jeremy Bush (aka "B-Wack") - drums, percussion, bells, programming

Mark Waldrop – electric guitar

Former members

Robert Roche – hand percussion (1996–1998)

Jason Solley – electric guitar, background vocals and mandolin (1996–2006)

Taylor Johnson – electric guitar, mandolin (2006–2007)

Discography

;Albums

''Pour Over Me'' (1998)

''All I Can Say'' (1999)

''Can You Hear Us?'' (2002)

''Illuminate'' (2003) U.S. No. 84

''A Collision'' (2005) U.S. No. 39

''Remedy'' (2007) U.S. No. 22

''Remedy Limited Edition'' (2008)

''Remedy Club Tour – Live'' (2008) U.S. No. 88

''Church Music'' (2009) U.S. No. 11

''Requiem'' (2011)

''Oh For Joy'' (2011)

;EPs

''The Lime CD'' (2004)

''Sunsets & Sushi'' (2005)

''B Collision'' (2006) U.S. No. 118

''Summer Happiness'' (2010)

Collaboration

''Thoughts of You'' - Robbie Seay (2000)

''Passion: The Road to One Day'' - Passion Worship Band (2000)

''Our Love is Loud'' - Passion Worship Band (live, 2002)

''Sacred Revolution'' - Passion Worship Band (live, 2003)

''Passion: Hymns Ancient and Modern'' - Passion Worship Band (2004)

''How Great Is Our God'' - Passion Worship Band (live, 2005)

''Live from Austin Music Hall'' - Chris Tomlin (live, 2005)

''Everything Glorious'' - Passion Worship Band (live, 2006)

''Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia'' (2005)

''Ultimate Music Makeover: Michael W. Smith'' (compilation, 2005)

''X Worship 2006'' (compilation, 2005)

''X Worship 2007'' (compilation, 2006)

''When the Storm Comes'' - Minister RMB (When the Storm Comes, 2006)

''WOW Christmas: Green'' (compilation, Christmas)

''Music Inspired By the Motion Picture Amazing Grace'' (compilation, 2007, Sparrow Records)

''Glory Revealed'' (compilation by Mac Powell, 2007)

''Passion: Live from Passion07, Part 2'' - Passion Worship Band (2007)

''God of This City'' - Passion Worship Band (2008)

''Passion: Awakening'' - Passion Worship Band (2010)

''The Shelter'' - Jars of Clay (2010) – on song "Lay It Down"

''Passion: Here for You'' - Passion Worship Band (2011)

'Seven Swans Reimagined'' (compilation, 2011)

The band also created the theme music for Dr. James MacDonald's radio program ''Walk in the Word''.

Awards

;GMA Dove Awards

Year	! Award	! Result
!rowspan="3"	Group of the Year
Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year ("Here is Our King")
Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year (''A Collision'')
!rowspan="1"	Group of the Year
!rowspan="7"	Group of the Year
Worship Song of the Year ("Everything Glorious")
Praise & Worship Album of the Year (''Remedy'')
Recorded Music Packaging of the Year (''Remedy'')
Short Form Music Video of the Year ("Foreverandever, etc.")
!rowspan="2"	Group of the Year
!rowspan="3"
Praise & Worship Album of the Year (''Church Music'')
!rowspan="1"	Short Form Music Video of the Year ("SMS (Shine)")

David Crowder Band is also featured in other compilation albums that were either nominated or won Dove Awards for Special Event Album of the Year:

2006: Special Event Album of the Year - ''Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia''

2007: Special Event Album of the Year - ''Passion: Everything Glorious''

2009: Special Event Album of the Year - ''Passion: God of This City''

Grammy Awards

David Crowder Band was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: ''Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album'' - ''Church Music''

Others

The band was named MSN's Artist of the Month for July 2006, and later won Artist of the Year for 2006.

Books

David Crowder has authored two books:

David Crowder, ''Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi'', NavPress, 2005.

David Crowder with Mike Hogan, ''Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die or (The Eschatology of Bluegrass)'', Relevant Books, 2006.

Name

Prior to the album ''Church Music'', the band preferred not to be referred to as "''The'' David Crowder Band". They explained that they preferred to omit the article, and stated that they "may revisit this issue if other groups named 'David Crowder Band' begin performing," and may in fact, should that eventuality occur, insert "The Original" in front of the band's present appellation. As of the release of ''Church Music'', however, the band has begun referring to themselves using the article, and explained "we’ve been at for a while now without incident, so we felt justified in its formal inclusion."

The band's name is sometimes rendered with an asterisk, as "David Crowder*Band". In a faux-documentary while recording ''Church Music'', Crowder mentioned that the asterisk meant, "David Crowder [is about to go insane because Jack Parker continually tries to sabotage the work of the rest of the] band."

References

External links

David Crowder Band official website

University Baptist Church

Christian Music Today interview - 11/07

Christian Music Today interview - 04/06

Christian Music Today interview - 10/02

Home.FM Radio Interview with David Crowder by Adam & Ben on Mornings at Home

Gospel Music Channel Interview with David Crowder by Alicia Carson

Crowder, David Category:Christian rock groups from Texas Category:Contemporary worship music

pl:David Crowder Band pt:David Crowder Band

Coordinates	51°43′35″N20°27′45″N
name	Leonard Cohen
background	solo_singer
birth name	Leonard Norman Cohen
born	September 21, 1934Montreal, Quebec, Canada
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, synthesizer
genre	Folk, folk rock, rock, spoken word
occupation	Musician, songwriter, poet, novelist
years active	1956 - present
label	Columbia
associated acts	}}

Leonard Norman Cohen, (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.

Musically, Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1967 album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'') were rooted in European folk music. In the 1970s, his material encompassed pop, cabaret and world music. Since the 1980s, his high baritone voice has dipped into lower registers (bass baritone and bass), with accompaniment from a wide variety of instruments and female backup singers.

Over 2,000 renditions of Cohen's songs have been recorded. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."

From May 2008 to December 2010, Cohen was on the major comeback world tour, the biggest in his musical career, giving 246 shows in Europe, Australia, Canada, Israel and United States. The highly successful tour was followed with two live albums, ''Live in London'' and ''Songs from the Road'' in both audio and DVD versions, and with many reissues, unauthorised releases of album compilations, DVDs, biographies and books reprints, and as well many international translations of his books and international awards and nominations (such as Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Meteor Music Awards in Ireland, Porin Award in Croatia, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Polaris Music Prize, and Mojo Honours Lists). In 2011 he received the Glenn Gould Prize and Spain's Prince of Asturias award. Currently he is working on a new album which will possibly be released in late 2011.

Early life

Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. His mother, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Herzliah High School, where he studied with poet Irving Layton. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. His father's will provided him with a modest trust income, sufficient to allow him to pursue his literary ambitions, without having to worry about where his rent would come from.

Poetry and novels

In 1951, Cohen enrolled at McGill University, where he became president of the McGill Debating Union. His literary influences during this time included Yeats, Irving Layton, Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca and Henry Miller. His first published book of poetry, ''Let Us Compare Mythologies'' (1956), was published under Louis Dudek as the first book in the McGill Poetry Series while Cohen was still an undergraduate student. Cohen's book, ''The Spice-Box of Earth'' (1961) made him well known in poetry circles, especially in his native Canada. After completing an undergraduate degree, Cohen spent a term in McGill's law school and then a year (1956-7) at Columbia University.

Cohen wrote poetry and fiction throughout much of the 1960s. He preferred to live in quasi-reclusive circumstances, at the time. After moving to Hydra, a Greek island, Cohen published the poetry collection ''Flowers for Hitler'' (1964), and the novels ''The Favourite Game'' (1963) and ''Beautiful Losers'' (1966). His novel ''The Favourite Game'' is an autobiographical ''bildungsroman'' about a young man who discovers his identity through writing.

Subsequently, Cohen published less, with major gaps, concentrating more on recording the songs. In 1978 he published his major book of poetry and prose ''Death of a Lady's Man'', and in 1984 ''Book of Mercy'', which won him Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry. The book contains 50 pieces of poetic prose, influenced by the Bible, Torah, and Zen-Buddhist writings. Although cited as "contemporary psalms", Cohen himself referred to the pieces as "prayers".

In 1993, Cohen published ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs'', and in 2006, after 10 years of delays, additions and rewritings, ''Book of Longing''. During late 1990s and 2000s, many of his poems were first published on his fan website The Leonard Cohen Files

Cohen's writing process, as he told an interviewer in 1998, is "...like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it."

In 2011 Cohen was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for literature.

Recording career

1960s and 1970s

In 1967, Cohen moved to the United States to pursue a career as a folk music singer-songwriter. During the 1960s, he was a fringe figure in Andy Warhol's "Factory" crowd. Warhol speculated that Cohen had spent time listening to Nico in clubs and that this had influenced his musical style. His song "Suzanne" became a hit for Judy Collins and was for many years his most covered song. After performing at a few folk festivals, he came to the attention of Columbia Records representative John H. Hammond. At this time, Cohen recorded at least one demo acetate (for Asylum Records or some subsidiary of Polygram), supported by his close companion at the time, Joni Mitchell.

Cohen's first album was ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'' (1967). He became a cult name in the U.S., as well as in the UK, where the album spent over a year on the album charts. Several of the songs on that first album were covered by other popular folk artists, including James Taylor, and Judy Collins. Cohen followed up that first album with ''Songs from a Room'' (1969) (featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire") and ''Songs of Love and Hate'' (1970). John Simon produced Cohen's first album, ''Songs of Leonard Cohen'', but his second and third albums were produced in Nashville by famed producer Bob Johnston, who played a major role in achieving Cohen's spare early sound and also joined Cohen on two subsequent live tours (playing organ and piano).

In 1970, Cohen toured for the first time, with dates in the United States, Canada and Europe, and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. He toured again in Europe and Israel in 1972 with some of the same bandmates, including Charlie Daniels and his producer Bob Johnston. Both tours were represented on the ''Live Songs'' LP, while ''Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970'' was released in 2009. The 1972 tour was also filmed by Tony Palmer; the film ''Bird on a Wire'' (with which Cohen was unhappy) was shown re-cut under Cohen's guidance in 1974, but released only in 2010, reconstructed according to Palmer's original version.

In 1971, Cohen's music was used in the soundtrack to Robert Altman's film ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller''. When Cohen was on a stay in Nashville, Altman phoned to ask permission to use some tracks off ''Songs of Leonard Cohen''. Coincidentally, earlier that same day, Cohen had seen Altman's then-current film ''Brewster McCloud'' in a local theater. He hadn't paid attention to the credits so when Altman asked permission to use Cohen's songs in his new film, Cohen had to ask him who he was. Altman mentioned his hit film ''MASH'', but Cohen had never heard of it. When Altman mentioned his lesser-known ''Brewster McCloud'', Cohen replied, "Listen, I just came out of the theater. I saw it twice. You can have anything of mine you want!"

Beginning around 1974, Cohen's collaboration with pianist and arranger John Lissauer created a live sound praised by the critics. They toured together in 1974 in Europe, and in US and Canada in late 1974 and early 1975, in support of their record ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony''. In late 1975 Cohen performed a short series of show in the U.S. and Canada with new band, in support of his ''Best Of'' release, and also tried out the new songs from his and Lissauer's follow-up to ''New Skin for the Old Ceremony'', an abandoned album entitled "Songs for Rebecca". Songs from that project were later reworked for ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' and ''Recent Songs'' albums. None of the recordings from the three live tours with John Lissauer were ever officially released.

In 1976 Cohen, now without Lissauer, embarked on a new major European tour, with a new band and major changes in his sound and arrangements, again, in support of his ''The Best of Leonard Cohen'' release (in Europe retitled as ''Greatest Hits''). One of the band members was Laura Branigan, and the setlist included unreleased songs "Everybody's Child" (a.k.a. "Blessed Is the Memory") and "Storeroom" (both released as bonus tracks to 2007 reissue of ''Songs of Leonard Cohen''), and the new song "Do I Have to Dance All Night?", which remains unreleased. From April to July, Cohen gave 55 shows, including his first appearance at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival.

After the European tour of 1976, Cohen again attempted a new change in his style and arrangements - his new 1977 record, ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' (one year later, in 1978, Cohen also released a volume of poetry with the coyly revised title, ''Death of a Lady's Man''), was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, known as the inventor of the "wall of sound" technique, which backs up pop music with many layers of instrumentation, an approach very different from Cohen's usually minimalist instrumentation. The recording of the album was fraught with difficulty—Spector reportedly mixed the album in secret studio sessions, and Cohen said Spector once threatened him with a crossbow. Cohen thought the end result "grotesque," but also "semi-virtuous." The record was released by Spector's label, Warner, and was returned to Columbia's Cohen catalogue in late 1980s. Cohen did not take part in the album's promotion, but in his tours of 1979, 1980 and 1985, he performed two songs from the album, "Memories" and "Iodine". However, Cohen chose not to include any of the album's songs on his later compilations ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'' and ''The Essential Leonard Cohen''.

In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional ''Recent Songs'', which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. Beginning with this record, praised in 2001 by Cohen as his favourite, Cohen began to co-produce his albums. Produced by Cohen and Henry Lewy (Joni Mitchell's sound engineer), ''Recent Songs'' included performances by Austin-based jazz-fusion band Passenger whom were introduced to Cohen by Mitchell. The band helped Cohen create a new sound by featuring instruments like the oud, the Gypsy violin and the mandolin. The album was supported by Cohen's major tour with the new band, and Jennifer Warnes and Sharon Robinson on the backing vocals, in Europe in late 1979, and again in Australia, Israel and Europe in 1980. The tour was filmed by Harry Rasky as ''The Song of Leonard Cohen'', and the film was broadcast on television in 1980. Cohen also gave couple of major TV appearances in 1979, including German's ZDF television. In 2000 Columbia released an album of live recordings of songs from the 1979 tour, entitled ''Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979''; the album (with different track list) was originally rejected by the label in 1980.

During 1970s, Cohen toured twice with Jennifer Warnes as a back-up singer (in 1972 and 1979). Warnes would become a fixture on Cohen's future albums, receiving full co-vocals credit on Cohen's 1985 album ''Various Positions'' (although the record was released under Cohen's name, the inside credits say "Vocals by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes"). In 1987, she recorded an album of Cohen songs, ''Famous Blue Raincoat''.

1980s

In early 1980s, Cohen co-wrote the rock musical film ''Night Magic'' with Lewis Furey, starring Carole Laure and Nick Mancuso (voice-over by Furey); the LP was released in 1985. At that time, Cohen also worked on an unfinished album of his poetry recitations with producer Henry Lewy, before turning back to John Lissauer. Lissauer produced Cohen's next record ''Various Positions,'' which was released in late 1984. The LP included "Dance Me to the End of Love", which was promoted by Cohen's first video clip, directed by French photographer Dominique Issermann, and the frequently covered "Hallelujah". Columbia declined to release the album in the United States. Cohen supported the release of the album with his biggest tour to date, in Europe and Australia, and with his first tour in Canada and United States since 1975. Anjani Thomas, who would become Cohen's partner, and a regular member of Cohen's recording team, joined his touring band. The band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Roskilde Festival. They also gave a series of highly emotional and politically controversial concerts in Poland, which was under the martial law and Cohen's song "The Partisan" regarded as the hymn of Solidarity movement and Lech Wałęsa's favourite Cohen song. During the 80s, almost all Cohen's songs were performed in Polish language by Maciej Zembaty.

In 1986, Cohen appeared in the episode "French Twist" of the TV series ''Miami Vice.'' In 1987, Jennifer Warnes's tribute album ''Famous Blue Raincoat'' helped restore Cohen's career in the U.S. The following year he released ''I'm Your Man,'' which marked a drastic change in his music. Synthesizers ruled the album and Cohen's lyrics included more social commentary and dark humor. The album, self-produced by Cohen, remains one of Cohen's most acclaimed albums, and was promoted by iconic black and white video shot by Dominique Issermann at the beach of Normandy. Cohen supported the record with series of television interviews, and an extensive tour of Europe, Canada and US. Many shows were broadcast on European and US television and radio stations, while Cohen performed for the first time in his career on PBS's Austin City Limits show; he also performed at the Roskilde Festival again, among other dates. The tour gave the basic structure to typical Cohen's concert which he used in his tours in 1993, 2008–09 and 2010. The selection of performances from the late 1980s was released in 1994 on ''Cohen Live''. None of the concerts was released in its entirety, although some were bootlegged. Parts of one of three Royal Albert Hall concerts were used in BBC documentary ''The Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen'', which was released on laser disc and video tape.

1990s

The use of the album track "Everybody Knows" (co-written by Sharon Robinson) in the 1990 film ''Pump Up the Volume'' helped expose Cohen's music to a younger audience. The song also featured prominently in fellow Canadian Atom Egoyan's 1994 film, ''Exotica''. In 1992, Cohen released ''The Future'', which urges (often in terms of biblical prophecy) perseverance, reformation, and hope in the face of grim prospects. Three tracks from the album - "Waiting for the Miracle", "The Future" and "Anthem" - were featured in the movie ''Natural Born Killers'', which helped Cohen to reach new US audience.

As with ''I'm Your Man'', the lyrics on the ''The Future'' were dark, and made references to political and social unrest. The title track is reportedly a response to the L.A. unrest of 1992. Cohen promoted the album with two music videos, for "Closing Time" and "The Future", and supported the release with the major tour through Europe, United States and Canada, with the same band as in his 1988 tour, including a second appearance at the PBS's Austin City Limits. Some of the Scandinavian shows were broadcast live on the radio. The selection of performances, mostly recorded on the Canadian leg of the tour, was released on 1994 ''Cohen Live'' album, but none of the new songs from the album itself were included in the live album.

In 1993 Cohen also published his book of selected poems and songs, ''Stranger Music'', on which he had worked since 1989. It includes a number of new poems from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1997, Cohen oversaw the selection and release of ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'' album, which included a previously unreleased track, "Never Any Good", and an experimental piece "The Great Event". The first was left over from Cohen's unfinished mid-1990s album, which was announced to include songs like "In My Secret Life" (already recited as song-in-progress in 1988) and "A Thousand Kisses Deep", both later re-worked with Sharon Robinson for 2001 album ''Ten New Songs''.

In 1994, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles, beginning what became five years of seclusion at the center. In 1996, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and took the Dharma name ''Jikan'', meaning "silence". He served as personal assistant to Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Japanese songwriter and poet Masato Tomobe stated he admires Cohen and this made him better recognized in Japan around this time.

Although around 2000 there was a public impression that Cohen would not resume recording or publishing, he returned to Los Angeles in May 1999. He began to contribute regularly to The Leonard Cohen Files fan website, emailing new poems and drawings from ''Book of Longing'' and early versions of new songs, like "A Thousand Kisses Deep" in September 1998 and Anjani Thomas's story sent on May 6, 1999, the day they were recording "Villanelle for our Time" (released on 2004 ''Dear Heather'' album). The section of The Leonard Cohen Files with Cohen's online writings has been titled "The Blackening Pages".

Cohen is mentioned in the Nirvana song "Pennyroyal Tea" from the band's 1993 release, ''In Utero''. Kurt Cobain wrote, "Give me Leonard Cohen afterworld/ So I can sigh eternally." Cohen, after Cobain's suicide, was quoted as saying "I'm sorry I couldn't have spoken to the young man. I see a lot of people at the Zen Centre, who have gone through drugs and found a way out that is not just Sunday school. There are always alternatives, and I might have been able to lay something on him."

2000s

Post-monastery records: ''Ten New Songs'', ''Dear Heather'' and Anjani's ''Blue Alert''

After two years of production, Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of ''Ten New Songs'', featuring a heavy influence from producer and co-composer Sharon Robinson. The album, recorded at Cohen's and Robinson's home studios, includes the song "Alexandra Leaving", a transformation of the poem "The God Abandons Antony", by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. The album was a major hit for Cohen in Canada and Europe, and he supported it with the hit single "In My Secret Life" and accompanying video shot by Floria Sigismondi.

In October 2004, Cohen released ''Dear Heather'', largely a musical collaboration with jazz chanteuse (and current romantic partner) Anjani Thomas, although Sharon Robinson returned to collaborate on three tracks (including a duet). As light as the previous album was dark, ''Dear Heather'' reflects Cohen's own change of mood - he has said in a number of interviews that his depression has lifted in recent years, which he attributed to Zen Buddhism. In an interview following his induction into the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, Cohen explained that the album was intended to be a kind of notebook or scrapbook of themes, and that a more formal record had been planned for release shortly afterwards, but that this was put on ice by his legal battles with his ex-manager. He decided not to promote the album at all, but in 2005 he released a home video accompanying the song "Because Of", shot by his daughter Lorca Cohen, while there were no official album singles.

''Blue Alert'', an album of songs co-written by Anjani and Cohen, was released on 23 May 2006 to positive reviews. Sung by Anjani, who according to one reviewer "...sounds like Cohen reincarnated as woman...though Cohen doesn't sing a note on the album, his voice permeates it like smoke." The album includes a recent musical setting of Cohen's "As the mist leaves no scar", a poem originally published in ''The Spice-Box of Earth'' in 1961 and adapted by Phil Spector as "True Love Leaves No Traces" on ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' album. ''Blue Alert'' also included Anjani's own version of "Nightingale", performed by her and Cohen on his ''Dear Heather'', as well the country song "Never Got to Love You", apparently made after an early demo version of Cohen's own 1992 song "Closing Time". In his 2010 shows, Cohen closed the performances with performances of "Closing Time" which included the recitation of verses from "Never Got to Love You". The title song, "Blue Alert", and "Half the Perfect World" were covered by Madeleine Peyroux on her 2006 album ''Half the Perfect World'', while the third covered song, "Crazy To Love You", was included in the albums Japanese edition.

Before embarking on his 2008-2010 world tour, and without finishing the new album which has been in work since 2006 (new song, "The Street", was recited by Cohen in 2006 on KCRW radio, and he also played two new songs from demo tape, "Book of Longing" and "Puppets"), Cohen contributed few tracks to other artists' albums - new version of his own "Tower of Song" was performed by him, Anjani Thomas and U2 in 2006 tribute film ''Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man'' (the video and track were included on the film's soundtrack and released as B-side of U2's single "Window in the Skies", reaching No 1 in Canadian Singles Chart), in 2007 he recited "The Sound of Silence" on album ''Tribute to Paul Simon: Take Me to the Mardi Gras'' and "The Jungle Line" by Joni Mitchell, accompanied by Herbie Hancock on piano, on Hancock's Grammy-winning album ''River: The Joni Letters'', while in 2008 he recited the poem "Since You've Asked" on album ''Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins''.

2005 bankruptcy

On 8 October 2005, Cohen alleged that his longtime former manager, Kelley Lynch, misappropriated over US $5 million from Cohen's retirement fund leaving only $150,000. Cohen was sued in turn by other former business associates. These events placed him in the public spotlight, including a cover feature on him with the headline "Devastated!" in Canada's ''Maclean's'' magazine. In March 2006, Cohen won the civil suit and was awarded US $9 million by a Los Angeles County superior court. Lynch, however, ignored the suit and did not respond to a subpoena issued for her financial records. As a result it has been widely reported that Cohen may never be able to collect the awarded amount. In 2007, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock dismissed a claim by Cohen for more than US $4.5 million against Colorado investment firm Agile Group, and in 2008 he dismissed a defamation suit that Agile Group filed against Cohen. Cohen has been under new management since April 2005.

''Book of Longing''

Cohen's book of poetry and drawings, ''Book of Longing'', was published in May 2006; in March a Toronto-based retailer offered signed copies to the first 1500 orders placed online. All 1500 sold within hours. The book quickly topped bestseller lists in Canada. Around the time of the release, RJ Smith wrote an essay about Cohen in ''Poetry'' magazine, in which he noted, "The pieces in ''Book of Longing'' are casual, but never so casual that the old horndog doesn’t have muscle or bite." On 13 May 2006, Cohen made his first public appearance in thirteen years, at an in-store event at a bookstore in Toronto. Approximately 3000 people turned up for the event, causing the streets surrounding the bookstore to be closed. He sang two of his earliest and best-known songs: "So Long, Marianne" and "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye", accompanied by the Barenaked Ladies and Ron Sexsmith. Also appearing with him was Anjani, the two promoting her new CD along with his book.

In 2006, Philip Glass composed music to Cohen's 2006 book of poetry ''Book of Longing''. Following the series of live performances which included Glass on keyboards, Cohen's recorded spoken text, four voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone), and other instruments, and as well the screenings of Cohen's artworks and drawings, Glass' label Orange Mountain Music released a double CD with the recording of the work, entitled ''Book of Longing. A Song Cycle based on the Poetry and Artwork of Leonard Cohen''.

2008-2010 World Tour

2008 tour

13 January 2008, Cohen quietly announced a long-anticipated concert tour. The tour, Cohen's first in 15 years, began 11 May in Fredericton, NB to wide critical acclaim, and was extended until Winter of 2010. The schedule of the first leg in Summer of 2008 encompassed Canada and Europe, including performances at The Big Chill, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and on the Pyramid Stage at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival on 29 June 2008. His performance at Glastonbury was hailed by many as the highlight of the festival, and his performance of "Hallelujah" as the sun went down received a rapturous reception and a lengthy ovation from a packed Pyramid Stage field. He also played two shows in London's O2 Arena, and in Dublin he gave a "milestone concert", while in Dublin he was the first performer to play an open air concert at IMMA (Royal Hospital Kilmainham) ground, performing there on June 13, 14, and 15 2008. In 2009, the performances were awarded Ireland's Meteor Music Award as the best international performance of the year.

In September, October and November 2008, Cohen gave a marathon tour of Europe, including stops in Austria, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia. In London, he played two more shows at the O2 Arena and two additional shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

''Live in London''

On 21 March 2009, Cohen released ''Live in London'', recorded on 17 July 2008 at London's O2 Arena and released on DVD and as a two-CD set. The album contains 25 songs and is over two-and-a-half hours long. It was the first official DVD in Cohen's recording career. The quotation on the album referred to one hundred five-star reviews the tour gained in the international press in 2008.

2009 tour

The third leg of Cohen's World Tour 2008-2009 encompassed New Zealand and Australia from 20 January to 10 February 2009. In January 2009, The Pacific Tour first came to New Zealand. Simon Sweetman in The Dominion Post (Wellington) of 21 January wrote "It is hard work having to put this concert in to words so I'll just say something I have never said in a review before and will never say again: this was the best show I have ever seen." The Sydney Entertainment Centre show on 28 January sold out rapidly, which motivated promoters to announce a second show at the venue. The first performance was well-received, and the audience of 12,000 responded with five standing ovations. In response to hearing about the devastation to the Yarra Valley region of Victoria in Australia, Cohen donated $200,000 to the Victorian Bushfire Appeal in support of those affected by the extensive Black Saturday bushfires that razed the area just weeks after his performance at the Rochford Winery in the ''A Day on the Green'' concert. Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper reported: "Tour promoter Frontier Touring said $200,000 would be donated on behalf of Cohen, fellow performer Paul Kelly and Frontier to aid victims of the bushfires."

On 19 February 2009, Cohen played his first American concert in fifteen years at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The show, showcased as the special performance for fans, Leonard Cohen Forum members and press, was the only show in the whole three-year tour which was broadcast on the radio (NPR) and available as the free podcast.

The North American Tour of 2009 opened on 1 April and included the performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, 17 April 2009, in front of one of the largest outdoor theatre crowds in the history of the festival. His performance of ''Hallelujah'' was widely regarded as one of the highlights of the festival, thus repeating the major success of the 2008 Glastonbury appearance. The performance has been included on 2010 ''Songs from the Road'' live release. During this leg, Cohen regularly performed new song, "Lullaby".

On 1 July 2009, Cohen started his marathon European tour, his third in two years. The itinerary mostly included sport arenas and open air Summer festivals in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Ireland (the show at O2 in Dublin won him the second Meteor Music Award in a row), but also performances in Serbia in the Belgrade Arena, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, and again in Romania. On 3 August, Cohen gave an open air show at the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

On 18 September 2009, on the stage at a concert in Valencia, Spain, Cohen suddenly fainted halfway through performing his song "Bird on the Wire", the fourth in the two-act set list; Cohen was brought down backstage by his band members and then admitted to local hospital, while the concert was suspended. It was reported that Cohen had stomach problems, and possibly food poisoning. Three days later, on September 21, on his 75th birthday, he performed in Barcelona. The show, last in Europe in 2009 and rumoured to be the last European concert ever, attracted many international fans, who lighted the green candles honouring Cohen's birthday, leading Cohen to give a special speech of thanks for the fans and Leonard Cohen Forum.

The most controversial concert during the whole tour was the last concert of this leg, held in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 24, three days after Cohen's 75th birthday, at Ramat Gan Stadium. The event was surrounded by public discussion due to a cultural boycott of Israel proposed by a number of musicians. Nevertheless, tickets for the Tel Aviv concert, Cohen's first performance in Israel since 1980, sold out in less than 24 hours. It was announced that the proceeds from the sale of the 47,000 tickets would go into a charitable fund in partnership with Amnesty International and would be used by Israeli and Palestinian peace groups for projects providing health services to children and bringing together Israeli veterans and former Palestinian fighters and the families of those killed in the conflict. However, on 17 August 2009, Amnesty International released a statement saying they were withdrawing from any involvement with the concert and its proceeds. Amnesty International later stated that its withdrawal was not due to the boycott but "the lack of support from Israeli and Palestinian NGOs." The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) led the call for the boycott, claiming that Cohen was "intent on whitewashing Israel's colonial apartheid regime by performing in Israel." On 24 September at the Ramat Gan concert, Cohen was highly emotional about the Israeli-Palestinian NGO Bereaved Families for Peace. He mentioned the organization twice, saying "It was a while ago that I first heard of the work of the 'Bereaved Parents for Peace'. That there was this coalition of Palestinian and Israeli families who had lost so much in the conflict and whose depth of suffering had compelled them to reach across the border into the houses of the enemy. Into the houses of those, to locate them who had suffered as much as they had, and then to stand with them in aching confraternity, a witness to an understanding that is beyond peace and that is beyond confrontation. So, this is not about forgiving and forgetting, this is not about laying down one's arms in a time of war, this is not even about peace, although, God willing, it could be a beginning. This is about a response to human grief. A radical, unique and holy, holy, holy response to human suffering. Baruch Hashem, thank God, I bow my head in respect to the nobility of this enterprise." At the end of the show he blessed the crowd by the Priestly Blessing, a Jewish blessing offered by Kohanim. Cohen's surname derives from this Hebrew word for priest, thus identifying him as a Kohen.

The sixth leg of the 2008-2009 world tour went again to US, with fifteen shows in October and November, with the "final" show in San Jose. The final leg included two new songs, "Feels So Good" and "The Darkness". But at that point, Cohen's "World Tour 2010" was already announced with the European dates in March.

The 2009 world tour earned a reported $9.5 million, putting Cohen at number 39 on ''Billboard'' magazine's list of the year's top musical "money makers."

Live releases

On 14 September 2010, Sony Music released a live CD/DVD album, ''Songs from the Road'', showcasing Cohen's 2008 and 2009 live performances. The previous year, Cohen's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Music Festival was released as a CD/DVD combo. The DVD version included interviews with Kris Kristofferson and others.

2010 tour

Cohen's 2008-2009 world tour was prolonged into 2010. Originally scheduled to start in March, the first dozen of the original European dates were postponed to September and October due to Cohen's lower-back injury. Officially billed as the "World Tour 2010", the tour started on 25 July 2010 in Arena Zagreb, Croatia, where in the week of the show 16 of Cohen's albums simultaneously entered the Croatian Top 40, while Cohen's work was presented by the translation of ''Book of Mercy'', two of Cohen's biographies, and with selection of poems in major literary magazine ''Quorum'', while there was also the translation of Linda Hutcheon's work on Cohen's literary output. In December 2010, the national daily newspaper ''Vjesnik'' ranked Cohen's show among the five most important cultural event in Croatia in 2010, in the poll among dozen of intellectuals and writers; it was the only event ranked which was not actually Croatian. The tour continued through August, with stops in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland, where on 31 July 2010 Cohen performed at Lissadell House in County Sligo. It was Cohen’s eighth Irish concert in just two years after a hiatus of more than 20 years. On 12 August, Cohen played the 200th show of the tour in Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden, where he had already played in October 2008; the show was four hours long.

The Fall leg of the European tour started in early September with an open-air show in Florence, Italy, and continued through Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria, where Cohen performed at the famous open-air opera stage of Römersteinbruch bei St. Margarethen im Burgenland, and then continued with dates in France, Poland, Russia (Moscow's State Kremlin Palace), Slovenia and Slovakia. In Slovenia's brand new Arena Stožice, Cohen accepted Croatia's Porin music award for best foreign live video programme, which he won for his ''Live in London'' DVD. Cohen's last European show was held in Sibamac Arena, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The shows in late September and October were performed without Sharon Robinson, who left this tour leg due to heavy illness; the setlist omitted songs co-written by her, but old Cohen standards were added instead.

The third leg of the 2010 tour started on 28 October in New Zealand and continued in Australia, including an open-air concert at Hanging Rock near Melbourne. It was the first show ever organised at the site. The tour finished with seven special dates added in Vancouver, Portland, Victoria and Oakland, with two final shows in Las Vegas' The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on 10 and 11 December. The very last concert on 11 December was the 246th show on the world tour which started on 11 May 2008.

The world tour 2010 was covered daily on the Flickr photo blog which was edited by Cohen's road manager, entitled Notes from the Road.

2010s

Currently Cohen is recording a new studio album with his touring band and his producer Ed Sanders. The album is expected in 2011 and is supposed to feature four songs performed during the 2009 and 2010 shows: "The Darkness", "Lullaby", "Born in Chains" , and "Feels So Good". Other songs to be included are "Amen" and "The Street". Some of these songs were co-written (and co-produced) with Sharon Robinson and Anjani Thomas. At least one more song has been tried out at the daily soundchecks ("My Oh My"). The first new songs were presented back in 2006, on KCRW radio, where Cohen played two demo tracks, "Book of Longing" and "Puppets".

''Hallelujah''

In 1991, John Cale's cover of this song first appeared on the Leonard Cohen tribute album ''I'm Your Fan''. In 1996, that version also appeared in the independent film ''Basquiat''. John Cale also performed this song in the 2001 Dreamworks movie ''Shrek''. The cover when watching the actual movie was by John Cale, but the original soundtrack for the movie had a Rufus Wainwright version. John Cale's version was also featured on the television series ''Scrubs''.

In 2004, fellow Canadian k.d. lang released the album Hymns of the 49th Parallel which featured Leonard's song Hallelujah. The critically acclaimed album rose to the number 2 position on the Canadian Albums Chart. She subsequently performed the song live, on 12 February 2010, at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

Jeff Buckley recorded one of the best-known versions of "Hallelujah" for his debut album Grace in 1994, to critical acclaim. On 7 March 2008, Jeff Buckley's version of Cohen's "Hallelujah", went to number 1 on the iTunes chart after Jason Castro performed the song on the seventh season of the television series ''American Idol''. Another major boost for Cohen's song exposure came when singer-songwriter Kate Voegele released her version of "Hallelujah" from her 2007 album ''Don't Look Away'' and appeared as a regular character named Mia on season five of the teenage television show ''One Tree Hill''.

In December 2008, two versions of "Hallelujah" placed No. 1 and 2 in the UK Christmas singles chart, with ''X Factor'' winner Alexandra Burke at No. 1 and Jeff Buckley at No. 2, following a campaign by Buckley fans to get his version to no. 1 rather than the ''X Factor'' version. As a result, online downloads of Cohen's original version placed it at No. 36, 24 years after its initial release.

The song was performed on August 27, 2011, in Roy Thompson Hall, Toronto, by Stephen Page, former lead of the "Barenaked Ladies", at the state funeral of Jack Layton, leader of Her Majesty's Opposition in the Parliament of Canada.

Themes

Recurring themes in Cohen's work include love, sex, religion, depression, and music itself. He has also engaged with certain political themes, though sometimes ambiguously so. "Suzanne" mixes a wistful type of love song with a religious meditation, themes that are also mixed in "Joan of Arc". "Famous Blue Raincoat" is from the point of view of a man whose marriage has been broken by his wife's infidelity with his close friend, and is written in the form of a letter to that friend. "Everybody Knows" starts off with social inequality ("the poor stay poor/ And the rich get rich"), but this is just the laying of the foundation that leads up to the real issue: Infidelity and betrayal.

"Sisters of Mercy" depicts his encounter with two women in a hotel room in Edmonton, Canada. Claims that "Chelsea Hotel #2" treats his affair with Janis Joplin without sentimentality are countered by claims that the song reveals a more complicated set of feelings than straightforward love. Cohen confirmed, with some embarrassment, that the subject is Janis. "She wouldn't mind," he declares, "but my mother would be appalled." "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" also deals with sexual themes.

Cohen is Jewish, and he has drawn from Jewish religious and cultural imagry throughout his career. Examples include "Story of Isaac", and "Who by Fire", the words and melody of which echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th-century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Broader Jewish themes sound throughout the album ''Various Positions''. "Hallelujah," which has music as a secondary theme, begins by evoking the biblical King David composing a song that "pleased the Lord" and continues with references to Bathsheba and Samson. The lyrics of "Whither Thou Goest", performed by him and released in his album ''Live in London'', are adapted from the Bible (Ruth 1:16-17, King James Version). "If It Be Your Will" also has a strong air of religious resignation. In his concert in Ramat Gan, Israel, on 24 September 2009, Cohen spoke Jewish prayers and blessings to the audience in Hebrew. He opened the show with the first sentence of Ma Tovu. At the middle he used Baruch Hashem, and he ended the concert reciting the blessing of Birkat Cohanim.

In his early career as a novelist, ''Beautiful Losers'' grappled with the mysticism of the Mohawk Catholic saint Kateri Tekakwitha. Cohen has also been involved with Buddhism since the 1970s and was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1996; however he is still religiously Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."

He is described as an observant Jew in an article in ''The New York Times'':

Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath even while on tour and performed for Israeli troops during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. So how does he square that faith with his continued practice of Zen?

"Allen Ginsberg asked me the same question many years ago," he said. "Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity. So theologically there is no challenge to any Jewish belief."

Having suffered from depression during much of his life (although less so recently), Cohen has written much (especially in his early work) about depression and suicide. ''Beautiful Losers'' and "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" are about suicide; darkly comic "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" mentions suicide; "Dress Rehearsal Rag" is about a last-minute decision not to commit suicide. An atmosphere of depression pervades "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Tonight Will Be Fine." As in the aforementioned "Hallelujah," music itself is the subject of "Tower of Song," "A Singer Must Die," and "Jazz Police."

Themes of political and social justice also recur in Cohen's work, especially in later albums. In "Democracy," he laments "the wars against disorder/ the sirens night and day/ the fires of the homeless/ the ashes of the gay." He concludes that the United States is actually not a democracy. He has made the observation in "Tower of Song" that "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor/ And there's a mighty judgment coming." In the title track of ''The Future'' he recasts this prophecy on a pacifist note: "I've seen the nations rise and fall/ …/ But love's the only engine of survival." In "Anthem", he promises that "the killers in high places [who] say their prayers out loud/ [are] gonna hear from me."

War is an enduring theme of Cohen's work that—in his earlier songs and early life—he approached ambivalently. Challenged in 1974 over his serious demeanor in concerts and the military salutes he ended them with, Cohen remarked, "I sing serious songs, and I'm serious onstage because I couldn't do it any other way...I don't consider myself a civilian. I consider myself a soldier, and that's the way soldiers salute." In "Field Commander Cohen" he imagines himself as a soldier of sorts, socializing with Fidel Castro in Cuba—where he had actually lived at the height of US-Cuba tensions in 1961, allegedly sporting a Che Guevara-style beard and military fatigues. This song was written immediately following Cohen's front-line stint with the Israeli air force, the "fighting in Egypt" documented in a passage of "Night Comes On." In 1973, Cohen, who had traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the Yom Kippur War, had instead been assigned to a USO-style entertainer tour of front-line tank emplacements in the Sinai Desert, coming under fire. A poetic mention of then-General Ariel Sharon, delivered in the same mode as his Fidel Castro allusions, has given birth to the story that Cohen and Sharon shared cognac together during Cohen's term in the Sinai.

Deeply moved by encounters with Israeli and Arab soldiers, he left the country to write "Lover Lover Lover." This song has been interpreted as a personal renunciation of armed conflict, and ends with the hope his song will serve a listener as "a shield against the enemy." He would later remark, "'Lover, Lover, Lover' was born over there; the whole world has its eyes riveted on this tragic and complex conflict. Then again, I am faithful to certain ideas, inevitably. I hope that those of which I am in favour will gain." Asked which side he supported in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Cohen responded, "I don't want to speak of wars or sides ... Personal process is one thing, it's blood, it's the identification one feels with their roots and their origins. The militarism I practice as a person and a writer is another thing.... I don't wish to speak about war."

His recent politics continue a lifelong predilection for the underdog, the "beautiful loser." Whether recording "The Partisan", a French Resistance song by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier, or singing his own "The Old Revolution," written from the point of view of a defeated royalist, he has throughout his career expressed in his music sympathy and support for the oppressed. Although Cohen's fascination with war is often as a metaphor for more general cultural and personal issues, as in "New Skin for the Old Ceremony," by this measure his most militant album.

Cohen blends pessimism about political/cultural issues with humour and, especially in his later work, with gentle acceptance. His wit contends with his stark analysis as his songs are often verbally playful and cheerful. In "Tower of Song" the famously raw-voiced Cohen sings ironically that he was "born with the gift of a golden voice." The generally dark "Is This What You Wanted?" contains playful lines "You were the whore and the beast of Babylon/ I was Rin Tin Tin." In concert he often plays around with his lyrics ("If you want a doctor/ I'll examine every inch of you" from "I'm Your Man" sometimes becomes "If you want a Jewish doctor..."). He may introduce one song by using a phrase from another song or poem—for example, introducing "Leaving Green Sleeves" by paraphrasing his own "Queen Victoria," "This is a song for those who are not nourished by modern love."

Cohen has also recorded such love songs as Irving Berlin's "Always" or the more obscure soul number "Be for Real" (originally sung by Marlena Shaw).

Personal life

Cohen had a relationship with the Los Angeles artist Suzanne Elrod beginning in the 1970s, with whom he has two children: a son, Adam, born in 1972, and a daughter, Lorca, named after poet Federico García Lorca, born in 1974. Adam Cohen began a career as a singer-songwriter in the mid-1990s and fronts a band called Low Millions, while Lorca took the part in her father's tour team during the 2008-2010 world tour as photographer and videographer. She also shot Cohen's video for the song "Because Of" in 2004, while her "Backstage Sketch" was included on Cohen's 2010 DVD ''Songs from the Road''. She has directed and shot video clips for The Webb Sisters and Kamila Thompson. On February 2, 2011, Lorca gave birth to a daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen. The father of the child is Rufus Wainwright.

Cohen has downplayed marriage as an important relationship, and has said that "cowardice" and "fear" have prevented him from ever actually marrying Elrod. Elrod took the cover photograph on Cohen's ''Live Songs'' album and is pictured on the cover of the ''Death of a Ladies' Man'' album. She is also the "Dark Lady" of Cohen's 1978 book of poems, prose and diary entries ''Death of a Lady's Man'', the book which deals with the failed marriage (hence the cover, which shows medieval ''coniunctio spiritual'') and which was started as the novel about the spiritual and emotional failure of marriage, invariantly titled ''The Woman Being Born'', and ''My Life in Art''. Cohen and Elrod had split by 1979.

"Suzanne", one of his best-known songs, refers to Suzanne Verdal, the former wife of his friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, rather than Elrod. The 1979 song "The Gypsy Wife" is supposedly about Suzanne Elrod.

In the 1980s, Cohen was in a relationship with the French photographer Dominique Issermann, who shot his first two video clips, "Dance Me To The End Of Love" and "First We Take Manhattan." Issermann is today famous for her photo sessions with Carla Bruni and for her fashion photography for magazines like ''Elle''; in 2010 she was the official photographer of Cohen's world tour. Her photographs of Cohen are the canonical in Cohen's merchandise, and some of them were used for the covers of his 1993 book ''Stranger Music'' and his album ''More Best of Leonard Cohen'', and inside the booklet of Cohen's 1988 record ''I'm Your Man'', which is dedicated to Issermann with words: "All these songs are for you, D. I.".

In the 1990s, Cohen was romantically linked to actress Rebecca De Mornay. De Mornay co-produced Cohen's 1992 album ''The Future'', which is also supposedly dedicated to her with an inscription which quotes Rebecca's coming to the well from Book of Genesis, 24 and giving drink to Eliezer's camels, after he prayed for the help; Eliezer ("God is my help" in Hebrew) is Cohen's Hebrew name, and Cohen sometimes referred to himself as "Eliezer Cohen" or even "Jikan Eliezer."

In 2000s, Cohen has been romantically involved with Anjani Thomas. Together they wrote the album ''Blue Alert'' in 2006, produced by Cohen. Thomas co-produced and co-wrote some songs on Cohen's 2004 album ''Dear Heather'' and is currently involved in recording of Cohen's forthcoming record.

Since late 1970s, Cohen has been associated with Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, regularly visiting him at Mount Baldy Zen Center and serving him as personal assistant during Cohen's own reclusion into Mt. Baldy monastery in the 1990s. Roshi appears as regular motif or addressee in Cohen's poetry, especially in the ''Book of Longing'', and also took part in 1997 documentary about Cohen's monastery years, ''Leonard Cohen: Spring 1996''. Cohen's 2001 album ''Ten New Songs'' is dedicated to Joshu Sasaki.

Awards, titles and honours

1964 the Québec Literary Competition Prize (awarded 1923-70 by the Province of Québec) ''The Favourite Game'' (Cohen's first novel)

1968 Governor General's Award (English language poetry or drama) for ''Selected Poems 1956–1968''. (Refused)

1970 Honorary degree from Dalhousie University

1984 The Golden Rose, the main award at the international television festival Rose d'Or in Montreux, for ''I am a Hotel'', made-for-TV short musical film written by Cohen and based on his songs.

1985 Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry for ''Book of Mercy''

1986 Genie Award for Best Original Song for "Angel Eyes" from ''Night Magic'' (with Lewis Furey)

1988 Columbia Records Crystal Globe Award from CBS for ''I'm Your Man''. The award is for artists who sell more than five million copies of an album in foreign territories

1989 Nominated for Juno Awards for Canadian Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year

1991 Officer of the Order of Canada

1991 Induction into the Juno/Canadian Music Hall of Fame

1991 Nominated for a Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year.

1992 Honorary degree from McGill University, Montreal.

1993 Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. The video for Closing Time, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, won for Best Video. He was also nominated as Producer of the Year (with co-producer Leanne Ungar, for "Closing Time").

1993 Governor General's Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

1994 Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year and was nominated for the Juno Award for Album of the Year (for ''The Future''). The video for The Future, directed by Curtis Wehrfritz, was nominated for Juno Award for Best Video.

1996 Ordained a Rinzai Buddhist monk.

2001 Nagroda Muzyczna Fryderyk, the annual Polish music award, for best foreign album (''Ten New Songs'').

2002 Nominated for Juno Award as Best Songwriter Cohen (with Sharon Robinson) for "Boogie Street", "In My Secret Life", and "You Have Loved Enough").

2002 Nominated for the Juno Award for Best Video for "In My Secret Life", directed by Floria Sigismondi. ''Ten New Songs'' nominated for Best Pop Album, and he was nominated for Best Artist.

2002 SNEP Award Cohen for more than 100,000 copies sold of ''Ten New Songs'' in France.

2003 Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.

2004 Inclusion in Canada Reads 2005 with ''Beautiful Losers''

2005 Induction into the Canadian Folk Music Walk of Fame.

2006 Induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2007 Grammy for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's ''River: The Joni Letters''. 2008 Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2008 Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. 2009 Long Listed for the Polaris Music Prize for ''Live in London'' 2009 Nominated for Mojo Honours Lists for Best Live Act category.

2009 Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2008 show in Dublin's IMMA's Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

2010 A second Meteor Music Award for Best International Live Performance for his 2009 show in Dublin's O2.

2010 Porin Award in Croatia in category of foreign video programme, for his ''Live in London'' DVD.

2010 Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

2011 Glenn Gould Prize

2011 Prince of Asturias Awards, Literature, Spain

Discography

Studio albums

!Title	!Release date
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Poetry

''Six Montreal Poets''. New York: Folkways Records, 1957.

Tribute albums

!Title	!Release date

Many other cover albums have been recorded by many artists.

Publications

Collections: poems and songs

''Let Us Compare Mythologies''. Montreal: Contact Press [McGill Poetry Series], 1956. reissued 2007 ''The Spice-Box of Earth''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1961. ''Flowers for Hitler''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1964. ''Parasites of Heaven''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966. ''Selected Poems 1956–1968''. New York, Toronto: Viking, McClelland & Stewart, 1968. ''The Energy of Slaves''. London,Toronto: Cape, McClelland and Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0771022042 ISBN 0771022034 New York: Viking, 1973. ''Selected Poetry of Leonard Cohen''. Penguin Classics, 1978. ''Death of a Lady's Man''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978. ISBN 0771021771 London, New York: Viking, Penguin, 1979. - reissued 2010 ''Book of Mercy''.London: Cape, 1984. - reissued 2010 ''The Lyrics of Leonard Cohen''. London, Omnibus, 1998. ISBN 0711971412 2nd edition, 2009. ''God is Alive. Magic is Afoot.'' Sarah Perkins and Ian Jackson illus. Toronto: Stoddart, 2000. ISBN 0773761802 ''Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs''. London, New York, Toronto: Cape, Pantheon, McClelland & Stewart, 2003. ISBN 0771022301 ''Book of Longing''. London, New York, Toronto: Penguin, Ecco, McClelland & Stewart, 2006. (poetry, prose, drawings) ISBN 9780771022340

''Poems and Songs (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)'' 2011

Novels

''The Favorite Game''. London, New York, Toronto: Secker & Warburg, Viking P, McClelland & Stewart, 1963. Reissued as ''The Favourite Game.'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart [New Canadian Library], 1994. ISBN 9780771099540 ''Beautiful Losers''. New York, Toronto: Viking Press, McClelland & Stewart, 1966. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart [New Canadian Library], 1991. ISBN 9780771098758 McClelland & Stewart [Emblem], 2003. ISBN 9780771022005

Film and television

Cohen was the subject of the 1965 documentary ''Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen'', directed by Donald Brittain and Don Owen and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. This film, which pre-dates Cohen's career as a songwriter, explores his career as a well-known Canadian poet. Cohen also appeared in Owen's 1967 film ''The Ernie Game'', which was entered into the 18th Berlin International Film Festival.

Cohen's music also appeared the following year in the 1966 NFB animated short ''Angel''.

In 1968 Cohen performed on the BBC, both on the Julie Felix Show and in his own special, split into two thirty minute shows. The first clip still exists, while the second is only available as a bootleg CD.

Cohen makes a cameo appearance performing "The Stranger Song" in the Canadian film ''The Ernie Game'' (1968), which is based on the stories of Bernard Cole Spencer.

Cohen's music was popular among the directors of the New German Cinema, and appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's ''Beware of a Holy Whore'' (1971) and Werner Herzog's ''Stroszek'' (1977).

Cohen's 1970 performance at the Isle of Wight Festival was filmed by Murray Lerner, but remained unreleased until 2009 when it was released as ''Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970'', and included Lerner's 2009 documentary material.

Robert Altman's 1971 western ''McCabe and Mrs. Miller'' used three Cohen songs on its soundtrack, as well the instrumental parts of The Stranger Song performed by Cohen. Multiple record singles were released during the film's distribution. In 1972, Cohen's European tour was filmed by British director Tony Palmer; the re-edited material appeared in 1974 under the title ''Bird On a Wire'' and exists only as a bootleg VHS tape. Palmer's authorised and restored film was released in 2010. In October 1979, Cohen recorded a show for German TV show ''RockPop Special'', available only as a bootleg. The show is often rebroadcast by the German satellite TV channel 3Sat.

''The Song Of Leonard Cohen'', a 1980 documentary by Harry Rasky, featuring Irving Layton, includes highlights from Cohen's 1979 European tour and tracks from the LP ''Recent Songs''.

In 1983, Cohen wrote and starred in made-for-TV short musical film ''I am a Hotel'', based on his songs. It won the Golden Rose award at the Rose d'Or television festival in Montreux in 1984.

In 1985, Cohen co-wrote and co-composed ''Night Magic'' (starring Carole Laure) with fellow Quebecker, Lewis Furey.

Cohen is subject of the BBC documentary ''Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen'', filmed during his 1988 tour.

Cohen appeared as villain Francois Zolan in the "French Twist" episode of the American television series ''Miami Vice'' (season 2, episode 17), originally broadcast on 21 February 1986.

In 1988, Spanish TV station RTE televised the full version of Cohen's show in San Sebastian, 20 May, later aired in number of European countries and still rerun on the Spanish TV. It remains the only completely televised Cohen show.

In 1989, Cohen gave his first major performance on US television on Austin City Limits (recorded in November 1988). He performed for the show again in July 1993. Both programs have been often rebroadcast by the PBS.

"Everybody Knows" and "If It Be Your Will" play prominent parts in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume

Three of Cohen's songs from his album The Future ("Waiting for the Miracle", "Anthem", and "The Future") are used in Oliver Stone's 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Songs from this album have also appeared in the films ''Wonder Boys'' (2000), starring Michael Douglas and The Life of David Gale (2003), starring Kevin Spacey.

In 1994, Cohen narrated NFB-produced documentary ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead''.

Cohen's years at the Mt. Baldy Zen Centre were the subject of 1997 French documentary ''Leonard Cohen: Spring 96'' by Armelle Brusq, released on DVD in 2009.

In 2001, Cohen's song Hallelujah was used on the soundtrack of ''Shrek'', in a version by John Cale.

''The Favourite Game (Le Jeu de l'ange)'', based on his novel of the same title, was released in Canada in 2003.

''Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'' was released in 2006. It features a 2005 tribute concert to Cohen, "Came So Far For Beauty", held at the Sydney Opera House and produced by Hal Willner. The film, directed by Lian Lunson, has appearances by Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and a performance of "Tower of Song" by Cohen and U2. The film also features Cohen recalling significant parts of his life and career.

Cohen is the subject of a two-part documentary, ''Leonard Cohen: Under Review 1934-1977'' (2007) and ''Leonard Cohen: Under Review 1978-2006'' (2008), available separately on DVD.

See also

Music of Canada

List of Quebec musicians

Music of Quebec

Culture of Quebec

List of people with depression

References

Further reading

External links

Official website

The Leonard Cohen Files

''Bird on a Wire'' (1972) at TCM Movie Morlocks

''Canadian Poetry: Studies/Documents/Reviews'', Vol. 33 (Fall/Winter, 1993). The Proceedings of the Leonard Cohen Conference, Red Deer College, Oct. 22-24, 1993.

Category:1934 births Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Ashkenazi Jews Category:Canadian buskers Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Jews Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian novelists Category:Canadian people of Lithuanian descent Category:Canadian people of Polish descent Category:Canadian poets Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian Zen Buddhists Category:Companions of the Order of Canada Category:Genie Award winners Category:Governor General's Award winning poets Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grand Officers of the National Order of Quebec Category:Jewish Canadian culture Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:Jewish poets Category:Jewish singers Category:Jewish Canadian writers Category:Juno Award winners Category:Living people Category:McGill University alumni Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:People from Westmount, Quebec Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Western mystics Category:Writers from Quebec Category:Jewish Canadian musicians

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