Leonard Cohen's fans might have reason to thank Kelley Lynch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/19/leonard-cohen-fans-kelley-lynch

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Leonard Cohen, presumably, feels nothing but anger towards Kelley Lynch, who stole from him and harassed him and has now ended up with a prison sentence for doing so. Cohen's fans, however, might feel a little more tolerant towards his former manager. After all, it was the need to top up his pension fund following her depredations that led to his remarkable creative rebirth over the past four years.

First came the world tour that began in May 2008 – when Cohen was 73 – and lasted, barring various breaks for illness and injury, until December 2010, covering 189 shows. Then, earlier this year, came Old Ideas, his first album since Dear Heather in 2004. Both tour and album were greeted with the kind of reverent ecstasy reserved for those who long ago reserved their place in the pantheon of pop greatness.

Cohen's deep groan of a voice, and his ironic nickname of "Laughing Len", have often disguised the humour – however black – that lurks at the heart of Cohen's work. And this most cerebral of songwriters is happy to demystify his own songwriting process. "I think ideas are what you want to get rid of. I don't really like songs with ideas. They tend to become slogans," he told the Guardian's Dorian Lynskey earlier this year. "They tend to be on the right side of things: ecology or vegetarianism or antiwar. All these are wonderful ideas but I like to work on a song until those slogans, as wonderful as they are and as wholesome as the ideas they promote are, dissolve into deeper convictions of the heart."

Cohen's return has also banished one fearful spectre from the musical landscape – the notion, which seemed entirely possible before his comeback – that he might be best remembered as that bloke who wrote the song all the talent show contestants sing. Hallelujah indeed for Leonard Cohen.