Episode Details

Leonard Cohen wrote eighty drafts of "Hallelujah" before he was satisfied, and his record label refused to release the album containing it. The song was rescued by John Cale, then Jeff Buckley, and became the most covered song of the late twentieth century — years after Cohen had given up on it. His entire career followed this pattern: rejection, patience, and eventual vindication.

This episode traces Cohen from his Montreal childhood through his years as a poet and novelist, his late start in music, the financial betrayal that bankrupted him, and the Buddhist monastery where he rebuilt his life.

• He wrote approximately eighty drafts of "Hallelujah" over five years before finalizing the lyrics
• His manager embezzled roughly five million dollars from his retirement savings, forcing him back on tour in his seventies
• He spent five years living as an ordained Buddhist monk at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in California
• He published his first poetry collection at twenty-two but did not release his first album until he was thirty-three