Leonard Cohen
What failed
His 1966 novel sold poorly. He did not release a debut album until he was thirty-three, to dismissive American reviews. In 1984 his label declined to release Various Positions in the United States at all — the album containing Hallelujah, which then went largely unnoticed for years. In October 2005 he sued his former manager, alleging she had taken more than five million dollars from his retirement fund and left him a hundred and fifty thousand.
What happened next
At seventy-three he began a world tour he had been financially forced into, and played nearly two hundred and fifty shows over two and a half years. His 2012 album became the highest-charting record of his entire career, at seventy-seven.
The point
Every stage of this is a person restarting from a worse position than the one before. Iteration does not stop being available because you are old, established, or humiliated.
The sequence
3 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1966
His second novel sells badly.
- 1967
Releases a debut album at thirty-three; it reaches only number 83 in the United States.
- 1968-1969
The same album spends nearly eighteen months on the British chart, peaking at thirteen.
- 1984
His label refuses to release the album containing Hallelujah in the United States.
- 2005
Sues his former manager, alleging she has taken more than five million dollars from his retirement fund and left him a hundred and fifty thousand.
- 2008
Begins a world tour at seventy-three; his festival appearance is called the highlight of the weekend.
- 2012
At seventy-seven, releases the highest-charting album of his career.
Sources
- Various Positions (Wikipedia)
Columbia did not think it was commercially viable and decided not to release Various Positions in the US.
- Leonard Cohen (Wikipedia)
In October 2005, Cohen sued Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated more than US$5 million from his retirement fund, leaving only $150,000.
- Leonard Cohen Tour 2008-2010 (Wikipedia)
The very last concert on 11 December was the 246th show on the world tour which started on 11 May 2008.
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