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43 years for me. I didn't discover Leonard through the Rock Machine Turns You On but I still have the record and love to play it from time to time.

Mary

Thanks, John! Yes, I can recall most of the tracks now - wish I still had the original record. (And, sadly my original copy of Songs of Leonard Cohen seems to have gone the same way.)

For me I came to be a Leonard Cohen Fan in three stages. I heard him on a short lived late night talk show here in Canada called the Ralph Benmergi Show just before Leonard won his Juno Award for Best Male Vocalist in 1993. He perfomed with Benmergi's in-house band and sang "Closing Time." The song was quite bizarre I remember thinking at that time. I was very surpised when Leonard won Best Male Vocalist a few days later. (Probably not as surprised as Leonard himself ). I was 17 at that time and I wondered who this deep voiced old fart was, but he had something. (My parents are mainstream/ country music fans and never listened to Cohen so I didn't know who he was).The next year I went on a Katimavik program here in Canada after I graduated high school and someone brought out John Cale's (I think it was anyway) album which covered Suzanne. I've always had a love for poetry and listening to the song I could hear the poetry in it. Thus began my fascination with poet Leonard Cohen as I studied and read all his works of poetry. I still believe he is the finest poet ever to write in English in Canada that I've read, and we have some pretty good poets up here.
Finally I decided to buy one of his records in early 1995 with a few dollars I had saved up. His was the 4th record I bought with my own money. First was a Phil Collins record in 1988, second was an old Gordon Lightfoot album in 1990 and third was John Denver's greatest hits in 1993. I picked out Leonard Cohen's album Best of Leonard Cohen and expected to hear when I played it that famous gravelly voice, but instead this was a young man's voice like mine at the time plaintive and pleading and feeling things far too strongly. I could really relate to him at the time. That's when my Cohen musical odyssey truly began. I've been a fan for 17 years.

44 years!
Leslie

I have often wondered what the point of a thread like this is?

For the record, almost 43 years after my then boyfriend bought me Songs of Leonard Cohen as a present early in 1969. The relationship only lasted for 18 months but my love of Leonard's work has (and will) last a lifetime. A little over 2 years later, my now husband bought me a copy of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The relationship has lasted 40+ years but Bob never quite did it for me.

I still have the album, together with another gift from the same boyfriend, the Jonathan Cape published Selected Poems 1956-68. I've lost the copy of Beautiful Losers that he also gave me. It was a bit too advanced for 15 year old me and I had to hide it from my mother. Goodness knows where I put it but I don't have it any more. I must have made a good job of hiding the stuff though because when in 2008 I excitedly told my elderly mother that Leonard was back on tour, she said I'd never mentioned him before and she had no idea that I was a fan!

Wendy

I have been listening to Leonard Cohen since 1969. My best friend, Doug Macbeth, now long dead, introduced me to his music in that year. We would, after a few drinks, or two, bellow out "So long Marianne" as his finance and first wife was so named. Oddly, my spouse was also so named. She too, after 37 years with me, is also a Cohen fan. I think I have attended, whenever accessible, every concert tour of Cohen from then until 2010. I quoted, possibly illegally, from Cohen's repertoire at Doug's funeral 10 years ago as he meant so much to both us. I am almost 64 and hopefully someone will quote from Leonard Cohen at my funeral.

So, "how many years?"...42 years I think!

Mabeanie1 wrote:I have often wondered what the point of a thread like this is?Wendy

I think, Wendy, because (for me at least), it is always so interesting to hear stories like yours, which tells us how others discovered him.

I was working in my office, a little 9" black & white TV tuned to an oddball local station for background noise, and this incredible voice comes on, then I hear the melody, then the lyrics. I look up, the compelling video. I was hooked. The video was 'Dance Me To The End Of Love' - a whole new world. About 27 years ago. Since then, I can't get enough.

Warmest regards,
Mary