Leonard Coming Legacy Box Coming

Following closely on the heals of the announcement of the Billy Joel box set comes word of an even bigger set for Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen

While the Joel set only included his studio albums, Leonard Cohen: The Complete Album Collection has his studio and live albums in the collection.

Each album is packaged in a “mini-LP replica CD jacket of the original release” along with a 36-page book with discographical and recording information. Also included is a new essay by Pico Iyer. Release is set for October 11.

“Cohen sits outside every category,” writes Iyer, “and throws together high culture and street slang, Buddha and the blues, so you never know what’s coming next… He’s lived in Nashville, in L.A. (and in the high dark mountains behind L.A. at the Mount Baldy Zen Center) as well as on the carless Greek island of Hydra, known for its donkeys and faraway monasteries. He’s inspired filmmakers from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Oliver Stone and acted as the head of Interpol on Miami Vice. He’s written a classic Old Testament book of psalms and sung on duets with Elton John. Everything you know of him is wrong.

“You’ll meet the earnest troubadour with ‘one hand on a hexagram and one hand on a girl’ and you’ll see the grave old philosopher who could be met on the backstreets of Jerusalem. You’ll hear the sound of a soul, alone, raising a cry to the heavens, and that of the silky man of the world accompanied by a chorus of female voices. You’ll think you’re listening to one of the great ironists of rock ‘n’ roll — ‘We met when we were almost young’ — and then you’ll hear him calling out for surrender.”

The albums in the box: