In 1965, Leonard Cohen was told not to bother making music. Two years later, aged 33, he became a folk hero

Leonard Cohen was an acclaimed poet and novelist before turning to songwriting in his early thirties. After being discouraged from recording himself singing his poems, he pursued music, a shift that led to a distinctive career and helped establish him as a folk outsider.

An anecdote set at Toronto’s King Edward Hotel describes Cohen playing harmonica while two strangers in a neighbouring room appeared to move to his tune; he then read them poems and took their sounds as encouragement. His debut album, *Songs of Leonard Cohen*, came out in 1967 when he was 33. It won critical acclaim, though it initially had limited commercial success, and included “Suzanne” and “So Long, Marianne”.