Many a Guardian reader can surely still hear the flat, irresistible voice of Leonard Cohen singing these lyrics. In the 1970s, earnest middle-class teenagers knew that here was a poet. That was the whole point of the notorious voice. You could hear that he wasn’t a singer. He was a poet,

There’s a lot of love for Leonard. These days, you’d be hard-pushed to find a singer-songwriter who doesn’t claim to be Cohen’s biggest fan. As well as being a poet of iconic status, the self-anointed Godfather of Gloom is a musician’s musician, a primary influence on generations of new artists.

Leonard Cohen has a famous face. He is fond of telling the story of how a fan once stopped him on the street and congratulated him on his performance in Midnight Cowboy. A fan of Dustin Hoffman, that is. The anecdote is old now, and so is the face. At 58, the Canadian songwriter and groaner could be Hoffman’s father.

For me, the perfect song is ‘Suzanne’, by Leonard Cohen. The perfect lyric with the perfect melody.

He was the voice in every lonely boy’s bedroom. The Godfather of Gloom. But after years on Mount Baldy, a Buddhist retreat, Leonard Cohen has finally found peace. Here he talks about drink, drugs and women, and why nirvana is now a mean tuna sandwich.