Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential musical artists of the past fifty years—and one of the most elusive. In I’m Your Man, journalist Sylvie Simmons, one of the foremost chroniclers of the world of rock ’n’ roll and popular music, explores the extraordinary life and creative genius of Leonard Cohen.
I’m Your Man is an intimate and insightful appreciation of the man responsible for “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Hallelujah,” and so many other unforgettable, oft-covered ballads and songs. Based on Simmons’s unparalleled access to Cohen—and written with her hallmark blend of intelligence, integrity, and style—I’m Your Man is the definitive biography of a major musical artist widely considered in a league with the great Bob Dylan.
Readers of Life by Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Patti Smith’s phenomenal Just Kids will be riveted by this fascinating portrait of a singular musical icon.

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Simmons, Sylvie

Humor & Entertainment

Ecco

The New York Times-bestselling, definitive biography of lengendary artist Leonard Cohen
Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential musical artists of the past fifty years—and one of the most elusive. In I’m Your Man, journalist Sylvie Simmons, one of the foremost chroniclers of the world of rock ’n’ roll and popular music, explores the extraordinary life and creative genius of Leonard Cohen.
I’m Your Man is an intimate and insightful appreciation of the man responsible for “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Hallelujah,” and so many other unforgettable, oft-covered ballads and songs. Based on Simmons’s unparalleled access to Cohen—and written with her hallmark blend of intelligence, integrity, and style—I’m Your Man is the definitive biography of a major musical artist widely considered in a league with the great Bob Dylan.
Readers of Life by Rolling Stone Keith Richards, and Patti Smith’s phenomenal Just Kids will be riveted by this fascinating portrait of a singular musical icon.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

The&nbsp;New York Times-bestselling,&nbsp;definitive&nbsp;biography of legendary artist Leonard Cohen, now with new afterword by the author "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." -- Leonard Cohen The genius behind such classic songs as Suzanne, Bird on a Wire, and Hallelejuia, Leonard Cohen was one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a man of spirituality, emotion, and intelligence whose work explored the definitive issues of human life--sex, religion, power, meaning, love. Yet before he even began recording, Cohen was an accomplished literary figure whose. poetry and novels brought him considerable recognition. His dual careers in music and literature have transformed one other, his songs revealing a literary quality rare in the world of popular music, and his poetry and prose informed by a rich musicality. I'm Your Man explores the facets of Cohen's life--from his early childhood in Montreal, to his entrée into the worlds of literature and music, his immersion in Jewish culture, obsession with Christian imagery, and deep commitment to Buddhist detachment--including the five years he spent at a monastery outside of Los Angeles and his ordainment as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist Monk--offering remarkable insight into an artist whose reach, vision, and incredible talent has had a profound impact on multiple generations of writers, poets, musicians, artists, and everyday people.

In this, the first English biography to capture Gainsbourg in all his contradiction and gleeful outrageousness, Simmons tells the fascinating story of the Gallic star. Drawing on hours of new interviews with his intimates-among them Jane Birkin, Sly &amp; Robbie, Marianne Faithfull, and celebrated producer Philippe Lerichomme-Simmons describes in crackling prose the scope of Gainsbourg's achievement while doing full justice to his complicated emotional life. Simmons's work will stand as the definitive take on a dizzying genius.

Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful Of Gitanes

Da Capo Press

The definitive biography of one of the most emigmatic, beloved, and celebrated artists of our time. Leonard Cohen's extensive and successful recent worldwide tour has demonstrated that his popularity across generations and borders has never been greater. Cohen's life is one of singular mystique. This major in-depth biography is the book Cohen's fans have been waiting for. Acclaimed writer/journalist Sylvie Simmons has interviewed more than 100 figures from Cohen's life and work, including his main muses; the women in his life -- from Suzanne and Marianne to Rebecca de Mornay and Anjani Thomas; artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, David Crosby, Judy Collins, and Philip Glass; his record producers; his closest friends, from childhood to adulthood; and many of the spiritual figures who have influenced his life. Cohen, notoriously private, has granted interviews himself. Thoroughly researched and thoughtful, penetrating and lively, fascinating and revealing of stories and facts never read before, I'm Your Man offers new perspectives on Cohen and his life. It will be one of the most talked-about books of the season, and for years to come.

MCCLELLAND STEWART

Cohen's life is one of singular mystique. At age 78, he is considered, by women and men of all ages and backgrounds, one of the sexiest, classiest, coolest, and most enigmatic figures in the public eye.This major indepth biography is the book Cohen fans have been waiting for. Acclaimed writer/journalist Sylvie Simmons interviewed more than 100 people frim Cohen's life and work, including his main muses; the women in his life -- from Suzanne and Marianne to Rebecca de Mornay and Anjani Thomas; artists such as Rufus Wainright, Nick Cave, David Crosby, Judy Collins and Phillip Glass; his record producers, his closest friends, from childhood to adulthood; and many of the spiritual figures who have influenced his life. Thoroughly researched and thoughtful, penetrating and lively, revealing of stories and facts never before read about, I'm Your Man offers new perspectives on Cohen and his life. It was one of the most talked-about books of 2012, and will be for years to come.

In Pussy,” the girl singer of the eponymous band cracks up after her lover and the band’s creative center dies. When her manager tracks her down she is living anonymously in an East Village tenement, rarely going outdoors, and hoarding her own discarded hair, dead skin and other physical castoffs. In Greetings from Finsbury Park,” a British rock star comes home from L.A. only to find that the customs agent going through his suitcase is an embittered ex-schoolmate whose wife once slept with the star before he was famous. In A Happy Ending,” a deeply shell-shocked ex-superstar (think Brian Wilson) struggles to keep the voices in his head quiet during a meeting with a hot new producer for a comeback album the A&amp;R boss envisions as an unholy alliance of Neil Young and Public Enemy. Love Stain” charts the emergence of devotional offerings, cottage industries, and a pecking order of proximity to the spot where an up and coming young rocker dropped dead on speedballs outside a London cluband his best friend chats up a rock journalist about the tragedy and the conspiracy to murder his friend, all while trying to get her to cover his own band. In Rhinestone Tombstone Blues,” country music singer-songwriter LeeAnn Starmountain copes with the disappearance of her inspirationthe violent fantasies of her abusive mother’s death, which she can no longer indulge in after her mother actually perishes, cooked to death by her electric blanket after a stroke. In Close to You,” a cult devoted to Karen Carpenter springs up after the singer’s image appears in the paint on the wall of a London kebab shop. In From a Great Height,” controversy erupts when the frontman of America’s biggest rock band urinates off his hotel balcony, soaking a crowd of adoring fans. In And Alien Tears,” a California limo driver with a gift for Jim Morrison impersonation becomes a star in his own right in Germany, hosting a talk show as Jim.” The hottest band of cock-rockers in America finds their tour going off the rails in Allergic to Kansas” when the misogynist lead singer starts growing breasts. In Diet Cola Cancer” Pussy, the lead character in the first story, returnspost-breakdown, and racking up the younger boyfriendsand even gets sued when one of said boyfriends commits an indiscretion at an LA rock club, and Pussy douses the paramour in carcinogenic” Diet Coke. In I Kissed Willie Nelson’s Nipple,” LeeAnn visits England on command performance for the Queen, and tells the story of her many marriages, the greatest hits” of her abusive relationships, and the self-explanatory Willie Nelson film role that put her career back on track. In Spitting Image (The 80s Retro Track),” the famous British television show (they made the puppets for Genesis’s famous Land of Confusion” video) agrees to sell one of their puppets to the star it comically representsbut when the puppet is kidnapped” on the way to its new home, and someone sends the star the puppet piece by violently detached piece, he finds himself cracking up. In Too Weird for Ziggy (A Dream of Holes),” a famous rock god is dead, and MTV isn’t content to let him rest. So in an unprecedented live television séance at the palatial home of one of LA’s most overcompensated rock managers, they hire a voodoo practitioner to raise him from the dead, on live television. In Jeremiah 18:1-10” the band from From a Great Height” returns and now the drummer has a stalker, who claims God has commanded her to become his wife. The trouble is, she seems so innocent and naïve, no one takes her seriously until the drummer’s stripper fiancée suddenly turns up dead. In The Audience Isn’t Listening,” the bass player and guitarist from the same band cope with the rumor that the megalomaniacal singer is planning to dissolve the band and keep the namewhile the guitarist’s wife has secret designs of her own on the singer. In Baudelaire’s Dog” the cracked-up Brian Wilson type from Happy Ending” is back with the album in the can and a press conference to get throughbut he is having a hard time keeping quiet about his constant visions of the brother he secretly murdered during his years of madness. In Autograph,” Spike, the rockstar from Finsbury Park” and Pussy’s second new boyfriend in Diet Cola,” has a new problem to contend with: the ex-girlfriend he dumped as soon as his band got big. She’s a nurse with ready access to narcotics, and when he goes home for his mother’s funeral she gets a junkie to help her kidnap him, and gives him her autographwith a tattoo gun, on his privates. Unfortunately, her name is Minerva (Mini) Smallwood. Finally, in Patron Saint of Amputees,” Pussy returns, waking up in the bed of a much-younger MTV VJ the morning after the séance/party, to drag herself to a meeting with her record company about making a comeback album. Only they have news for her. It’s Pussy (her plus her ex-backing band) or nothhhhhing and Taylor, the supposedly dead ex-love-of-her-life? Alive and well. She’s not sticking around to find out moreshe bolts and asks her limo driver (recognizable as the ex-Jim Morrison impersonator) to take her the fuck out.”

Too Weird for Ziggy (Black Cat series)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Grove Press/ Black Cat

Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass

In 1966, an aspiring singer-songwriter drove a battered funeral car two thousand miles from his native Canada to Los Angeles to seek his fortune in the music business. Thirty-five years later, Neil Young is still going strong, the survivor of an astonishing career that has taken in the Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, numerous collaborations, and more than thirty solo albums. Featuring new and previously unpublished interviews with close friends and musicians, Simmons's book provides startling new insights into Young's music, shedding fresh light on his family life, behind-the-scenes relationships, and health problems.

Canongate

In 1966, Neil Young drove a battered funeral car two thousand miles from his native Toronto to Los Angeles to seek his fortune in the music business. Nearly forty years of continuous writing and performing later, he is firmly established as one of the most influential and idiosyncratic singer-songwriters of his generation. His restless and innovative spirit ensures that he is one of the few rock veterans as vital in his old age as he was in his youth. Simmons provides fresh insights into Young's life so far. She also uncovers new facts about his friendship with Charles Manson, and closely examines his schizophrenic eighties output and musical return to form as the "Godfather of Grunge" in the nineties.

Canongate U.S.

''Kiss'' (Virgin Modern Icons S.) Simmons, Sylvie

Virgin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simmons, Sylvie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Simmons, Sylvie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simmons, Sylvie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful Of Gitanes

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Too Weird for Ziggy (Black Cat series)

Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass

Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass

''Kiss'' (Virgin Modern Icons S.) Simmons, Sylvie