Angels of Mercy: Who were Leonard Cohen’s backing singers?
Much of the imagery in Leonard Cohen’s songs is shaped by, or directly references, religious iconography. It’s no wonder that listening to the Canadian poet often feels like a spiritual experience. Even if you’re not religious, the power of Cohen’s words—whether in the holy or the broken ‘Hallelujah’, or the haunting “Hineni, Hineni” of ‘You Want It Darker’—can transport you to a mystical Garden of Eden, leaving you pious and reverent at the feet of the ‘Lord of Song’.
But it’s not just his words; it’s his references to the Bible, Jesus, and the Unetanneh Tokef prayer that invoke these pearls of ancient wisdom and spirits. He may have been no paragon of virtue in the eyes of the Lord, but when he took to the studio or the stage, Leonard Cohen was always flanked by an army of angels on both shoulders.
Over the years, Cohen’s sound has shifted and changed with the wind, ranging from his early acoustic and folk-adjacent days to his more apocalyptic early 1970s albums. Then there’s the Phil Spector-led throw-it-all-against-the-Wall-of-Sound-and-see-what-sticks approach of Death of a Ladies’ Man (hint: it all sticks, don’t listen to the non-believers, that is a great album) to the unexpected synth-pop left turn of the 1980s. However, one thing that Cohen stayed true to his whole career was his liberal use of backing singers. The voices of the angels that he often sang about and who he was so inspired by.
Throughout history, great singers have always been accompanied, complemented and enhanced by their most trusted backing singers. Ray Charles had his Raelettes, Elvis had The Jordanaires and The Sweet Inspirations (‘The King’ needs to hold a big court, after all), and those Sweet Inspirations went on to work with Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Jimi Hendrix.
When Dylan started singing overtly religious songs of his own in 1979, Leonard Cohen couldn’t get his head around the idea and could often be found pacing his house, clasping his hands and asking, “I just don’t get this, why would he go for Jesus at a late time like this?” One thing that Cohen surely did get about Dylan’s newfound Christianity, though, was the gorgeous accompaniment from his backing singers, The Queens of Rhythm.
Who were Leonard Cohen’s most important backing singers?
Over the years, Cohen has counted over 50 separate singers among his choir of backing vocalists, but some had a bigger impact than others on his career.
You can’t talk about Leonard Cohen without talking about Sharon Robinson, who co-wrote many of his greatest songs, such as ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘Waiting for the Miracle’ and the entirety of his 2001 album Ten New Songs, which she also produced. Having first joined his army on stage in 1979 for many spiritual and transcendent nights on the road, Robinson was a mainstay until Cohen’s final shows in 2013 and continued to record with her old friend until his death.
Outside of her work with Leonard Cohen, Robinson is a Grammy-winning songwriter, recognised for her 1985 song ‘New Attitude’, which was sung by Patti LaBelle. She has also written songs for and performed with artists like Aaron Neville, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, The Temptations and Bettye LaVette, among others.
Robinson wasn’t Cohen’s only long-term singing partner either. Having first joined Cohen’s touring troupe in 1972 for a stint around Europe, Jennifer Warnes returned to his entourage more permanently in 1979, and she can be heard on his albums and recordings up until 2012’s Old Ideas. Outside of her career with Cohen, Warnes is a solo artist in her own right and is also a (multi) Grammy Award-winning artist, notably for her collaboration with Joe Cocker on the 1982 song ‘Up Where We Belong’ from the film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Another Grammy-recognised singer who lent their voice to Cohen’s music was Perla Batalla. Batalla had been introduced to the group by Divine Horsemen singer Julie Christensen, who was herself part of Cohen’s cohort for the ‘I’m Your Man‘ tour and would continue to sing with the poet on his next album and the subsequent tour. As a pair, Batalla and Christensen were often singled out by reviewers as highlights on any given night, much like reviewers (and Cohen himself) would single out The Webb Sisters —Charley and Hattie—for praise for their harmonies and countermelodies on his later, and much-loved world tours from 2008 to 2013.
Cohen convinced Batalla to pursue her own songwriting career, and she has since gone on to release multiple well-regarded albums. Speaking of her introduction to Cohen, Batalla has said that it was her “big break and the opening of everything”. Among those albums, Batalla repaid the favour to Cohen by releasing the 2005 tribute Bird on the Wire: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen. It’s a testament to the power of his songs and the way that singing them touched the singers that both Jennifer Warnes (Famous Blue Raincoat, 1986) and Sharon Robinson (Everybody Knows, 2008) have also released albums in tribute to Cohen.
And it wasn’t just Perla Batalla to whom Cohen gave a big break or inspired onwards to a solo career. In the early 1980s, producer John Lissauer heard Anjani Thomas singing in a small jazz club and knew that she would be perfect for the album that he was working on at the time.
Thomas was recruited to sing the heavenly backing vocals on Leonard Cohen’s hymnal ‘Hallelujah’, and worked with him again on the road and in the studio for albums like I’m Your Man, The Future, Dear Heather, Old Ideas and, most notably, on her 2006 solo project Blue Alert.
While all these women played a backing role to Cohen at times, throughout his career, it was Cohen who took a step out of the spotlight and allowed his then-girlfriend Anjani to take centre stage for the album. He did so while he wrote the lyrics for each song and co-produced the record alongside their mutual friend, John Lissauer. Cohen knew better than anyone that if you forget to pray for the angels, then the angels might forget to pray for you.
