Onstage illness and back-injuring live return be damned. The great Leonard Cohen is preparing to hit both the road and recording studio again shortly. We knew that his first LP in 6 years was in the works — featuring a handful of songs debuted on last year’s world tour — but subsequent setbacks threw the anticipated project into question. Until now, that is: “God willing it will be finished next spring,” said Cohen of his next album to Rolling Stone, adding later, “I’m producing it.” (Jack Frost would be proud.)

With new funny/poetic charmers like “Feels So Good” in his back pocket, I can’t imagine Cohen’s collection of “10 or 11 songs” being anything less than brilliant. Until the record drops, however, he has European/Australian tours and a Cambodian charity gig set for coming months, not to mention being honored alongside Phil Collins and Taylor Swift (?) at last night’s Songwriters Hall of Fame event.

In any event, as anyone who has heard his debut LP or beyond could attest to, new “songs of Leonard Cohen” being recorded is great news. Revisit a live debut of “Feels So Good” after the jump

Here are a few music news bits making the rounds this weekend…

He may be 75 years old, but if the worst result of playing 191 tour dates after a 15-year live hiatus is a minor onstage collapse in Spain and a recoverable back injury, requiring “the same 4 to 6-month regimen of physical therapy as athletes do with similar injuries,” then Leonard Cohen is young for his age, I say.

Only days after accepting a Grammy for lifetime achievement in Los Angeles, CA, living legend Leonard Cohen has been forced to postpone 9 European tour dates due to said injury in his lower back.

“Doctors have confirmed that Mr. Cohen is otherwise in terrific shape, thanks to years of exercise and careful diet, and simply needs appropriate time to recover,” said his manager, Robert Kory, in a statement sent to the press.

Cohen’s spring shows have been moved to the fall, but who knows, perhaps he’ll be working on that rumored new album a bit in the meantime. Either way, get well, Mr. Cohen! This new song shall tide us over till the fall.

You may have thought that Leonard Cohen’s world tour had ended after his onstage collapse and brief trip to the hospital in Spain recently, but not only has the poet/singer/legend hopped back into the spotlight, he’s also unveiling a few new songs that will possibly appear on an upcoming album.

In Chicago last week, Cohen performed his second new tune since the tour’s start and we’ve got a great quality video here or embedded below to prove it (via The Music Slut). Cohen didn’t supply a title or any info about it beyond cryptically referring to this instant classic as “the other blues song.”

NYC’s infamous Chelsea Hotel unveiled a plaque last week in honor of singer/poet Leonard Cohen, the former resident and songwriter of “Chelsea Hotel #2”, reports ArtsBeat’s Dave Itzkoff. “I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel…” the inscription reads, quoting Cohen’s famous song “for an American singer who died a while ago,” aka Janis Joplin, and, leaving out the slightly more scandalous subsequent lyrics.

Whereas, Bob Dylan’s former room #211—the one where he supposedly wrote Blonde on Blonde—hasn’t gotten much respect by the hotel’s owners and was partially destroyed by a construction crew, Cohen’s new plaque commemorating his 75th birthday adorns the Chelsea with those of Dylan Thomas, Thomas Wolfe, and Arthur Miller.

For pictures of Cohen’s plaque go here and to catch up on the Dylan room construction scandal go here.

Leonard Cohen collapsed on stage today while performing in Spain, El Mundo reports (via AFP). Don’t worry though, he appears to be okay. Cohen was performing “Bird on a Wire” in Valencia, when he lost his balance while reaching for a guitar. Backup singers saved his fall, but he collapsed again moments later and the concert was cancelled as Cohen sought medical treatment.

**Update: The AP reports that Cohen has been released from the hospital after suffering a stomach complaint. Also, his tour appears to be going ahead as scheduled. Yay!

Band member Javier Mas told El Mundo that Cohen’s condition was not serious and that he had a “severe attack of indigestion” followed by vomiting.

We’ll update this post if more details become available, but in the meantime, please join us in wishing living legend Leonard Cohen a speedy recovery.

Fact: The only people in the world that haven’t heard a version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” are living in uncharted territories of New Guinea. Not only is the tune permanently welded to the canon of the greatest songs of all time, but it’s also the most inescapable cover song in recent memory. But you know that of course ‘cause you’re presumably reading this on the internet.

In an interview with Canwest News, Leonard Cohen says he is very happy that the song hit number one and number two in the UK last year (especially because the original album it was on was rejected by Sony in the 80s), but between American Idol, Shrek and all the other programs blasting prominent “Hallelujah” covers, it’s getting a little old. “I was happy about it but it’s I was just reading a review of a movie called Watchmen that uses it and the reviewer said – ‘Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?’” Cohen said. “And I kind of feel the same way.”

We concur. From now on the only people allowed to sing “Hallelujah” are Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen. And since Buckley’s no longer with us, it’s all yours again, Cohen.

Before Leonard Cohen left Hydra for the United States in 1967 to pursue music, he had published 3 books between 1963 and 1966. Two were novels and Cohen’s Flowers for Hitler was a collection of poetry; a form of writing he would later integrate into his original songs.

Only days after performing in the United States for the first time in 15 years at New York City’s Beacon Theater, he has published a new poem in The New Yorker. The poem, entitled “A Street,” is full of war imagery and alcohol references. It reads very much like lyrics to one of his songs, complete with a chorus-like refrain:

So let’s drink to when it’s over
And let’s drink to when we meet
I’ll be standing on this corner
Where there used to be a street

To read Leonard Cohen’s new poem “A Street,” click here.