A royal toast to Leonard Cohen

FURTHER DIMENSIONS to the character of His Royal Highness Prince Charles, heir apparent to the throne of Britain, have been revealed with the news that he is a fan of the perennially dejected Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen. It's been a while since Charles pronounced upon contemporary music: Previously his most famous preference was for Philly pop-soul trio The Three Degrees, who he invited to perform at his 30th birthday party at Buckingham Palace, back when he was still a swinging bachelor.

But on a documentary called ``The Three Princes," broadcast last month on British television, Charles joined a discussion of his sons' musical taste with a surprise endorsement of the man the music press nicknamed ``Laughing Len." ``I tell you who I also think is wonderful," said the ruminative prince, ``is a chap called Leonard Cohen, do you know him?" His sons didn't know him: They wondered if he might be ``a jazz player." ``He's remarkable," Charles continued. ``I mean the orchestration is fantastic and the words, the lyrics and everything..."

Now that's more like it: a passion fit for a prince. Cohen's deep and dismal growl, like a door creaking open into a darkened chamber, has solaced many a sensitive nature since his early `70s heyday. Johnny Cash covered his ``Bird On A Wire" on the classic 1994 album ``Cash," and more recently Anthony and the Johnsons have been performing an exquisite version of Cohen's ``The Guests." His new book of poems and drawings, ``The Book Of Longing" (Ecco)-his first for 20 years-is a wry and Zen-inflected summary of his life and times. (Cohen was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk in 1996.) ``I followed the course/ From chaos to art/ Desire the horse/ Depression the cart" runs a verse in the book's eponymously titled opening poem. Plenty of terrible monarchs have enjoyed great art, of course, but the image of Leonard Cohen as a dark and undeceived troubadour in the court of the future King Charles is, one has to say, a promising one.

James Parker's column appears biweekly in Ideas. E-mail cultural.studies@globe.com.