May 1970 I went to see Simon and Garfunkel at the Albert Hall. In a box. Someone said: Did you see Dylan at the Isle of Wight last year? I said yes. He said "have you ever heard of Leonard Cohen?" I said no. I went home...Asked my sister "Who is Leonard Cohen? She said "Never heard of him". My Brother in Law said: He's a better poet than Bob Dylan and a worse singer. I said "I can't wait to hear him". So glad that i went to the IOW that year.
Later in life, Leonard Cohen’s financial manager stole all the money Leonard made in his career and disappeared. That’s why he had to keep touring in his seventies, because all his earnings had been embezzled.
that's Jennifer Warnes singing backup. btw, Leonard grew up om Montreal and was heavily influenced by all the Catholic iconography. A third of his lyrics are biblical references. As for the meaning, the song is about a real person but mostly it is poetry.
"Suzanne" is his best known song although it was on his first album. I first heard this and "The Stranger Song" from the same album more than 50 years ago in an English lesson and both stayed with me, I was fascinated with them. Oddly enough I bought his poetry books and novels before I started buying his albums some years later. The words of the song appeareed in the book "Parasites of Heaven" which was published the year before the song. The song was written about one of his friends, Suzanne Verdal, and owed a great deal to his imagination.
Hi I think it's great that we did. His songs are very simple musically in many cases and none the worse for that but the lyrics make the songs especially things of rare beauty. I imagine that you were like me as well and learnt the words of some of his songs off by heart. My favourite song of his is, "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" which is another Marianne song and that in itself is a story that fascinates me. I notice that Wikipedia has a quote from him about the song: "The room is too hot. I can't open the windows. I am in the midst of a bitter quarrel with a blonde woman. The song is half-written in pencil but it protects us as we maneuver, each of us, for unconditional victory. I am in the wrong room. I am with the wrong woman," which is a fantastic background to me. Have you ever heard Dory Previn or Felicity Buirski? They are both very good artists. Felicity's albums are difficult to obtain though so if you want to here them then I can let you have them. I'm at pdover@netcomuk.co.uk@@olgamountain9904
From Montréal Québec Canada 🇨🇦, he is one of our National poets, which include Gordon Lightfoot. Thanks for his great poem about Suzanne, Cynthia and Harri!
Cohen was robbed blind by his accountant, it made him record and tour in his 80's. Lucky for us, his last couple of albums have some incredible songs. The TV series True Detective used a great song from his end of years.
This was a 'hit' for Judy Collins in 1966. That's the first version I remember hearing. Leonard was a poet before he was a singer/songwriter. Judy got him out on stage! It's a beautiful story.
Leonard Cohen, great singer songwriter. Not a singer in the traditional sense, but his voice fits the lyrics so well. This was probably his most famous song until Hallelujah took off. You may well have heard it along the way. Other great ones to pick up on are Sisters of Mercy, and Hey that's no way to say goodbye. Great lyrics in both of them.
I could sound like a fool here, however this is my take (Leonard was a great poet of our time) he see her beauty and the river going by is life itself as time is a river , he undresses and sleeps with her in his mind (not physical) he see her perfect body and it is almost holy, Jesus is the master of the river and only drowning men can see, in despair and love the all men sail sail the sea of life and love! something like that , he is perhaps one of the greatest poet's to ever live!
I recommand Cohen's Dance Me To The End Of Love. Most especially the RU-vid video combining the song with scenes from the movie Take the lead. You'll then get to watch Antonio Banderas dancing the tango. The mix is sublime!
I saw a Norwegian programme on Cohen some years before his death (FYI the day after the election of DT to the top job in the US... still tears me up) when he was living in a one room apartment in Canada. He convincingly said he was fine, he had whatever he needed, his bottle of red wine and that his son was fine, told him he didn't need any money from his father... then when the interviewer asked if he was going to perform again, he said he didn't think anyone would be interested anymore. That group of Norwegians, as I understand, had quite a bit to do with Cohens later-in-life tours. He is a legend in Norway, mostly because of the Marianne connection (Goodbye Marianne) Such a gentle soul but a giant of a poet.
By the way, Suzanne was a hippy chick that Leonard knew who lived in Nova Scotia. It may have been drug influenced, but Leonard Cohen was a poet first (read his books), and would never have plagerized anything. If anything, someone stole from him.
“Suzanne”: a masterpiece in the genre. You who have listened to a few songs by the great Canadian poet and songwriter LEONARD COHEN and have greatly appreciated his immense talent, I can only emphatically recommend listening to the last song he composed, performed and recorded (2016) a few months before his death: "You Want It Darker". Prophetic and deeply emotional... while being a real earworm. Impossible to escape unscathed from listening to this song whose words, music and voice that one would believe were already coming from beyond the grave would capsize the least sensitive soul. You and your viewers will be impacted. Thanks.
on one level, it's about a woman that he knew as a young man in Montreal, Canada. On a deeper lever, it's a song about relationships and the kind of love that's more spiritual than sexual
I was 17 when I heard the song for the first time, a friend had worked out how to play the guitar fingerpicking, Much more difficult than he makes it sound. Leonard Cohen saw himself as a poet and in the beginning he tried to have other people sing his songs. In the end he did sing, always with some beautifull backing singer voices. LC was from Canada, grew up in a very religios invierment, Thank you Cynthia for choosing this wonderfull song and Thank you Harri 🥰
The song was actually first written as a poem. The first person to sing it as a song was his good friend Judy Collins who performed it in a 1966 album called "My Life". Leonard Cohen's longtime manager, Kelley Lynch, embezzled more than $5 million from Cohen's accounts, while also surreptitiously selling many of Cohen's publishing rights. I saw Judy Collins perform in Nashville but I don't recall the year; possibly 1975. She was spectacular.
Favorite leonard song right here, even if only for "you touched her perfect body with your mind". Also i think the song you're thinking of is "hey that's no way to say goodbye".
Cynthia, I could listen to Leonard Cohen all night long. He was an immensely talented singer and songwriter. This was absolutely enjoyable to experience. Outstanding submission and a great review, Harri.
If you haven't listened to Take This Walz, you really need to. I think you, especially, will appreciate it. Cohen translated the lyrics from a poem by Gabriel Garcia Lorca and set it to music. It is, to me, one of the most beautiful songs... ever.
Very nice song. I didn't know who did it when I first heard it. Glad he shared about the record company ripping him off. Thank you Cynthia and Harri. 👋
As to what Cohen meant in his lyrics, Suzanne Verdal shared her views with BBC in 1998, and in great, intimate detail, and while what she shared are her beliefs and reasoned guesses, I feel enough of a connection to Montréal, Cohen and the gravitational pull of love - and the trepidation it brings - to suggest the following: Much of the song is Cohen simply reporting what he saw, heard and felt- he has described what he did with the lyrics as journalism. Suzanne was a friend he first met when she was involved intimately with her future husband, but by 1965, that marriage was over and she was living and creating in a warehouse with a view of the St.Lawrence River along Montréal. Suzanne literally served Leonard tea and Mandarin oranges, spoke of the River and her faith then of Jesus, wore second-hand clothes and of her own poetry. Those are reflected in the lyrics: this is a song about Suzanne, not Leonard. (and first a poem by Cohen recorded by Judy Collins) Suzanne and Leonard were emotionally by not physically intimate and she too felt their connection, something he addressed when he wrote of touching perfect bodies with minds. Years later, she says Leonard made a pass at her on a visit but she rebuffed him. That awkward encounter was part of a devolving of their friendship and she later wondered if he had some sense of that future sadness when he wrote this song.
One of the greatest songwriters of all time for sure. I’m not too sure where the best place to request a reaction is but I was wondering if you’ve ever done Treaty by Yothu Yindi.
Noel Harrison (son of actor Rex) did a very good cover of this 67 or 68. It became a fairly decent hit in both the US and UK. I'd heard that long before I heard this original (still have Noel's 45.)
Harri you did a song by LC for me with Julie Felix - Hey thats no way to say goodby? Maybe thats the song you remember? All of his older songs had a similar sound to it 😊🤔😄
There was a movie made about this song with Sondra Lock and Richard Dreyfus and lots of forgotten actors of the 1970s the movie was called Suzane. Suzane was pure than Christ so she had to go the same way 1970s style
I'm grateful to Cynthia for choosing this. I just found these on RU-vid and thought that someone might be interested in how Suzanne Verdal is nowadays: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AY80R2Pb7LE.html This is only a few seconds long but just finishes the first video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e53XgGDV-7s.html
I wonder if the similar song you are thinking of is "Hope" by REM. It has the same cadence, but is electronica sounding musically. In fact, REM later shared writing credits with Leonard Cohen after realizing the similar chord progressions of "Suzanne".
The connection...Maybe is that jesus Knows "only drowning men can see him" and suzanne "shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers"... Beauty hides, sometimes dressed in rags. Humans are beautiful. Everything is fragile and full of light. "There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in."
Many of Cohen's lyrics have biblical references, perhaps partly because early in life he attended a rabbinical school. "Suzanne" has a few similarities melodically with a later piece Leo Sayer recorded (the title of which slips my mind). That likeness though is far less than the resemblance Greatest Love Of All (famously recorded by Whitney Houston) bore to Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind, which sparked a lawsuit that got quashed at Gordon's behest because it threatened the career of Whitney, who had had nothing to do with writing the later song...
Not my favorite version of this song. I thought the music overpowered his voice and dampened the power of the lyrics. I've always loved this song and the second verse contains some of the most powerful lyrics I've ever heard.
you know when he said it would be wrong to get rich from a song he wrote, and paused then people applauded his abnegation, and explained it was in fact stolen by a 'friend'
