Fanciful musings on the backstory of Cohen's 'Suzanne'

November 5, 2018 5:05 AM

With a playful twist, this piece imagines the scenario that developed to produce one of Leonard Cohen's earliest hit songs.

Montreal, in the 1960s. "It's a tale of love and loss, and what comes after. Poetry plays a part. Not all the characters are beautiful... My job is to encourage hesitant lovers to take the risk." Romance aside, a wonderfully creative perspective.

posted by TruthfulCalling (9 comments total)

That was delicious.

Thank you.
posted by notsnot at 6:38 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I guess I prefer it when the NYT publishes bad fanfic about Leonard Cohen instead of about sad coal miners, but I'm still recovering from accidentally clicking on the video.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:06 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I heard this third hand and have told it here before. Colleague had a female friend, who ended up in a one night stand with him, some time way back in the 60s.

She awakens to see him putting on his clothes quietly, predawn.

"You don't have to leave," she beckons.

"Poet, gotta go."
posted by Meatbomb at 8:50 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

and here I thought it was about heroin.
posted by philip-random at 9:30 AM on November 5, 2018

In the fall of 1967 I lived down the block from Our Lady of the Harbor, in an ancient and very cold building on the southwest corner of Notre Dame and Bon Secours. We got a copy of his album when it came out and it spoke to us, for us. If I ever met him, I didn't know who he was.
posted by mareli at 11:48 AM on November 5, 2018

Even more embarrassing than the trembling tweeness of this piece is the fact that the writer is totally ignorant of his subject. "Unknown even by poets’ standards"/"unhandsome poet" – these are straight-up lies ffs.
posted by cincinnatus c at 6:19 AM on November 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

This 1965 (i.e. before the songs) documentary about the young poet disproves both these falsehoods: Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen.
posted by cincinnatus c at 7:17 AM on November 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

What an amazing documentary!

„He isn‘t primarily a stand up comic...“
posted by Omnomnom at 2:25 PM on November 6, 2018

Leonard Cohen’s Afterlife: A posthumous collection, finished days before his death, reveals the artist at his most intimate
posted by homunculus at 5:30 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]