leonard cohen was one of those beautiful people of the sixties who true to the zeitgeist of that colourful and dynamic period of human history, carried their poetry and presence through song into the consciousness of the big world.
this morning i came across a cover version of cohen's song "so long, marianne" and while it began with tremendous promise, it was unable to sustain itself and so i went in search of the original which i’ll share here first . . . . i hadn’t heard it for such a long time and when i heard it today, the hairs on my neck went up and i felt shivers as if hearing it again for the first time. if you have the courage of your conviction, live alone, or just plain couldn’t care less and feel like you might want to sing along with leonard, then here are the lyrics:
"come over to the window, my little darling, i'd like to try to read your palm. i used to think i was some kind of gypsy boy before i let you take me home.
now so long, marianne, it's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.
well you know that i love to live with you, but you make me forget so very much. i forget to pray for the angels and then the angels forget to pray for us.
now so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...
we met when we were almost young deep in the green lilac park. you held on to me like i was a crucifix, as we went kneeling through the dark.
oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...
your letters they all say that you're beside me now. then why do i feel alone? i'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web is fastening my ankle to a stone.
now so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...
for now i need your hidden love. i'm cold as a new razor blade. you left when i told you i was curious, i never said that i was brave.
oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...
oh, you are really such a pretty one. i see you've gone and changed your name again. and just when i climbed this whole mountainside, to wash my eyelids in the rain!
oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ..."
while we’re on the subject of leonard cohen and women . . . "suzanne" was surely one of his biggest hits. its mournful almost desperate tune carries the lyrics like the clouds carry rain . . . the cbc did a really lovely piece detailing the origins of the song. essentially - “there was a woman named suzanne who was the wife of a friend of mine, armand vaillancourt, who is a great montreal sculptor, still a friend of mine, and his wife was suzanne vaillancourt. she invited me down to her place near the river, and she did serve me constant tea filled with little pieces of orange."
"it was a very private thing that I felt like I had with leonard," verdal recalls. "it was kind of like a very 'sympathical' wavelength thing - that we would read each other's minds. we were very in tune with each other. it was kind of strange to have it blossom into this famous song that everyone was singing."
"suzanne takes you down to her place near the river you can hear the boats go by you can spend the night beside her and you know that she's half crazy but that's why you want to be there and she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from china and just when you mean to tell her that you have no love to give her then she gets you on her wavelength and she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover and you want to travel with her and you want to travel blind and you know that she will trust you for you've touched her perfect body with your mind. and jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him he said "all men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them" but he himself was broken long before the sky would open forsaken, almost human he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone and you want to travel with him and you want to travel blind and you think maybe you'll trust him for he's touched your perfect body with his mind. now suzanne takes your hand and she leads you to the river she is wearing rags and feathers from salvation army counters and the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbour and she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers there are heroes in the seaweed there are children in the morning they are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever while suzanne holds the mirror and you want to travel with her and you want to travel blind and you know that you can trust her for she's touched your perfect body with her mind."
hi goldenrod! i don't know that he was a sad and troubled man, because of course i don't know leonard cohen. i would intuit that he had a comfort level with melancholy and was able to integrate it into a broader sense of the world as a fairly messed up but workable place in which to be a person! steven
2 comments:
I read what you wrote. I read the extensive writeup in Wiki. I went to his website. I listened to the songs that you posted.
A very sad and troubled man, I think. The words to "So long, Marianne" were absolutely lovely, but -- again, very sad. I'll be thinking of him.
hi goldenrod! i don't know that he was a sad and troubled man, because of course i don't know leonard cohen. i would intuit that he had a comfort level with melancholy and was able to integrate it into a broader sense of the world as a fairly messed up but workable place in which to be a person!
steven
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