Suzanne (Leonard Cohen song)

"Suzanne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen himself recorded it for his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. Many other artists have recorded versions, and it has become one of the most-covered songs in Cohen's catalogue.[1]
In 2006, Pitchfork Media listed the song #41 on their list of "The Top Songs of the 1960s".[2]
==Background==
"Suzanne" was inspired by Cohen's platonic relationship with Suzanne Verdal, the then girlfriend of sculptorArmand Vaillancourt. Its lyrics describe the rituals that they enjoyed when they met: Suzanne would invite Cohen to visit her apartment by the harbour inMontreal, where she would serve him Constant Comment tea, and they would walk around Old Montreal past the church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, where sailors were blessed before heading out to sea.[3]
Verdal was interviewed by CBC News's The National in 2006 about the song. Verdal says that she and Cohen never had a sexual relationship,[4] contrary to what someINTERPRETATIONS of the song suggest. Cohen himself stated in a 1994 BBC interview that he only imagined having sex with her, as there was neither the opportunity nor inclination to actually go through with it.[5] She says she has met Cohen twice since the song's initial popularity; once after a concert Cohen performed in the 1970s and once in passing in the 1990s when she danced for him, but Cohen did not speak to her (and possibly did not recognise her). Verdal never benefitedFINANCIALLY from the song's enormous commercial success.[6]
Cohen has stated that he was duped into giving up the rights for the song but stated that he was glad it happened as it would be wrong to write a song that was so well loved and to get rich for it also.[7]
Its lyrics first appeared as the poem "Suzanne Takes You Down" in Cohen's 1966 book of poetry Parasites of Heaven, admittedly because of lack of new material (lyrics to a few other songs from his subsequent 1967 debut album were also printed in the book).
==Recordings and cover versions==
The song "Suzanne" was first recorded by Judy Collins, and appeared on her 1966 album In My Life. It was later released by Cohen himself on his debut albumSongs of Leonard Cohen.
Other notable early versions were by Noel Harrison, whose recording was a minor hit,[8] and in 1969, Herman van Veen's Dutch version reached fourth place on the Dutch Top 40 list. Anni-Frid Lyngstad ("Frida" of ABBA fame) also recorded a version of the song with Swedish lyrics by Owe Junsjö for "Frida", her 1971 début album
It has since been covered by many other artists,[1] including a young Bruce Springsteen in his band the Castiles.[9]
Samples from "Suzanne" have also been used: Robert McKay used lines from Cohen's poem as chapter titles in his 1969 young adult novel Dave's Song. Verses of the song are played intermittently throughout the 1974 movie The Second Coming of Suzanne, starring Sondra Locke, Paul Sand, Jared Martin and Richard Dreyfuss. Rapper Plan B sampled the song for his Paint It Blacker mixtape, detailing a fictionalisedACCOUNT of a prostitute killed by the Camden Ripper and dumped in the river. The band R.E.M. gave Cohen a joint songwritingCREDIT for their song "Hope" (on their 1998 album Up), in light of the similarity between the two songs. R.E.M. describe themselves as realising that similarity only after completing the song.
==Use in the media==
===Film===
The song forms the opening and closing theme for the 1974 film "The Second Coming of Suzanne"
The song forms the theme for the final scene of Cohen's short movie I Am a Hotel released in 1983.
It's also used in one of the intermezzos in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.
Nick Cave performed the song in the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.
The song is featured in the Werner Herzog movie Fata Morgana.
The song is featured in A Home at the End of the World (2004).
The song is played as a slow-motion backdrop to film of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in Adam Curtis's 2011 documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.
The song is played in the 1987 Icelandic movie Skytturnar where a woman plays the song on her stereo but the two main characters are dissatisfied with the song and instead play an Icelandic country song.
The song is featured in the final minutes of Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs Miller".
The song is featured in Jean-Marc Vallée's 2014 American biographical drama film Wild.
===Other===
A portion of the lyrics introduces Ken Kesey's novel Sailor Song.
==External links==
*Chords of this Song at tabfan.com
Category:1968 singles