Nick Cave - Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, Live

Nick Cave in Leonard Cohen's song Suzanne

Suzanne takes you down to her place newer the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that shes half crazy
But thats 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 youve 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 youve 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 youll trust him
For hes touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now suzanne takes you 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 she will trust you
For shes touched your perfect body with her mind

Judy Collins sings Cohen's "Suzanne" Live-acoustic:

"Grammy-award winning singer and songwriter Judy Collins has reached a folk-goddess pedestal in a career that spans almost 50 years. But lately, she has also emerged as a funny Irish-American storyteller. She joins us to talk about her songs, show-tunes and social activism."

"Phrasing suffers somewhat to the melodic flow of the piano but to see her proficiency on the keyboard is well worth the exchange."        dancgear

"Saw Judy in 1993, grew up listening to her. Nothing can compare to her voice.....the only one who comes close is Judy Garland...but they are vastly different, but sublime in their own ways."        vgoth100

Judy Collins - Interview about Leonard Cohen, "Suzanne":

Judy Collins & Leonard Cohen - "Suzanne" Live, Chicago (1976):

"They never recorded anything together. The only duet that exists is this clip, and another song, from this 1976 TV broadcast. On Judy's upcoming album, due in May, she will have a duet with Stephen Stills and another with Joan Baez. That's not the same, I know, but still newsworthy."

"Pour une très large part c'est Judy Collins qui a fait de Lenny Cohen un artiste de scène, il lui a chanté Suzanne au téléphone, elle l'a enregistrée et publiée avant lui (sans même le copyright officiel) cela a "débloqué" Cohen avec le succès que l'on sait. Bravo à tous deux."

LEONACOHEN interview, on JUDY COLLINS and "Suzanne":RD 

"Leonard Cohen talks about meeting Judy Collins, and later singing "Suzanne" to her over the telephone. Judy Collins talks about the night she brought Leonard with her to sing at a concert at New York's Town Hall."

In any case, 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).

The song "Suzanne" was first recorded by Judy Collins the same year, and appeared on her 1966 album In My Life. It was later released by Cohen himself on his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen

The song was also performed and recorded by Nina Simone in several occasions. It appears in her album Tell It Like It Is, in a live version at the Philarmonic Hall New York in 1969. It also appears in her album Just Like A Woman, where she sings classic songs of the '60s.

Other notable early versions were by Noel Harrison (whose recording was a minor hit) and seminal British folk-rock group Fairport Convention.^<4> In fact Fairport Convention were among Cohen's earliest admirers, and their take on "Suzanne" was sung as a duet between Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews for the BBC in August 1968; the recording was released on their BBC sessions compilation Heyday.

It has since been covered by many other artists.^<1> Early versions of "Suzanne" included those by Pearls Before Swine, Françoise Hardy, and Harry Belafonte. The song was recorded by Joan Baez on her 1975 double album, From Every Stage. Bruce Springsteen supposedly performed the song at least once early in his career as a member of The Castiles. Some foreign remakes of the song include the Dutch version by Herman van Veen in 1969 (there also exists a Dutch song called "Suzanne" by VOF de Kunst from 1983, but that is a different song) and the Italian version by Fabrizio de André in 1984. Journey took their version to number 17 on Billboard's Top 40. The British experimental rock group The Flying Lizards released a version with detached, cold vocals sung over dark samples on their 1984 LP Top Ten. Peter Gabriel recorded a syncopated version of "Suzanne" for the Leonard Cohen tribute album Tower of Song, and Geoffrey Oryema performed it on the earlier tribute I'm Your Fan. Tori Amos performed this song during her Original Sinsuality Tour in 2005. James Taylor took his own approach onto it as part of his 2008 album Covers.

Samplers have found use for "Suzanne" as well. Robert McKay used lines from Cohen's poem as chapter headers 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. UK guitar-wielding rapper Plan B sampled the song for his Paint It Blacker mixtape, detailing a fictionalised account of a prostitute killed by the Camden Ripper and dumped in the river. "Suzanne" recorded in french by Sylvie Vartan on her 2007 Nouvelle Vague album. The band R.E.M. gave Cohen a joint songwriting credit 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.

My first contact with the work of this talent author, singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist, was when hearing the "Suzanne" song that it is part of the first album on studio called "Songs of Leonard Cohen", published in1968 (Cohen had 34 years); since i followed always its work there, and proves today that Cohen was very successful in world music; with all the merit! (in this days have 74 years, on last September 21); Congratulations Mr. Cohen!

** 8 / 9 **

p.s. - and Mr. Leonard Cohen, by the way , who is the Suzanne...?lol