Suzanne (song)
| Suzanne | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leonard Cohen | |
| publication | 1966/67 |
| length | 3:48 |
| Genre (s) | Folk , pop music |
| Author (s) | Leonard Cohen |
| album | Songs of Leonard Cohen |
Suzanne is a song by the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen . It was first released in 1966 by American folk singer Judy Collins and appeared on Cohen's debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen the following year . As one of Cohen's most famous songs, Suzanne caused numerous musicians to do cover versions . Pitchfork Media lists the song at # 41 on the list of Top Songs of the 1960s .
Emergence
The song is about Suzanne Verdal , a young dancer who Cohen mid-1960s in the Beatnik - jazz club Le Vieux Moulin in Montreal had met. The free- spirited Verdal, who was in a relationship with the sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, a friend of Cohen's, was considered the muse of numerous beatniks. At the time she lived in an idyllic house on the St. Lawrence River , where Cohen visited her regularly in the summer of 1965. The two drank tea by candlelight, ate oranges and had an intensive exchange of ideas while they walked along the river to the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (also known as Sailor's Chapel ). Cohen recorded all of these impressions in the lines he first published as Suzanne Brings You Down in 1966 in the collection of poems Parasites of Heaven .
Verdal later reported a purely platonic , almost spiritual love affair. The line of the song “ For you've touched her perfect body with your mind ” suggests an unrequited passion of Cohen, but it remains unclear whether the song was intended as a declaration of love. In any case, a long-term relationship did not develop, only a short time later Suzanne Verdal left Montreal. Only later did she find out about the poem that Cohen had set to music at the urging of the folk singer Judy Collins . Collins took over the song in 1966 for her album In My Life . In July 1967 Cohen sang the song for the first time in New York's Central Park with Collins. In the same year, Suzanne finally appeared on his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen . Besides Hallelujah , Suzanne is considered Leonard Cohen's most frequently covered work.
Suzanne Verdal now lives in Santa Monica, California . In 2011 she was interviewed by Markus Heidingsfelder for the film documentary Girls in Popsongs . She said that after a few brief, rather superficial encounters in the past, she was no longer in contact with Cohen.
structure
In the album version from 1967 ( Songs of Leonard Cohen ) the song is performed by Cohen in spoken chant , accompanied by a simple 3/4 time chord progression on acoustic guitar (E - Esus4 for the intro, later followed by an arpeggio from E and F sharp minor (short F # m) and a change to G # m - A) as well as time changes to 2/4 and 4/4. During the course of the song, backing vocals from the group Kaleidoscope join in , which acted as backing band on the album .
Cover versions
Suzanne has been performed by numerous solo artists and music groups such as Tori Amos , Joan Baez , Nick Cave , Fairport Convention , Fabrizio de André (Italian), Neil Diamond , The Flying Lizards , Peter Gabriel , Françoise Hardy , Pauline Julien (French), Nana Mouskouri , Václav Neckář (Czech), Nina Simone , Bruce Springsteen , Tangerine Dream , Suzanne Doucet (German) or Herman van Veen and Graeme Allwright arranged , interpreted or translated.
literature
- Michael Heatley: The girl from the song . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89602-579-1 , pp. 200-205.
Web links
- The Story of Suzanne - Suzanne Verdal McCallister interviewed by Kate Saunders (English)
- Lyrics (with chords for guitar and German translation)
- Interview with Susanne Verdal 2011. Video on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s . Pitchfork Media. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
- ↑ a b A Thousand Covers Deep: Leonard Cohen Covered by Other Artists. Retrieved August 6, 2011 .
- ↑ markusheidingsfelder.de: Filmography
- ↑ Girls in Pop Songs. (No longer available online.) ARTE .tv, archived from the original on February 2, 2015 ; accessed on May 31, 2020 .