European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 13, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Suzanne lakes you Down to fist place by the fiver you can hear the boats go by. You can stay the night beside her. Leonard Cohen by Richard Harrington Washington Postl Eonard Cohen once described by rolling Stone As the poet laureate of outrage and romantic despair. The aficionado of gloom is serenely sipping Tea in a new Roix. Hotel. " you go in and out of affection Lor old material Cohen is saying of his most famous song and you d Tike to be loved Lor things you re doing now. But it has a real place in my so called career and people do want to head ii. Ii can stand Twenty one years Aller Judy Collins version of Suzanne made motion a Semi household name he s still the Eminence Grise of Art song his legacy evident no Only in his work but in the Loik confessions of Suzanne Vega and the an Skock of the Smiths and the cure. Cohen now 53, tends to Gray from the swop1, Hack Waves of his hair and his elegant suits Miami vice once cast him As an Interpol agent to the somber sonority of his Gravelly world weary voice. His manner is Cool and elegant befitting a Man who s published As Many books As he s made records 10 of each. Next year will bring a new collection of Cohen s poems dating Back Oletus compare mythologies published in 1956 when a was sir a undergraduate at Mcgill University in Canada. At once Trie wandering minstrel and the entered citizen Cohen has Homes in a Ondicol los Angeles and Paris where his former companion raises their two teen age children. One month every year. Is spent in a zen monastery in new Mexico he s been meditating for 20 years. Cohen s latest album i m your Man has attracted the usual accolades and in Europe at least has achieved some commercial Success it sold 500,000 copies there in the first five months of release and was no1 in Norway for 17. Weeks. There s an annual Leonard Cohen festival in Krakow. Poland and he remains a concert draw on a continent where commercial Success is one. Yardstick but not the Only one. In North America his native Canada and adopted states York. And California the numbers Are More modest Leonard Cohen remains a. Critic s pet and a cull artist with minuscule sates. His widest popularity came in the Early 70s, particularly with his somber soundtrack Tor Robert Altman s Mccabe arid mrs. Miller. He s still with lbs bul m vow Mart was his first album Lor the Label in nine years its two predecessors were done with Small independents \ which made for a certain irony when lbs gave Cohen its Crystal Globe award Lor sales of s million albums outside the United Stales. the ceremony Cohen looked calmly at the lbs troops. And said Over the years i be been deeply touched by the modesty of your interest in my work.". And when i m four Man came Oul he. Sent a letter to each member by the tee like there la a swam of bees buzzing around in my head and i m trying to move with a certain balance from one moment to the grading of Leonard Cohen promotional staff enclosing two very wrinkled Dollar Bills and asking them to make Calls on the album s behalf. Even though the Date of the letter was april 1, some of the c6s folks sent he Money Back. /. They re very scrupulous spirits says Cohen chuckling. It s been two decades now since songs of Leonard Cohen appeared and established him As the Champion of Grise Ous despair. If his Ashen artful lyrics exhibited an uncommon Lair for poetic detail it was because writing was Cohen s first calling not music. By 1967, he d already published Lour poetry collections including the spice Box of Earth an Flowers Lor hitter and two novels in 1963 the favorite game Aboul a s coming of age in Montreal and in 1966 the confessional Beautiful losers. He might have been the Bright Hope of Canadian literature but for All the books to his credit to could t gel credit at a five and Dima. I had been living in Greece during the Folk Renaissance in the Early and mid .6qs so i was unaware of it. I had published my second novel but it became Clear to me i could t make a living As a writer even though i d received glorious reviews i could t sell any books. So t decided i would become a Singer. I played guitar and i d already written songs so i thought i d go Down to Nashville make a country album and. Rescue myself. On the Way Down from Montreal i stopped in new York and became aware that there was something going on there. And while i was slaying Trie Chelsea hotel,.l met Judy Collins i sort of got ambushed in new York City and Felt a great kinship with Many of the singers who were around Lime so i kept going Between Montreal and Mew in fact Cohen was Back in Montreal when he finished a song he thought. Collins might like. He called her in nework Sang Suzanne Over the phone and Collins immediately decided to . Suzanne became one of the most Well known ballads of the 60s. On the basis of that recording i was Able to establish. Some credentials in the Racket Cohen says John Hammond who had already signed Bob Dylan and would later sign Bruce Springsteen to lbs invited me up for a contract soon followed and at age 33, Cohen made his first., record. " -.-. People once said i had All she musically of a Cement mixer Cohen grumbles. When Singer Jennifer Warnes recorded her Cohen songbook famous Blue Raincoat a critical favorite in 1986 that spurred new interest in Cohen s careerist was amusing for me to see thai in almost every review of her album and they were generally extravagantly positive everyone went Oul of their Way to Point out that at last we have versions of these songs that to can listen to ". Was his Pride Hurt not Cohen eventually made it Down to Nashville for two albums that reflected his first musical excursions As a collegiate guitarist in a country band called the Buckskin boys. Before that he d been deeply moved by Tho music he heard in Montreal s synagogues. The thing i like about cantorial music and protest music of the Early 60s was thai Here seemed to be a sacramental relationship Between the Singer and the audience. They gathered in the name of something and i suppose i prefer that kind of his own songs often straddled the spiritual and Tho politically personal prayers for a new age. Like Many other poets and certain songwriters. Cohen seemed to suggest that the oldest human instinct is to love to be needed to depend on others that in a world in which traditional values Are continually skewed nothing else of value remains. They Are leaning Oul Tor love and they will lean that Way forever goes the line from Suzanne. For Cohen the heart has always been both the Center of a storm of doubts insecurities and longings and i no very shelter from thai storm in his recent work familiar themes of personal despair and release have expanded with the Universal wrapping around the personal i feel like there is a swarm of bees bulling around in my head and i m trying to move with a certain balance from one moment to another he says i know that a lot of my friends Are in trouble. A lot of my friends Are on medication. The Lerm clinical depression finds its Way into lab Many conversations these Days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape and in the physical landscape. But i be been speaking like this a Long time 1-.-, he cites a 10-year-old Lyric whose commentary seems prophetic in its Kilic Pallon of everything irom spiritual corruption and social betrayal to the greenhouse effect and aids. Too Early Lor the Rainbow Loo Early " North Dove those Are the final Days this is the darkness this is the rap which was discounted As part of my religious obsession seems to have become at least a possibility no says. So then the question becomes what is the appropriate behaviour for a Man or a woman in the midst of this. Where each person is clinging to his. Piece of debris what is the proper salutation Between people As they pass each other in this flood those Are the things that concern me in my work today.". Sunday november 13,. 1988 the stars and stripes Page 17
