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It was forty years ago, in 1969, that Jonathan Cape first published “Leonard Cohen, Poems 1956-1968”.
It wasn’t a particularly even collection, but it did contain “Suzanne Takes You Down”, presented as a poem.
1969 also marked the year of release of Leonard Cohen’s second album, “Songs from a Room”, which contained “Bird on a Wire”, which he’d started writing on the island of Hydra, Greece, where he’d bought a 200 year-old house in 1960.
In a 1993 interview for the magazine Song Talk, Cohen explained the origins of the line ‘Like a drunk in a midnight choir’:
"That's also set on the island. Where drinkers, me included, would come up the stairs. There was great tolerance among the people for that because it could be in the middle of the night. You'd see three guys with their arms around each other, stumbling up the stairs and singing these impeccable thirds. So that image came from the island."
From my window, I can see swallows gathering on the telephone wires.
1969 was the year of publication of the collection “Songs of Leonard Cohen, Music, Words and Photographs”, a portfolio of songs mostly from the first two albums, containing many fascinating photographs of him, and of his Swedish girlfriend, Marianne, in Greece. The back cover photograph is of Cohen’s Greek-issued international driving licence.
Born September 21, 1934, in Montreal, Canada, he will be celebrating his 75th birthday in a month's time.
On 31 March, Leonard Cohen released 'Live In London', a 2-CD collection of 25 songs from his July, 2008 performance at London's O2 Arena.
I’m listening to it here in the mountains, watching the swallows. I recommend it.
Prince Charles likes him too!
Weekly Hubris interview
