This little game has become more difficult than first anticipated. While strolling down that musical memory lane, I realized there isn't too much I wouldn't still listen to.
Late the other night, I was tossing song titles out to Kman to see if he remembered them, searching for the next atrocity to add to my short list of "What Was I Thinking...". When I mentioned "Suzanne" he groaned appropriately, and thus sealed its fate.
The Canadian answer in the 60's (and some would argue more talented) to the great musician and lyricist, Bob Dylan, was Leonard Cohen. Cohen is undeniably a very gifted poet/songwriter and I won't dispute his musical contributions.
However...
In 1967, Noel Harrison recorded a Cohen song, Suzanne. At age 13 I was enamoured of Noel Harrison, his curly blonde locks and that soft British accent. With my trusty tape recorder, I waited until the song was on the radio (probably KFJZ) and taped Suzanne so I could memorize all the lyrics. My teenaged heart would sigh and weep with each anguished line:
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's 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 you've 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 you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
As I searched the web for a soundclip, I realized I still knew all the lyrics, and had no trouble finding that youthful tone-deaf voice of yore to sing along. Only now, with a few years of maturity under my saddle, I feel slightly barfy at the thought of someone touching my "perfect" body with their minds...
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