Suzanne: With Leonard, it happened more in the beginning of the sixties. Does that make sense to you? With the death of Marianne Ihlen recently I trawled through the net looking for recent information on Suzanne Verdal. I took all that moment for granted. Suzanne: Yes, he did, coming from Leonard, it did. Suzanne: Well, that could be. Saunders: When did you then strike up this friendship that Leonard Cohen describes in song? Saunders: He writes, ‘you know that she’s half crazy but that’s why you want to be there.’ Did that mean half crazy with unhappiness or just eccentric, bohemian? Saunders: Did either of you ever try to take it a stage further and make it more physically intimate or become lovers? Saunders: So Leonard Cohen saw you when you were a young girl in love? When Dove is your totem you have a love for words, a love to sing, you might love poetry, and you may be on a life path to bring peace into the world with your words. Saunders: Leonard Cohen finally ended up embracing spiritualism in the Mt. Please help Suzanne Verdal McAllister to get off the street. Suzanne: It was maybe several months into my relationship with Armand, which was mostly based on being dancing partners together. Now the words have more meaning in a sense, because there’s a kind of detachment in the song that I hear now, that I didn’t hear then. Poets, when they have a vision or an image, of course, use that. Verdal wurde erst durch eine Bekannte auf das Lied aufmerksam, die sie darin sofort erkannt hatte. She lives in a trailer in California these day but looks pretty happy with things. [4] Zu dieser Zeit entwickelte sie eine Freundschaft zu Leonard Cohen, die von kurzer Dauer war. Seit den 1990er Jahren lebt sie in Santa Monica in Kalifornien. Sie wohnte unter anderem in Frankreich und Texas. If you have any unfortunate news that this page should be update with, please let us know using this form. I just would speak and I would move and I would encourage and he would just kind of like sit back and grin while soaking it all up and I wouldn’t always get feedback, but I felt his presence really being with me. Saunders: So would you say in a way, in the spiritual sense, you were great lovers at some level? I was going to say, he is almost your audience. Once when he was visiting Montreal, I saw him briefly in a hotel and it was a very, very wonderful, happy moment because he was on his way to becoming the great success he is. Suzanne: Yes, I agree and I believe it’s material forces at hand that do this to many the greatest of lovers (laughs). Saunders: Again this is put in the song but then he says, ‘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.’ What does that mean? Leonard Cohen dead: Canadian singer's heartbreaking final letter to dying muse Marianne Ihlen ‘We are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I … Suzanne: Flattered somewhat. IT was the letter of love that touched the world – singer Leonard Cohen’s last words to his most passionate partner. Many other artists have recorded versions, and it has become one of the most-covered songs in Cohen's catalogue. There was the activism. in 1992 with his son Kahlil. You know I don’t think I was quite as sad as that, albeit maybe I was and he perceived that and I didn’t. [6] Nach der Trennung von ihrem Ehemann traf sich Verdal im Sommer 1965[4] wiederholt in ihrem Haus mit Cohen, der inzwischen als Autor und Poet ein Renommee erworben hatte und zu dieser Zeit eine Beziehung mit Marianne Ihlen führte. Saunders: It seems very sad that the spirits moved apart. Saunders: After you’d heard this very intimate song, when did you meet Leonard Cohen again, after you’d heard it, and how had your relationship changed, if at all? Q: Is your mom Suzanne, the same Suzanne from the song? I stayed true to art for art’s sake but he moved on and I stayed true to the cause, as it were. Suzanne: Well, I think the river is the river of life and that river, the St. Lawrence River that we shared, tied us together. UPDATE: In recent years Verdal, a former dancer, became homeless, drifting … Died: 29 July, 2016, in Oslo, aged 81. Da sie keine Einnahmen mehr erzielte, verlor sie ihre Unterkunft und lebte einige Jahre in einem Wohnmobil. You can almost be said to have created this song yourself. Suzanne is alive and kicking and is currently 81 years old. She fell backward several years ago and broke her back and from then on has been living in her truck. Like Cohen, Suzanne Verdal was Canadian. I guess I miss the simpler times that we lived and shared. And I would speak about life and poetry and we’d share ideas. As you may or may not know, it launched him as a songwriter, I suppose. Check out IMDb's highest-rated movies and TV shows of 2020, most-viewed trailers, top stars, memorable moments, and more! And then I was introduced to Leonard at Le Vieux Moulin, I think in the presence of Armand, in fact. It’s a very intimate lyric, very, very intimate. The cause of death: pernicious anemia. [4] Zu Verdals Besonderheiten gehörten ihre selbst genähten Kleidungsstücke, für die sie vielfach auf Materialien aus der Altkleidersammlung der Heilsarmee zurückgriff. Nach der Trennung ließ sich Verdal zusammen mit ihrer Tochter in einem verfallenen Gebäude am Hafen von Montréal nahe dem Sankt-Lorenz-Strom nieder. Ungeachtet ihrer regionalen Bekanntheit in Kreisen der Bohémiens hatte sie in dieser Zeit nur geringe Einkünfte. What came later was not remaining friends with Leonard and not knowing why. [4] Verdals Beziehung zu Cohen endete, als sie 1966 in die USA zog. Sie kombinierte klassischen, modernen und ethnischen Tanz. Suzanne Verdal inspired Leonard Cohen's song "Suzanne".Here is her story. Despite what many people believe,she was not a girlfriend of his but they had a platonic friendship. Suzanne è stata pubblicata come poesia nel 1966 con il titolo di Suzanne Takes You Down, successivamente incisa come canzone da Judy Collins, nell'album In my Life, e finalmente registrata da Cohen nel 1967.La canzone prende spunto dalla profonda amicizia, e dall'inconfessato desiderio di una relazione carnale, tra l'autore e Suzanne Verdal, moglie, ai … Adam Cohen: My father actually wrote the song before meeting my mother, but says he wrote it to summon her.1. she and her son built on the back of a truck". We’d walk down the street for instance, and the click of our shoes, his boots and my shoes, would be like in synchronicity. Suzanne: One of our mutual friends mentioned to me, ‘Did you hear the wonderful poem that Leonard wrote for you’ or about you and I said no, because I had been away traveling and I wasn’t aware of it. Suzanne Verdal (* 1944), zeitweise auch Suzanne Vaillancourt, ist eine kanadische Tänzerin und Choreografin, die in den 1960er-Jahren in ihrer Heimat regionale Berühmtheit erlangte.Sie gilt als Muse des Sängers und Songwriters Leonard Cohen, der sie in seinem Lied Suzanne porträtierte und seine Beziehung zu ihr beschrieb. Saunders: So it really was the tea and oranges that are in the song? You must do this and being used is not even part of it at the time. Suzanne: Oh yes. She is now homeless in Venice Beach, California, USA, where she lives in her automobile. Verdals Teezeremonie findet sich in Cohens Text („And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China“) ebenso wie ihre Neigung, ihre Kleidung von der Heilsarmee zu beziehen. [2] Nach dem Ende der Schulzeit arbeitete sie in Montreal. She was the muse that inspired Leonard's song "Suzanne". Saunders: The song is about the meeting of spirits. good question. Cohen's friend Suzanne Verdal fed him a black tea with pieces of orange rind in it. Schließlich bestätigt Cohen in seinem Gedicht auch die rein platonische Qualität seiner Beziehung zu „Suzanne“, indem er beschreibt, dass er ihren Körper lediglich in seinen Gedanken berührt habe („you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind“). [8] Dem ist Verdal allerdings mehrfach entgegengetreten; sie habe Cohens Annäherungen wiederholt zurückgewiesen. Saunders: So it almost has become a symbol of your youth, if you like? Where were you that night, do you remember? the images of suzanne i have seen show an attractive lady who's expression doesn't seem particularly one of anger. ( divorced) ( 1 child) Trivia (2) Bohemian dancer who met poet and musician Leonard Cohen in Montreal in the 1960's. Über ihren Ehemann lernte Verdal zu Beginn der 1960er-Jahre den zehn Jahre älteren Leonard Cohen kennen, der seit längerem mit Vaillancourt befreundet war. She was a key figure amongst the artistic community of Montreal. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen performed it as his debut single, from his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. most people can be a little apprehensive concerning admirers of their partner, unless there is no love in the … But we didn’t really strike a note together until maybe three or four years later. Suzanne Verdal absolvierte ihre Schulausbildung in einem Internat in Ontario. "It's completely accurate." The half crazy could pertain to the sadness, but I think it was because I was so on a creative drive and the focuses were so strong in spite of any private grief I may have about my break up with Armand and the wheres and whys. [4] Das Paar hat eine Tochter. Many think Cohen’s wife Suzanne Elrod was the inspiration for his song, but it was Verdal, the former wife of Montreal sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, who served as muse. Suzanne erschien zunächst in dem 1966 veröffentlichten Album, Niederschrift eines BBC-Interviews mit Suzanne Verdal vom Juni 1998, Programmliste des Senders BBC Radio 4 vom 23. Moira Nordholt is pledging $1 per km/mile on a trip from California to the Northwest Territory to help our dear friend, Suzanne. That doesn’t exist. Narrator: Now, "You Probably Think This Song Is about You" and a trip back to the early 60’s in Montreal to meet a young dancer married to Armand, a handsome sculptor. What does the song mean to you now, as you look back on it? They help … And surprisingly, the lyrics of the song – which Cohen wrote originally as a poem – are quite literal. Suzanne Elrod is known as the companion of famous singer Leonard Cohen. Suzanne: That’s right, absolutely. Suzanne: Yes, and I guess he retained that. Suzanne: The Beat scene was beautiful. She was 39. And there’s sometimes a very real homesickness for Montreal and that wonderful time. Our relationship did change with time. That’s their material. That is me still, yes. They had a platonic relationship and she was the inspiration for one of Cohen's most famous songs, "Suzanne." Suzanne left Montreal in 1992 with his son Kahlil. Said Cohen, "Everyone was in love with Suzanne." [3] Im Alter von 18 Jahren wurde sie professionelle Tänzerin und formte wenig später mit anderen in Montréal ein Ensemble für Modernen Tanz. Suzanne is the Mother of Two Children They had two children together, Adam and Lorca, before separating in the mid-'70s. They met each other at a Scientology class. I would always light a candle and serve tea and it would be quiet for several minutes, then we would speak. In ihrem Haus veranstaltete Verdal für Cohen Teezeremonien, in denen sie chinesischen Tee mit Orangenschalen servierte. 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