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• Wednesday, June 21, 2006 10:18 AM

  What you didn't know about Cohen's Suzanne

  Hate to harsh the Cohen buzz, but here's a little something you probably didn't know.

  Sure, I'd been a Cohen fan since the beginning and for years, the song "Suzanne" represented a defining period in my life – the emergence into something new....you know, all that peace and love stuff.

  Then in the late 90's after returning from a trip to India, I went in to pick up my photos from a small custom photo shop in Northern California. The sprightly young woman behind the counter was enthralled with the pictures. They reminded her of how she and her mother had been club entertainers, dancing in costumes that looked like those in the photos.

  She reached under the counter and pulled out a well-worn album. It was filled with aging photos of the two of them. As we thumbed through the pages together, she, without making much of it, casually added, "You probably don't remember the song, 'Suzanne' by Leonard Cohen, but my mother was that Suzanne."

  I resisted the urge to throw myself at her feet in unabashed reverence. She explained how she and her mom had lived in a warehouse on the waterfront-- just the two of them. It was a frightening time for a little girl, but her mom was a free spirit and that was just the way life was. And yes, when "Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river, you can hear the boats go by..."

  From the sounds of it, Cohen was more than just a causal platonic friend, contrary to how he tells it. She recalled how her mom and Cohen would dance in the street together in the middle of the night.

  Then later, after he and the song had become famous, he dropped in once to see her. Her mother asked him to dance with her in the street. When he refused, she pleaded with him. But Cohen had gotten too big to be seen with the likes of her in public. Suzanne was crushed and felt used by Cohen.

  I asked where her mother was now. Tragically, the last time she had heard, Suzanne was living on the streets in Los Angeles.

  —sayrock Read sayrock's other letters
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