The Prince and Me: Tuesday Tunes Part Deux

I bet you thought I forgot. But what would a regular feature be without regularity? No worries, I've taken my musical metamucil, and here's my chois for this semaine:

Suzanne by Leonard Cohen (click here for lyrics)

I remember first hearing this song during an English class in high school. My teacher at the time was a unique character, and may have been a hippie/beat nick type back in her day. At any rate, I liked the teacher, I liked the class, and so by default, I like the song. I don't really get the lyrics, and he's not the greatest singer by American Idol standards...

And though the Prince of England may enjoy more selections than just the one, I have yet to hear something else by the guy that doesn't drive one to the looney side of the toon. As some of you may recall, there was a skit on the Royal Canadian Air Farce (before it got stupid) where Roger washisname poked fun at the King of Depressing. I can only remember something about burnt toast, but he did effectively highlight the non-sunshineandlolipop-iness of Mr. Cohen.

His many authorships and discography includes such enlightening titles as:

Parasites of Heaven
Flowers for Hitler
Death of a Ladies Man

Now where are my tapping shoes when I need them? He's received the Order of Canada, and various other honours for his work.

Hey, if being morose and depressing is what gets you famous in this country, then I'm all over it.

You know, everybody has experienced loneliness and it’s one of the things that we... People suffer and, err, there’s always going to be a tradition of song that tries to name that kind of sorrow and... Maybe some of my songs are in that tradition. But I think it’s a legitimate tradition, I think it’s really, those songs are really useable. I am not just talking about my own, you know. There are times when you don’t want to hear somebody rejoicing about everything if you don’t feel that way, but if somebody can name a certain kind of sorrow that you yourself are experiencing, that can be very valuable to you.

- Leonard Cohen, March 2nd 1985