Suzanne

Leonard Cohen’s hit song from his 1967 debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen – launched his song writing and recording career which was to endure almost 50 years. It was a song audiences waited for at his performances and that Cohen would play for them solo presenting nothing but voice and guitar lending a focus to the words.

Cohen made it clear in numerous comments that the song was a simple ‘documentation’ of events, places and imagery designed to capture the attraction, religious culture and atmosphere of his home city.

The song has three verses. The first elaborating on a social visit Cohen pays to Suzanne (Verdal – the then wife of Armand Vaillancourt, a friend of Cohen’s) and highlights the author’s perspective of the meeting. The second verse deals with the person of Christ and His significance to humankind. The third verse elaborates on Suzanne as a powerful symbol of womanhood. The chorus ties all three characters and verses together with a slight but significant alteration for each character. Particular attention needs to be given to the use of metaphor and imagery and the dynamics of these elements within the song.

The song opens with Suzanne taking Cohen to her place near the river (the old Port of Montreal). Through the evening he can hear the sounds of boats making their way along the St. Lawrence River. He is charmed by the personality of Suzanne who graciously serves him tea and oranges. At some point later in the evening Cohen prepares to tell Suzanne that the visit and the relationship can go no further. It is the last two lines of the verse that open an entirely new aspect to the visit. Something about Suzanne has Cohen thinking that this event is more than a simple visit with a delightful woman whose personality has enamoured him. As Cohen puts it: She lets the river answer/ That you’ve always been her lover. And it’s those lines that move the lyric to another level. Something has happened here, an awakening of a deeper understanding of the significance of Suzanne in Cohen’s mind. We don’t have a complete understanding of what has happened yet—but it’s only the first verse. A more complete elaboration will develop as the song unfolds.

The chorus which follows is a continuation of the perspective of the author and builds on the final lines of the first verse. As a lover it makes sense: you want to travel with her and you want to travel blind. You know that she will trust you – not hope, not wish, not think – you know she will trust you. The connection with Suzanne is deep and solid. Also, the connection is not a physical one: ‘you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind’. This relationship is beyond the common. This connection, this woman, this experience has resonated profoundly with the author. As the song continues in the second verse the resonance is linked with other things which help to define its nature.

In the next verse Cohen draws our attention to the person of Jesus and His significance to humanity. Stating that Jesus was a sailor when He walked on water is setting up a metaphor. Christ never was a sailor, so referring to Him as one is meant to serve a particular purpose. The sailor reference is made in conjunction with Jesus’ walking on water and according to the biblical accounts this was the point at which the apostles first recognized and believed in the divine station of Jesus. More to the point, it was during a storm at sea when the apostles feared for their lives that they saw Jesus approaching them on the water. When Peter leaves the boat to go to Christ his fear of the wind and storm caused him to begin sinking and he asked Jesus to save him. Christ reaches out to him and takes him back to the boat saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The storm subsides and the apostles declare their faith in Christ.

The biblical reference Cohen uses is important. Consider the following lines: “And when He knew for certain/Only drowning men could see Him/He said all men will be sailors then/Until the sea shall free them”. To put the metaphor in clear terms, we are all ‘sailors’ on the sea of life and it is only when the troubles and strife of life cause us the greatest concern that our hearts are freed and willing to turn to a greater power for assistance. While the ‘sea of life’ can be such a test for us, Jesus dominates it and walks on it in spite of the raging storms. Such a (metaphorical) ability and knowledge and understanding of the human condition could be of immeasurable value to us. But what is our assessment of the value of Christ? Apparently, the lyrics say, in general we hold it to be of little significance – Jesus sinks beneath our wisdom like a stone (tossed into water sinks below its surface).

The chorus following verse two is essentially the same as that following verse one with the exception that the binding connection, although somewhat tenuous (you think maybe you’ll trust Him), is with Jesus. The similarities of the connection have to be understood as deliberate. The connection with Suzanne like the connection with Jesus is of the same nature, yet different in application. The connection is one of love. Love between man and woman as with Suzanne, and love of humankind for the divine, for the spiritual nature of our reality.

The water imagery Cohen uses is the only imagery to run through all three verses. Its meaning and qualities have been defined in the second verse. As a symbol of life it carries a much deeper meaning now than what we may have understood in the first verse. Recall that the song opens with Suzanne taking you to her place near the river — what significance does that now carry knowing that the river (water) stands for life? And those cryptic final lines: “She lets the river answer/That you’ve always been her lover” are, perhaps, more understandable, but will be further clarified in verse three.

Verse three develops the distinctiveness of Suzanne. She takes you by the hand and she leads you to the river (life). She is wearing “rags and feathers/From Salvation Army counters” requires some explanation for those not raised in the 1960’s culture. Suzanne is in the avant-garde of fashion during this time when Cohen wrote the song – she is not so poor or destitute that she needs to get her clothing from second-hand sources, quite the opposite, she uses unusual items of clothing to make a fashion statement. This fits with Cohen’s previous reference to Suzanne as “half crazy”. This woman is unique in her appearance and her social graces but also in her personality. The lyric continues by completing the description of the scene with “the sun pours down like honey/On Our Lady of the Harbour”. Cohen is referring to a statue of the Virgin Mary with outstretched arms which sits atop the Notre Dame de Bon Secours church facing the port waterfront seeming to bless the sailors as they enter and leave the harbour. Suzanne then draws your attention to two things:

And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning

In simple terms she is pointing out that you can find heroism in the most unexpected and unlikely of places. The “garbage and the flowers” sets up a range of possibilities running from the beautiful to the horrid, nonetheless, there are heroes to be found anywhere between. Pushing the symbolic value of water as life, the heroes are in the seaweed immersed in water. The ability to discern heroic acts in common, everyday lives is an insight rare in people, but one much admired when found. Suzanne also shows you “children in the morning” who are “leaning out for love”. “They will lean that way forever/ While Suzanne holds the mirror” carries the promise of family – that undeniable force underlying the romantic relationships between women and men. In this sense the role of Suzanne in the lyric comes to represent women in general and their understanding of the fundamental importance of family. (More than 15 years later Cohen would echo the same sentiment in a different context, in a different song – “Dance Me to the End of Love” with the lines: “Dance me to the children/Who are asking to be born”.) Look back again at the final lines of the first verse: “she lets the river answer/That you’ve always been her lover”. Life itself provides the answer: we are all familiar with the pull and power of love in its broadest sense.

The chorus to this verse is a reiteration of the previous two with the exception that it is now Suzanne who has “touched your perfect body” and your trust in her is complete. The similarities of the connections between the author, Jesus and Suzanne demonstrate a mixture of the spiritual and the mundane. The appearance of spiritual elements in the lives of humankind is a theme that Cohen returned to over and over again whether in his novels, his poetry or his lyrics. “Suzanne” is a finely crafted literary work and when sung by Leonard Cohen over softly undulating guitar it carries a magic all its own.