Customer Reviews

Germ of Genius - By: Pieter, 13 May 2007

This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called Suzanne Takes You Down, & an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death Of a Ladies' Man, here called As The Mist Leaves No Scar ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan).

The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song Stories of the Street on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just Queen Victoria. The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 1960's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding).

I won't try to venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg & Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman & Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery & I enjoy most of these. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.