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| "So Long, Marianne" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Leonard Cohen | |
| from the album Songs of Leonard Cohen | |
| Released | 1967 |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 5:38 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Songwriter(s) | Leonard Cohen |
"So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. It was featured on his debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen .
The song was inspired by Marianne Jensen, born Marianne Ihlen, whom Cohen met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. [1] She had recently been left by her husband, [2] the Norwegian writer Axel Jensen, leaving her and their six-month-old son alone on the island. The two hit it off, and Cohen ultimately took her from Hydra back to her home in Oslo, Norway. He later invited her and her son to live with him in Montreal, an offer which she accepted. [1] The two lived together throughout the 1960s, traveling between New York, Montreal, and Hydra.
To quote Leonard Cohen (backcover of “Greatest Hits”, 1976):
I began this on Aylmer Street in Montreal and finished it a year or so later at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. I didn’t think I was saying goodbye but I guess I was. She gave me many songs, and she has given songs to others too. She is a Muse. A lot of people I know think that there is nothing more important than making a song. Fortunately, this belief arises infrequently in their conversation.
Marianne Ihlen herself, however, said that the original words were not "So long, Marianne", but "Come on, Marianne", indicating that in an early version of the song, it was not meant as a goodbye. [3]
Cohen dedicated his third volume of poetry, Flowers for Hitler , to her, and she directly inspired many of his other songs and poems. A photo of her appears on the back cover of his second album, Songs from a Room .
Marianne Ihlen died in hospital in Oslo on July 28, 2016, aged 81. [4] [5] Cohen wrote to her shortly before her death, saying: "I'm just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. [...] I've never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. [...] Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Love and gratitude." [6] He died just over three months later, on November 7.
The song was originally recorded by Cohen in Columbia Studios, New York, as part of his debut album in 1967. Other musicians on the track were backing singer Nancy Priddy, bassist Willie Ruff, drummer Jimmy Lovelace, and members of the band Kaleidoscope – Chester Crill, Chris Darrow, Solomon Feldthouse, and David Lindley – playing a variety of instruments. [7]
Pitchfork Media placed "So Long, Marianne" at number 190 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s". [8] Far Out and American Songwriter ranked the song number one and number four, respectively, on their lists of the 10 greatest Leonard Cohen songs. [9] [10]
The song has been covered by Beck, Noel Harrison, John Cale with Suzanne Vega, Straitjacket Fits, Brian Hyland, James, Bill Callahan, Russian Red, Courtney Barnett, and others, including Cohen's own son, Adam Cohen. In 1984 it became a hit in the Dutch Top 40 sung by José Hoebee, ex-singer of Luv', and TV host Ron Brandsteder.
Adam Cohen and The Webb Sisters performed the song at the 2017 Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen concert. [11] Courtney Barnett performed the song in her 2019 MTV Unplugged performance. [12]
| Chart (2016) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| France (SNEP) [13] | 28 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE) [14] | 38 |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) [15] | 50 |
Hydra, or Ydra or Idra, and in antiquity Hydrea, is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece, located in the Aegean Sea between the Myrtoan Sea and the Argolic Gulf. It is separated from the Peloponnese by a narrow strip of water. In ancient times, the island was known as Hydrea, a reference to the natural springs on the island.
Songs of Leonard Cohen is the debut album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released on December 27, 1967, on Columbia Records. Less successful in the US than in Europe, Songs of Leonard Cohen foreshadowed the kind of chart success Cohen would go on to achieve. It reached number 83 on the Billboard 200. It peaked at number 13 on the UK Albums Chart, spending nearly a year and a half on it.
Songs of Love and Hate is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records.
Songs from a Room is the second album by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached No. 63 on the US Billboard Top LPs and No. 2 on the UK charts.
Ten New Songs is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. It was produced in Cohen's and Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles. It was also his first album in nearly 10 years. The album peaked at #143 on the Billboard 200, #4 in Canada, #1 in Poland and #1 in Norway.
Göran Tunström was a Swedish author. He grew up in Sunne, Värmland County. Tunström's style is personal and intimate, and has a clear autobiographical tone. Although active as an established author for nearly four decades, it was particularly after his Juloratoriet was adapted as a movie in 1996 that he became widely known to the (Swedish) public. He participated in the Oslo International Poetry Festival.
"Suzanne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. 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. Many other artists have recorded versions, and it has become one of the most covered songs in Cohen's catalogue.
Axel Buchardt Jensen was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002, he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, and manuscripts for cartoons and animated films.
Charmian Clift was an Australian writer. She was the second wife and literary collaborator of George Johnston.
"Famous Blue Raincoat" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, Songs of Love and Hate, released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter. The lyric tells the story of a love triangle among the speaker, a woman named Jane, and the male addressee, who is identified only briefly as "my brother, my killer."
"Bird on the Wire" is a song written by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, which became one of his signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album Songs from a Room. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, titled "Like a Bird", was added to the 2007 remastered CD. Judy Collins was the first to release the song on her 1968 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Joe Cocker also covered the song on his second studio album the following year and his version reached #78 in Canada.
The Essential Leonard Cohen is a career-spanning collection of Leonard Cohen songs released in 2002. It is part of Sony's The Essential series.
"Dance Me to the End of Love" is a 1984 song by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen. It was first performed by Cohen on his 1984 album Various Positions. It has been recorded by various artists and in 2009 was described as "trembling on the brink of becoming a standard."
Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, and sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.
Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 is a combo CD/DVD live album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Released in October 2009, it is his nineteenth album. The album was recorded in 1970 at the Isle of Wight.
Marianne Christine Stang Ihlen was a Norwegian woman who was the first wife of author Axel Jensen and later the muse and girlfriend of Leonard Cohen for several years in the 1960s. She was the subject of Cohen's 1967 song "So Long, Marianne".
Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen was a concert, which was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec on November 6, 2017 as a tribute to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen marking the first anniversary of his death. The concert, which featured musicians performing Cohen songs, was subsequently broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio and television special, airing on CBC Music on November 7, 2017 and on CBC Television on January 3, 2018.
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love is a 2019 documentary film directed by Nick Broomfield, about the relationship between writer and singer Leonard Cohen and his "muse" Marianne Ihlen, in particular their time spent on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the inspiration behind "So Long, Marianne", "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" and "Bird on the Wire."
A Theatre for Dreamers is a 2020 literary fiction novel by Polly Samson, which entered the Sunday Times Bestseller List at Number 2 upon its April 2020 release. It is a fictionalized account of life on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s, featuring real-life characters who lived there at the time, including Leonard Cohen, Charmian Clift and George Johnston.
So Long, Marianne is a Canadian-Norwegian romantic drama television series, slated to premiere in the 2023-24 television season. The series is a dramatization of the 1960s romance between Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, the Norwegian woman who inspired Cohen's song "So Long, Marianne".
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