Marianne Ihlen on Hydra, immortalised on the back cover of Leonard Cohen's Songs from a Room album
If you're not a Leonard Cohen fan, you might want to skip this post but, if like me you're a diehard admirer, then you were probably tuned in to a quiet gem of a programme on BBC's R4 this morning. Told in their own words, Leonard and Marianne charted the seven-year love affair between the poet/singer and Marianne Ihlen. Marianne, who was married with a young son when she met Leonard Cohen on the Greek island of Hydra, was to become Cohen's inspiration for some of the most memorable songs from his early years: So long, Marianne, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye and Bird on a wire, among others. Tender, poignant, an elegy to love lost but not forgotten and to being young in the '60s. And full of wisdom about calmness, living in the present moment, and the letting go that comes with age - Leonard and Marianne are now both in their seventies.
Thanks to the BBC's Listen Again feature, you can catch the programme on the link above for the next seven days. In the meantime, here's an English translation of a similar interview with Marianne, broadcast on Norwegian radio station, NRK, in 2005. (If you're fluent in Norwegian, it includes a link to the original programme.)
And here's what a little inspiration can do . . .
Ah, thanks for that! I missed it, but I loooove those old Leonard Cohen songs and I'm going to try to catch that.
I'm not really that keen on poetry, but some does get to me, and Cohen's is perfect. Dark and edgy, but at the same time impossibly romantic. *Sigh*
Posted by: Jay | 02 August 2008 at 05:46 PM
Thank you, fascinating interview!
Posted by: The Kalk Bay Friend | 02 August 2008 at 05:47 PM
It was brilliant and so moving.
This reminds me of him too
http://andrewgriffiths.wikispaces.com/
especially A Lover Stays In so desperately sad
Posted by: Callie O Farrell | 03 August 2008 at 08:48 AM
Just going to listen to the R4 interview in a moment and looking forward to it. I've been a fan of LC since I was 16 (nearly 40 years) when a young lad I fancied at a party played So Long Marianne to me on his guitar... aaah, young love!
Posted by: Jan | 03 August 2008 at 03:31 PM
Hello Jan - and welcome to another Spanish gardener! I suppose many of us have similar guitar moments. Mine involved someone singing Dylan's Shelter from the Storm. Very romantic, and I was smitten, until I realised he was singing the song for somebody else. Sob, sob.
Posted by: 60 Going On 16 | 03 August 2008 at 07:08 PM
Such a pity it isn't permanently online. Loved that programme, and had it on a CD, but can no longer find it.
Posted by: Maelduin | 24 September 2012 at 01:20 PM