MUSINGS -- IS IT ALWAYS WRONG TO WANT TO CHANGE SOMEBODY?

To every lover I have always said
& they have always said to me -
"It is always wrong to want to change somebody
you must accept me as I am"

But now it occurs to me? -
Do I want to be accepted as I am? Yes, I do, I do,
As much as I want to be different, to be unbroken, to be healed,
I need you not to want to change me - only then can I change myself

...for if I am beautiful in your mirror, baby,
in the mirror of your eyes...

I will see that I am good  -
Only then can I be healed.
I can see that you are good -
Do you really see this in me?

Is it possible for us not to change each other
If we can accept each other as we are?
Will I not change into someone who is not lonely?
Will you not change into someone who is not alone?

You will change into someone loved, this cannot be helped
I will change into someone who loves,
Someone who feels loved,
Someone who can say "I love you",
Someone who can love,
For whom love no longer hurts

I  would change into someone loved, this cannot be helped

You would change into someone who loves,

Someone who feels loved,

Someone who can say "I love you",

Someone who can love, for whom love no longer hurts

I want to change into someone who is not ashamed,
It is always wrong to want to change somebody,
For change must always come from within
Therein lies the paradox

x

LEONARD COHEN AND JUDY COLLINS SING "SUZANNE"

I couldn't sleep tonight, so I continued my quest to listen to everything ever recorded by Leonard Cohen. I was rather struck by this duet with Judy Collins that I unearthed on Youtube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGGSo530bdA


Fool that I am - instead of maximising Leonard-Cohen-listening-time I turned my eye to the comments that had been posted, and as always I had to have my say - mouthy little shit that I am.


But how could I resist disabusing "e61807" from the notion that he wrote Suzanne - he can't even spell Suzzane [stet]! ...

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e61807, 8 months ago...

This song was actually written in 1967 as a poem, then aquired by Cohen from a ghost writer. One of the songs that inspired Cohen to start singing.  This song was first writen [stet] by James C. Ronning (See "Story of a Ghost Writer") and sent to Leonard Cohen to find an artist to record it. Leonard bought the rights which legally means he "wrote it". He added the last few words himself. [Neil!] Diamond sung the song with it ending with ...."and Suzzane [stet] looked in her mirror....." thus leaving a completely different slant. My origninal [stet] did not have the last words and Diamond sung it that way. I still got the contract. Listen to" Lady Magdalene" by Diamond.

jestertick, today...

Dear e61807 - it is absurd to claim that Suzanne was written in 1967 by James C Ronning, because Cohen published the lyrics as a poem in his 1966 book "Parasites of Heaven". Even if you had the dates wrong I cannot think of any other authors who could have written these words, they fit perfectly into his coded cosmology, only he possessed the cypher. I am afraid you have been duped or you are insane. Take your pick.

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sweetgypsywife, 2 months ago...

I believe this song is about Suzanne Verdal, who made more of an impression on Leonard than she realised at the time. Judy Collins saw the potential of the song and recorded it herself. She encouraged Leonard to record this song. He also sold the rights to it....

TheBlindPig, 12 months ago...

sweetgypsywife, Please for gods sake and mine explain your prosaic interpretation of suzanne, just a little. When Cohen say's "The sky would open" do you interpret this as the sky in a masculine or feminine role, either to pour fourth(open - Rain) OR open recieve christ. Do you think the sky the limit and death?"O rivers mingling toward the sky" water mans chained freedom? If you think Cohen is a beefcake who uses cool words like fire and christ and razor and snow, ignore. You want to travel blind", The bottom of the sea is cruel, which is where the lovers search and rest. Perhaps its better to listen and anyway "We see through the eye not with ". Love makes the flowers grow, it is the only force consistent with vision, although this growth is only reaching. Is wisdom a stone? Knowleage like Suzanne, takes us down. "And so it was I entered the broken world To trace the visionary company of love" Counter - part of the stern above water. salvation - salvage.

jestertick, today...

Cohen seamlessly juxtaposes the microcosmic & macrocosmic relationships between the individual & their other - he reveals the man/woman mystery & the I/thou relationship with God as different aspects of one thing. In his poetry he adopts the practice of omitting the "o" from God, reminding the reader that G-d is beyond naming, and also misses the "e" from s-x. The goal of being is to realise we are not two fish swimming in opposite directions - we are the Sea.

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lenahjonsson, 10 months ago...

Never trust "a stranger".... (It's you my love, it's you who are the stranger....)

jestertick, today...

Cohen thinks hes the voice of one crying alone in the wilderness - but if 'the kingdom of heaven is within' us? Then all men will be sailors. Cohen performed in sackcloth, referencing Revelations - "I will give power unto my 2 witnesses & they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred & threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the 2 olive trees & the 2 candlesticks standing before the God of the earth". It is insane not to have a messiah complex, we are One.

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TerrySleeper, 5 months ago...

He's not a patch on Bob Dylan, and he admitted as much when he described Dylan as "The Picasso of song." QED.

jestertick, today...

If Dylan is the Picasso of song? Cohen is Michelangelo.

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