10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 1)

1) "And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
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"- Suzanne

"Suzanne" was Cohen's first big song, covered by Judy Collins the year it was released (1967) and covered in the years following by, among others, the blues singer Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack. The song is about Leonard encountering a woman named Suzanne Verdal in Montreal in the '60's. She was married to a Canadian sculptor and had also, according to this 1998 CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) story, "served as the muse of dozens of Beat poets". Essentially it's a song answering an old and lingering question. If Darwin wasn't wrong and we're but the products of selection, what's the evolutionary basis for why a man would write a poem? We are but strangers here, preyed upon by unknown forces. What drove our ancestors drives us now in ancient ways we've made our own. The brightest feathers have all been grown for the love of beautiful women. Suzanne, you made us birds of paradise a million years ago.




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