Leonard and Marianne

BBC Radio 4 visits with Marianne Ihlen. This is the woman from the Leonard Cohen song So Long, Marianne, they have a history that now dates back almost 50 years, and both visit that a bit in this brief radio documentary.
This is not them sitting in the radio studio together, the interviews are recorded on separate occasions.

Now, I should say that I consider Cohen to be a very special artist, and as Marianne says in the program, he is really more than that. And she should know since she knows him well. I mean, it is one thing what the public thinks on one based on the work or publicity, what ones friends and associates think is generally another thing altogether. Cohen is really more than a writer or singer, he is almost a spiritual figure, because some of the work is very strong indeed.

I particularly favor the CD from a few years ago called Ten New Songs. This is perhaps the most listenable of Cohen's song collections. It is a very smooth piece thanks to the wonderful musical settings provided by Sharon Robinson. I kind of wish he would do more work with her. She is on the new one Dear Heather, but with only one song.

Cohen is very interesting in interviews, he should really talk more. In this one we hear him talk about what it was like to be a young writer and how it was a bit of an eye opener that he couldn't make a living as a writer, even a published one. He also speaks very kindly of Marianne, as she does him. Also he seems to have reached a sort of serenity in old age. That's nice.
So check it out if you are al all interested in LC. You can listen again until about Saturday Aug 10, 2008.

Here is some video of Cohen and a longer interview with Marianne conducted in Norwegian. A English translation of Marianne's interview is available here.