The Original Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox
Biggest Influence on My Music
The jukebox. I lived beside jukeboxes all through the fifties. There was “The Great Pretender,” “Cross Over the Road.” I never knew who was singing. I never followed things that way. I still don’t. I wasn’t a student of music; I was a student of the restaurant I was in — and the waitresses. The music was a part of it. I knew what number the song was.
Leonard Cohen1
Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: Over the years, Leonard Cohen mentioned a number of specific songs he favored. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Cohencentric feature that began collecting these tunes for the edification and entertainment of viewers on April 4, 2009. All posts in the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series can be found at The Original Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.
“You have managed to make austerity extremely seductive. There is a very seductive quality about your record, although nothing is given away, nothing is thrown away, nothing is revealed.”
Leonard Cohen To Suzanne Vega
In Suzanne’s Interview with Leonard Cohen (1992),2 Suzanne Vega and Leonard Cohen discussed, along with many other topics (e.g., Howard Stern, Christmas gifts, politeness, the superior stylishness of wine and water compared to coke and orange juice), songs from Vega’s 99.9 album that had then just been released.
One of the songs with which Leonard is clearly taken is “If You Were (In My Movie):”
Cohen: If You Were In My Movie, in that song you seem to indicate that you would give wide allowance to anyone you fall in love with.
Vega: I don’t know if that’s true, maybe, probably. I don’t know.
Cohen: Is that what the song is about?
Vega: The song is about flirting. It’s a flirting kind of song. It’s a song looking at another person and saying these are qualities that you could be, that you could have within you. These are the things that I see.
Cohen: You could realize these things with me.
Vega: Yeah, if you wanted to. It’s putting a glamorous light on someone’s character. Saying these are the things that, when I look at you, these are the things I see. It’s like taking someone’s basic nature and making it more than it actually is.
Cohen: You have managed to make austerity extremely seductive. There is a very seductive quality about your record, although nothing is given away, nothing is thrown away, nothing is revealed.
Suzanne Vega – If You Were (In My Movie)
Credit Due Department: Davido at LeonardCohenForum alerted me to Leonard Cohen’s favorable comments about Suzanne Vega’s songs made in the referenced interview.
I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted June 15, 2010 at 1HeckOfAGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric.
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