Earliest Recording Of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne - The Stormy Clovers 1966

A year before Leonard Cohen or Judy Collins performed his music on stage, the Stormy Clovers were playing Cohen's music at festivals and in clubs, coffee houses, and campuses in Toronto, Montreal, and other Canadian cities and towns. This video comprises a 1966 audio recording of the Stormy Clovers performing Suzanne by Leonard Cohen supplemented with photos of the band, Cohen, and the Montreal waterfront. For more about the Stormy Clovers, go to http://1heckofaguy.com/clovers/

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[starfaery]

Who the fuck is Suzanne?

[Allan Showalter]

On the chance this is a sincere query, it was Suzanne Verdal, the wife (then) of Cohen’s friend, the Québécois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, who fed Leonard Cohen tea and oranges and thus became the titular subject of his first popular song.

[starfaery]

Okay I thought it was more of a metaphoric figure. Do you have any source to support those claims?

[Allan Showalter]

There is extensive documentation that the Stormy Clovers were the first to perform Suzanne on stage. This recording is from 1966, as verified DD Fraser, the sole remaining member of the group . It's possible there is an earlier recording, but none has yet appeared.

[vigtigyou2uber]

I seem to remember reading a transcript of a radio interview with Cohen some time ago. In it, he said that the inspiration for a lot of the lyrics were actually quite literal; he thought Suzanne Verdal was absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. However, the fact that she was married to Mr. Cohen's friend reduced his possibilities to touch her perfect body with his mind. It has of course taken on a lot of meanings for a lot of people since. I don't remember where i found this transcript.

[Allan Showalter]

Your recall is accurate (or at least we recall it the same way). I don't have the source at hand just now either.

[Allan Showalter]

Found it. Cohen said "I touched her perfect body with my mind, because there was no other opportunity. There was no other way that you could touch her perfect body under those circumstances." in a 1994 BBC interview.

[thedirtypidgeon]

Interesting article and awesome recording! Thank you so, so much for sharing.

[vigtigyou2uber]

The Clovers' version of this song is in my opinion not nearly as good as Mr. Cohens performance in Songs Of Leonard Cohen. It is, however, interesting to hear the first ever recording of the song and I do think they did a decent job at capturing some of the ambivalence and melancholic longing I seem to take from Cohen's later version. Thanks for uploading and sharing!

[naldo40]

interesting! even it wasn't a sincere query!

[Adrian22]

bmoxco - read the articles and posts at the link provided and you'll likely agree, we're fortunate this recording survives. Too little of the sounds and history of The Stormy Clovers has made it. You can bet the creator of this video has done no processing whatsoever of the audio - but, rather, is working with precious resources available to share an historic recording with the world. Archives are often less than ideal in physical form. So, we have what exists to enjoy.