Subject: Re: sister, sister
From: Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Date: Mon Feb 14 2000 - 16:42:52 EST
At 5:38 PM +0000 on 2/14/2000, you wrote:
> I too was grateful for Tim's background to the Cohen
> song.
>
> Until then, I'd been under the impression that
> 'The Sisters of Mercy' was the slang term for Montreal
> prostitutes.
It's a funny thing about Leonard Cohen ... he's rarely literal. Even
when he writes a song like "Suzanne," there is a core of literal
truth to it but he poeticizes it so, it becomes more than any piece
of journalistic musicianship (or poetry). In that song he DOES talk
about "our lady of the harbor," and there IS such a statue, but he
imbues it with such mystique, it's hard to tell if he's being literal
or figurative.
Did I mention I am a huge admirer of his? Another of my prized paper
possessions is a letter from him from a couple of years ago -- witty,
humane, and to-the-point.
He's one figure I wish would sit and write a memoir. I suspect he
has a lot of good stories to tell. And there have been so many bad
or mediocre books ABOUT him, it would be a welcome change to hear it
from his own mouth.
There are a couple of good documentaries about him ... the one I'm
really after, still, after a lot of searching, is "Ladies and
Gentlemen ... Mr. Leonard Cohen." It was supposed to be a
documentary of the poets of Montreal at the time, be Cohen was so
charismatic, they ended up making the whole project about him.
--tim o'connor
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