MOJO Sept 1994 (yellow brackets around L Cohen article)
Definitely The Best Article Calling Leonard Cohen “A Benign Old Sweetie”
To establish his credentials as an interviewer, John Walsh, former literary editor of the Evening Standard and the Sunday Times, recently published novelist, and current editor of the Independent magazine, once began a column about Carrie Fisher with
I’ve interviewed some extraordinary people in my time (can I name-drop Leonard Cohen, with whom I once trashed a minibar; Joseph Heller, who wept when I asked him about his mum; and Dame Ninette de Valois, who told me to sit on my hands to stop myself from waving them about?).1
Since the publication of that Carrie Fisher column in 2004, legions of readers have, no doubt, spent sleepless nights pondering the circumstances that might lead the renowned Leonard Cohen and a skilled and respected journalist like John Walsh to “[trash] a minibar” in tandem.
Internet searches have not revealed the historical facts of the referenced rifling of that repository of $6 bottles of water and $18 sacks of almonds; it appears, in fact, that this information is not available online.2
Until now.
As of today, Heck Of A Guy viewers can know the solace of reading about the Walsh-Cohen minibar raid from the primary source – the article, cleverly named “Leonard Cohen,” by John Walsh from the September 1994 issue of Mojo.
And, as ads are prone to promise, there is, that cover photo of a disgruntled, scruffy, uncomfortable looking Neil Young notwithstanding, much, much more.
Treats From Leonard Cohen Mojo Article By John Walsh
Read about
- Leonard Cohen’s recommendation for universal conscription
- His admission that he played barn dance music
- His denial that he wore gingham skirts
- The Cohen CV: Office Worker, Elevator Operator, Short Story Writer
- Leonard Cohen’s confession that he taunted Phil Spector’s bodyguard: You’re a motherfucking pussycat. You don’t even known how to use that [gun]3
- His report of an encounter with Nico: Nico hauled off and hit me so hard it lifted me clean off the bed
- A picture of Joni Mitchell embracing him in 1967
And, just in case that isn’t enough for you jaded sorts, the article opens with a two-page spread of a photo that (barely) falls in the not-family-friendly category.4
The Article
To provide sensitive readers (who apparently arrived at this blog by accident) the opportunity to avoid the quasi-semi-salacious opening photo, I’ve placed the full and the bowdlerized versions of the article on separate pages:
This article, without the opening photo, is available at Mojo Article (September 1994): Leonard Cohen – Without Cover Photo
The full article, including the opening photo, is available at Mojo Article (September 1994): Leonard Cohen
_____________________- I consider myself an accomplished practitioner of the parenthetical throwaway line, but I have never had the literary audacity to boldly commit, in broad daylight, a parenthetical rhetorical question, such as the specimen Mr. Walsh brazenly displays in his lede. This, I choose to believe, goes far toward explaining why Mr. Walsh writes about Leonard Cohen for prestigious periodicals while I am (appropriately) doomed to write, in my humble blog, about John Walsh writing about Leonard Cohen. (Might I suggest, however, that a self-referential parenthetical rhetorical question within a footnote to the lede effectively raises the ante? It’s to you, Mr. Walsh) [↩]
- The internet is a big place with all manner of secluded spots that are lacunae on the maps of Google and the other search engines. I can only vouch that I could not find this article online. [↩]
- This incident, of course, lends credence to my own (fake) account of the encounter between Cohen and Spector in Item #10 of 10 Unbelievable Secrets About Leonard Cohen [↩]
- Don’t get your hopes up; the nasty bits are limited to what my best friend in fourth grade would have called “a lady’s nekkid bazooms.” [↩]
Suprisingly enough, “Suzanne” was the only Leonard Cohen song ever heard by me in a dream, without any hypnotic practics. That was the most beautiful dream I ever had. There were pale green meadows and pale blue sky, mountains, a dirt road and a cart with a girl dressed in white. In that dream, “camera” was going after the cart. When I woke up, I had tears in my eyes.
Oh, I should be writing an article about Thailand. Well, it can wait ;o)