Video: Earliest Recording Of Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne – The Stormy Clovers 1966

Leonard Cohen and The Stormy Clovers

 In The Beginning Were The Stormy Clovers
ie, The Beginning Of Leonard Cohen’s Songwriting Career

A year before Leonard Cohen or Judy Collins performed his music on stage, the Stormy Clovers were playing Cohen’s songs at festivals and in clubs, coffee houses, and campuses in Toronto, Montreal, and other Canadian cities and towns (see Introducing The Stormy Clovers – And Their Songwriter, Leonard Cohen).

This relationship between the band and Leonard Cohen was not completely unique. The Stormy Clovers were a popular group, playing their own material and songs given them, for example, by Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Tyson as well as those authored by Cohen. Because, however, they were the first to play Leonard Cohen’s songs professionally, their performances do hold special significance.

Because I suspect most readers share my own curiosity about the experience of working with Leonard Cohen during that  seminal period, I have filched a few lines from the narrative by band member David Fougere (aka DD Fraser) that will be published here beginning next week:

The first time I heard ‘Suzanne’ we were at Leonard and Marianne’s apartment on Aylmer Street in Montreal. … Leonard sang:

Suzanne takes you down to her place by the river
You can hear the boats go by…..

We were spellbound. When the song came to an end the room was utterly silent.

The Video & The Lyrics

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.

The roster of the Stormy Clovers, at the time of this performance, follows:  Susan Jains – vocals; Ray Perdue – guitar;  DD Fraser – bass; and Pat Patterson – drums.

The lyrics of the version of Suzanne sung by the Stormy Clovers varies from the words Cohen used when he recorded Suzanne on his first album, Songs Of Leonard Cohen.¹ While there are other minor variations, the most obvious difference is Suzanne’s 16-line second verse, beginning with  “And Jesus was a sailor,” which is part of the version on the Songs Of Leonard Cohen (and all later iterations) but which is absent in this Stormy Clovers recording. ²

Suzanne – Performed by Stormy Clovers (1966); Written by Leonard Cohen

Credit Due Department: Both photos atop this post are from Leonard Cohen at the Village by Diane Boyle, The Chevron V7, N28, March 10, 1967. As noted in the video, it is impractical to credit individual images used in its composition, but the majority of the photos of the band were found on the Stormy Clovers Facebook Page, which is also a rich source of information and short clips of other songs performed by the group.  Finally, Heck Of A Guy extends special thank-yous to Sally Hunter who was instrumental in finding shots of the Montreal waterfront for use in the video and Adrian du Plessis, who functions as Allison Crowe’s personable manager and who first shared information about the Stormy Clovers with me that led to this video and the associated posts.

The Heck Of A Guy Stormy Clovers Page

All material relating to the Stormy Clovers on this site can be accessed through Heck Of A Guy – Stormy Clovers.

1. The lyrics of Suzanne as performed on Songs Of Leonard Cohen follow:

   Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
   You can hear the boats go by
   You can spend the night beside her
   And you know that she’s half crazy
   But that’s why you want to be there
   And she feeds you tea and oranges
   That come all the way from China
   And just when you mean to tell her
   That you have no love to give her
   Then she gets you on her wavelength
   And she lets the river answer
   That you’ve always been her lover
   And you want to travel with her
   And you want to travel blind
   And you know that she will trust you
   For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

   And Jesus was a sailor
   When he walked upon the water
   And he spent a long time watching
   From his lonely wooden tower
   And when he knew for certain
   Only drowning men could see him
   He said “All men will be sailors then
   Until the sea shall free them”
   But he himself was broken
   Long before the sky would open
   Forsaken, almost human
   He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
   And you want to travel with him
   And you want to travel blind
   And you think maybe you’ll trust him
   For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind.

   Now Suzanne takes your hand
   And she leads you to the river
   She is wearing rags and feathers
   From Salvation Army counters
   And the sun pours down like honey
   On our lady of the harbour
   And she shows you where to look
   Among the garbage and the flowers
   There are heroes in the seaweed
   There are children in the morning
   They are leaning out for love
   And they will lean that way forever
   While Suzanne holds the mirror
   And you want to travel with her
   And you want to travel blind
   And you know that you can trust her
   For she’s touched your perfect body with her mind. [↩]

2. Re the other differences in the two versions, Cohen often changes the words and lines of his songs.  Compare, for example, the lyrics of Suzanne as performed on the  Songs Of Leonard Cohen album with the lyrics in these videos: Judy Collins & Leonard Cohen performing Suzanne 1976 and Leonard Cohen performing Suzanne at The Isle of Wight 1970 [↩]