David Fougere aka DD Fraser

Introduction

This is the second installment of DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers, the personal narrative by David Fougere,¹ who, then known as DD Fraser, was the band’s bass player in the sixties.² While my personal interest in the Stormy Clovers was initially predicated on their role as the first professionals to perform Leonard Cohen’s songs, I have since become convinced that the band’s brief history is significant both in its own right and for what it tells us about an important era in the evolution of pop music.

DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers – Part 2 deals with  the poignant story of what happened to Susan Jains, the radiant, charismatic, talented, and ambitious vocalist who was the centerpiece of the Stormy Clovers, after her musical career faded. Viewers unfamiliar with the Stormy Clovers and Susan Jains may find it useful to orient themselves by reading yesterday’s post, The Stormy Clovers aka Susan Jains and the “guys in their early 20s”,

DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers – Part 2

Stormy Clovers on the set of CBC's Take 30

Intermission: Take a break, Have a smoke
(smoke 292,000 cigarettes),
Get married, Get divorced. .. 32 years pass

I heard from drummer Richard Patterson that he had seen Susan on the move carrying all her possessions and looking as though she had fallen upon hard times.

From a friend In Montreal I learned that she had settled in Halifax. We began to exchange letters. I wanted to see for myself how Susan was living. I had an old Dodge van with lots of room to sleep in the back. The gas mileage was terrible but at 75 cents a litre it was still cheaper than renting motel rooms. It took me three days to drive the 1200 miles to Nova Scotia.

I found her on the street in downtown Halifax. She was wearing a headband as though it was still 1967. She showed me her favourite places around the harbour.

We shared the best fish and chip dinner I’ve ever had. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture in her apartment, just the couch she used for a bed. She hadn’t been there very long. We sat on the floor with our feet almost touching. It felt like sitting around a campfire. I stayed for three days sleeping on the floor in the bedroom.

Back when I was in the band she often said that somebody should start a pension fund for entertainers.

“We won’t have anything in our old age” she predicted.

She refused to talk about her family. (I was relieved to learn later that, in fact, she did have family, and was receiving monthly support payments.)

She was sometimes on the rails and sometimes off. If you got too close you were in danger of becoming the enemy.

She was deeply concerned about civility and fairness. She said she had been robbed twice. An older woman, alone, on foot, leaving the bank at the end of the month makes an easy target. The thieves know when it’s payday. She borrowed $500 from me and repaid it in full a year or so later.

She smoked the strongest cigarettes that money could buy. Her teeth were black stumps but she had decided that dentists were evil. She wouldn’t go near one.

They’d made her really sick the last time. She had gone through a hellish period and was forced out of Kingston, running from her demons. She heard Leonard Cohen’s ‘Future’ album playing from a neighbouring apartment. In a fearsome fugue state she banished Leonard to the far side of the moon along with all the dentists.

Susan had written me many letters over the years. Most of the time I could not understand what she was saying. Sometimes though, it was as if a cloud moved away from the sun, and her old self shone through. Once she asked for an address so she could write to Ray’s mother to thank her for her generosity to the band. But she soon took offense at something Mildred said by return mail so Mildred was sent to join Leonard and all those dentists on the far side of the moon.

Susan showed me a scratch and win ticket that appeared to be a winner. The catch was that you were asked to phone a long distance number to claim your prize. It looked like it could be a scam where they made their money on the phone call. There was another option to claim the prize – an address with a box number in Kitchener. I said I would check it out when I got back to Ontario. The address turned out to be a mailbox rental store. There was no chance of talking to anyone from the company. To confirm my suspicions I called the police to ask if the contest was fraudulent.

“Yes we’ve heard of that one” they told me.

“It’s a scam for sure. We didn’t know they were operating in this area”

Case closed.

I sent the ticket back to Susan with the information I’d gotten from the Kitchener Police Department.

Her reply was very angry.

“What kind of a person would CALL THE POLICE?” she demanded.

I felt myself being swept away to the far side of the moon. Leonard was there. And Ray’s mother. And a bunch of guys who looked like dentists.

I wrote to Leonard to talk about these things – not that there was anything we could do – I just wanted to talk to someone about it. I got a wonderful reply from Kelly Lynch saying that Leonard had been travelling in Japan with the Roshi but he sent his love and said to let him know if there was anything he could do to help Susan Jains.

My next letter got no reply.

Kelly was busy working on something else, I guess.

___________________________

I was in Halifax looking for Susan in August, 2010. I hadn’t seen her in ten years and she had not been answering letters I sent to her.

This time there was no answer at the door.

I walked around to the back parking lot. There I met a man and a woman and I asked them about Susan. The man was the building superintendent and he had evicted her more than a year before.

I gather she was not easy to get along with. He said: “She assaulted me.”

He thought that she was living in the same neighbourhood, that she could be found along the bus route on Herring Cove Road, wearing a brightly coloured headband.

He and his partner had a litany of complaints and nothing good to say about her.

I went to my car and came back with an old Stormy Clovers poster. I showed them the picture of Susan, smiling in 1966.

They gave me doubtful looks.

It could be they thought I was crazy.

I drove up and down Herring Cove Road for the rest of the afternoon, looking at all the bus stops for the woman in the colorful headband but I couldn’t find her.

I was thinking of ‘Diamonds’, a song she had written with Ray.

I’ve been staring out my window
as the velvet black of morning
forms a blanket for the city lights spread out before me.
With effortless enchantment my imagination’s soaring
don’t speak to me of day dreaming or cold reality

and it’s not bare like bulbs from curtainless windows
Nor Cadillac headlights with payments still due
No signs selling Heaven to those who can’t buy it
They’re diamonds, they’re diamonds
don’t say it’s not true

I left for Pictou where my cousin Joe Hawes is the mayor. He put me up in his spare room while I was in Nova Scotia. I had no money for motels – slept in the car mostly. I’m not complaining. I like doing that sometimes.

I was driving back to Ontario when my cell phone rang. I pulled off the highway.

“DD this is Marc. Marc Ranger.”

“Holy shit! Marc! I’ve thought about you many times. I didn’t know where to find you.

I’ve just been in Halifax looking for Susan” I said.

“DD. I’ve got some bad news.
That’s why I tracked you down.
Susan’s gone.
She died in June. It was in the Globe and Mail.”

Saturday July 10, 2010
SUSAN JANE GEMMELL 1941-2010

Susan Gemmell, or Poppy as she was known to some, died on June 19th, 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was 68 years old. Susan, by any measure, was a colourful personality. She was born, raised and educated in Toronto at both Havergal College and later Oakwood Collegiate Institute. She attended Queen’s University, but graduated from the University of Toronto. The early Sixties were Susan’s salad days. She wrote, sang songs, and entertained in the coffee houses of Yorkville, dressed in the zany fashions of the day, and was among those to articulate the counter-culture ideas of the era. Sadly, as youth gave way to mid-life, Sue fell victim to the torment and confusion of mental illness. She lived a vagabond existence, travelling and living between Kingston and Halifax. She eventually settled in Halifax, where, she believed, the world was populated with kinder, more gentle people. She was right. For those who survive Susan it is comforting to learn that there she had a community of friends and people who cared and looked out for her. God bless them all. On the morning of the 19th, Susan said to Yvonne, one of the many kind and caring nurses and medical staff, that she was, ‘feeling a little under the weather’. She died that evening. Understated to the end. Susan leaves a brother, Andrew, her cherished niece Kirstie and nephew Matthew, along with grand nephew and nieces, Evan, Lauren and Sydney. She is buried in the family plot beside her late parents Jim and Amber Gemmell – - in peace at last.

The Stormy Clovers in Yorkville.

Credit Due Department: The photo of Susan Jains wearing glasses and standing with the Halifax City Police was taken backstage at Dalhousie University on Feb 1967 and found at the Stormy Clovers Facebook Page. The photo of Susan Jains wearing a hat was also found at the Stormy Clovers Facebook Page. The photo at the beginning of the narrative, “Stormy Clovers on the set of CBC’s Take 30,” and the photo at the bottom of the post, “The Stormy Clovers in Yorkville,” were contributed to the Stormy Clovers Facebook Page by Nicholas Jennings.

Next: The third and final installment of DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers begins with these lines:

We first met Leonard Cohen on a sidewalk in Montreal. Leonard and Marianne were radiant together. I was just a kid from Galt, 21 years old. I had no idea there were people like that in the world.

The Heck Of A Guy Stormy Clovers Page: All material relating to the Stormy Clovers, including the “DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers” narrative,  can be accessed through Heck Of A Guy – Stormy Clovers.

1. More information about David Fougere is available at his CBC biography page.
2. The first installment is posted at DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers – Part 1

Susan Jains - 1967

Introduction To Part 2 of DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers

In preparation for posting the second installment of DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers,¹  the narrative about the first professionals to perform Leonard Cohen’s music authored by DD Fraser, who played bass guitar for the band, Heck Of A Guy  offers an overview of Susan Jains, the vocalist for the group.  For more on the Stormy Clovers, see Introducing The Stormy Clovers – And Their Songwriter, Leonard Cohen  and Video: Earliest Recording Of Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne – The Stormy Clovers 1966.

The Jains-Centric View Of The Stormy Clovers

In the Stormy Clovers solar system, Susan Jains was the sun.  She was also, to extend this already overburdened metaphor, the planets, the moons, the asteroids, … .  At least that is how it appears from reading the published accounts about the Clovers by newspaper journalists and  book authors.²

From Mariposa Festival program

“A Very Sexy Little Chick”

An article by Jack Batten in the June 25, 1966 Montreal Gazette about the Stormy Clovers is the most blatantly obvious example of the Jains apotheosis  literature.³  Excerpts follow:

It is not until the third paragraph of the story that the other band members are mentioned and then they are described as “guys in their early 20s” who are easily overlooked because audiences are drawn to Susan Jains.  Mr Batten does note that the guys were “immensely attractive in that great contemporary style that kids affect … .”

And, it was Susan, we find, who was responsible for the Stormys being represented by Mary Martin.

And, consider this shot article from the Nov 1966 Toronto Star:

Lenny Loves Susie – Or So They Say

In the indispensable Before The Gold Rush: Peace, Love And The Dawn Of Canadian Sound by Nicholas Jennings (Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 1998), John McHugh, owner of the Penny Farthing club (a primary Toronto venue for live music during the 1960s),  offers a description of Jains and speculation on Leonard Cohen’s feelings toward her:

The notion that Leonard Cohen and Susan Jains were in love or that at least Cohen was taken with Jains is a common theme in discussions about the Stormy Clovers.

This excerpt from Whispering Pines: The Northern Roots of American Music . . . from Hank Snow to The Band by Jason Schneider (ECW Press. July 1, 2009) not only reports that Cohen “became smitten with Jains” but implies that his affection for her was a significant influence in persuading him to write songs for the band.  The passage also describes Susan Jains as “hauntingly beautiful” and includes a statement by  Mary Martin, the agent for both Leonard Cohen and the Stormy Clovers,  that it was not her (Martin) but filmmaker Gordon Sheppard⁴ who first introduced  Jains to Leonard Cohen.

click on image to enlarge; underlining mine

Nowhere, however, in this volume or in any of the other reports of a romantic connection between Cohen and Jains I reviewed is any evidence (e.g., an eyewitness report or an attestation from either Cohen or Jains) offered in support of what is  matter-of-factly described as  Cohen’s infatuation with the vocalist.

Susan Jains As Visionary

Not only was Jains the talented, beautiful star of the band but, according to Mary Martin, Susan Jains was the central force, the visionary of the group.  Nicholas Jennings posted the following on the Stormy Clovers Facebook page:

Here is an extract from a TV interview I conducted with Mary Martin, The Stormy Clovers’ manager, in March 2006 for the CBC documentary “Shakin’ All Over: Canadian Pop Music in the 1960s.” …

Martin: “Susan Jains of the Stormy Clovers was an amazing woman. She really had a vision, you know, and she was musically sound and had an inquiring mind, almost intellectual. So it would be natural that she would be drawn to Leonard Cohen. All good private school girls from Toronto’s Bishop Strachan, Branksome Hall or Haveral College (where Martin and Jains attended together) had inquiring minds when it came to poets.

Susan had an ability to project into areas of marketing, which I think was quite advanced in those days. Her brain was always clicking. I had a hard time keeping up with Susan, I really did. She was a talented and straight-ahead woman who knew what she wanted.

The role that the Stormy Clovers played with Leonard Cohen songs probably happened by Susan’s dogged persistence of the creative brain. I was in New York and whatever went on in Toronto happened without me and it was Susan marching to her specific drumbeat and her need to identify with something that was romantic, like Leonard Cohen’s words. Susan probably understood that vision was more important, almost, than anything else.

The sad thing was that we couldn’t get the world to understand the talents of the Stormy Clovers. And I don’t know why, I really don’t.”

Susan Jains Post-Stormy Clovers

After the Stormy Clovers ceased performing as a group in the spring of 1968., Susan Jains went on to form A Rosewood Daydream under the name Eo Hawthorn. The group also included Peter Hodgson , formerly of the Ottawa folk rock group The Children, to whom she was also briefly married. They performed in Canada and Asia from 1969 to 1971. Emotional problems ended  her musical career.  Susan Jains died at age 68.

Credit Due Department: The photo atop this post, the Nov 1966 Toronto Star article, and the facts used under the heading, “Susan Jains Post-Stormy Clovers” were found on the Stormy Clovers Facebook Page.

The Heck Of A Guy Stormy Clovers Page: All material relating to the Stormy Clovers, including the “DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers” narrative,  can be accessed through Heck Of A Guy – Stormy Clovers.

1. The first installment is posted at DD Fraser & The Stormy Clovers – Part 1
2. Ongoing readers will no doubt be equally pleased and surprised that I didn’t label these writers “astronomers” or perhaps “astrologers.” Those charges of writing under the influence of  floridly figurative language brought against me are not entirely undeserved.
3. It is worth noting that in interviews, Susan Jains characteristically identified herself as one of the Stormy Clovers.  If she sought out the spotlight, she did so in a subtle manner rather than resorting to the tactics of a prima donna.
4. Sheppard, according to Gordon Sheppard – Films and Screenplays, made a film about the Clovers and one about Susan Jains:

   1967 – The Stormy Clovers, 20 minute documentary about a pop music group.
   1967 – Love, 5 minute documentary starring Susan Jains.

Barclays Center, Brooklyn - under construction. Photo by Andrew Burton

Venue For Dec 20, 2012 Leonard Cohen Old Ideas World Tour Concert Center Of Political Battle

The May 22, 2012 New York Daily News Sports Investigative Team Blog published an open letter from Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) to Barbra Streisand and Leonard Cohen, both of whom are scheduled to perform at the Barclays Center later this year, outlining claims of broken promises to the community from the developer of that project along with the “‘autocratic’ use of eminent domain to take homes and businesses from unwilling sellers to benefit a multi-billion dollar real estate development firm”:¹

Dear Ms. Streisand and Mr. Cohen:

We at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the grassroots community non-profit organization that led the fight against Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project and advocate for inclusive, democratic development, are writing to you regarding your scheduled performances at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The billion dollar, publicly subsidized Barclays arena is the only component of the larger Atlantic Yards project under construction.

We understand the excitement your fans feel about your upcoming shows in Brooklyn and we do not question your right as artists to play whatever venue you choose to play, or your fans’ right to enjoy your performances.

However, as artists of your stature and caliber, as artists with a history of philanthropy, social justice and civil liberty advocacy, and protest lyrics, we strongly urge you to take on every citizen’s responsibility to learn about the history behind the venue you are associating yourselves with.

We believe you won’t like what you discover.

The history behind the Barclays Center is an ugly one. It represents so much of what is wrong with our government, particularly crony capitalism and the abuse of power.

Mr. Cohen, you famously wrote these lyrics:

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with his or her fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That’s how it goes

Few, if any, song lyrics better describe the Barclays Center and its larger Atlantic Yards context. (Ironically in 2009 these lyrics were used to denounce the state agency that approved the Atlantic Yards project. See: www.bit.ly/cohenlyric)

Ms. Streisand, your official website has posted a column by Jim Hightower railing against TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline, including its use of eminent domain for the project. Hightower writes, “.this foreign-owned corporation would use the autocratic power of eminent domain to take land from unwilling sellers along the 2,000 mile route.”

Unfortunately the Barclays Center where you both are scheduled to perform was wholly dependent on the “autocratic” use of eminent domain to take homes and businesses from unwilling sellers to benefit a multi-billion dollar real estate development firm and, as it turns out, one of the wealthiest men in the world, the Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov.

Here is a short list of the abuses that have led to the construction of the Barclays Center:

1. Not a single elected official, never mind the affected communities themselves, had the chance to vote on the largest real estate project in Brooklyn’s history, one dependent upon hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies, eminent domain for private gain, and a backroom, sweetheart public land deal.

2. The developer, exploiting a housing and unemployment crisis to aid his land grab, relentlessly promised “Jobs, Housing and Hoops.” Thousands of “affordable” housing units and 15,000 jobs were promised, and these promises were targeted at low income and minority communities. Today all we have is a soon-to-open arena — your scheduled performance venue — with mostly unaffordable tickets, not a single housing unit, a miniscule percentage of the promised jobs, a massive surface parking lot and acres and acres of demolished properties that will sit dormant for decades, held hostage by the developer.

3. The 22-acre site (the World Trade Center site is 16 acres) at Brooklyn’s key crossroads, described as “a great piece of real estate” by Forest City Enterprises Chairman Chuck Ratner, was given to the developer without any bidding process. (In other words, a fixed, sweetheart deal to make the rich richer as lamented in “Everybody Knows.”)

4. Eminent domain was used to take homes and businesses from property owners, small business owners, and rent-stabilized tenants, and hand them over to one of the most powerful and wealthiest development firms in the United States, providing that developer with a private land monopoly in the heart of Brooklyn. A long-term, family homeless shelter was amongst the properties condemned and demolished on behalf of the developer.

We could go on and on, but we’ll stop here.

The Oscar short-listed feature documentary “Battle for Brooklyn” is a riveting film detailing the local communities’ eight year long struggle against Atlantic Yards. It features a chilling quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the 2010 arena groundbreaking where he declares to an invite-only crowd, “No one’s going to remember how long it took. They’re just going to see that it was done.”

The Mayor is wrong. People do, and will continue to, remember exactly how Barclays came to be. We strongly urge you to watch the film to see for yourselves. You can also gain a wealth of knowledge from Atlanticyardsreport.com, Nolandgrab.org and our website DDDB.net.

As long as international icons, with passions and beliefs such as yours, play Barclays without an inkling of its back-story, you are aiding Mr. Bloomberg in his wish to erase the history of struggle and the fight for justice and democracy that will forever be associated with the Barclays venue. That’s not even to mention the continued anger over a disparaged and despised project that promised the moon in terms of social good but instead has only delivered a basketball arena. (On June 10th a clergy led protest denouncing the developer’s broken promises of jobs and housing will take place at the arena site).

Your songs have given so many people hope and emotional sustenance. Yet, your upcoming concerts in Brooklyn will be at a venue that has taken so much away from the people of Brooklyn, and beyond.

Again, we are not urging you to disappoint your fans, but we are urging you to use your voices to inform them about what really happened. If you don’t do this you will be aiding those in power in their attempt to bury the truth.

Sincerely,

The Steering Committee of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn

1. Issues of corruption in this project are also  discussed in an earlier DrHGuy post, Will Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Be Ready For Leonard Cohen?

All that is by way of apology for my dilatory posting.  More to the point, this outstanding performance by Leonard Cohen is now an even more delicious treat to watch.

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – The Cohen Covers

This is the third and final (for now) video playlist of songs from the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series.  While the two previous playlists comprised music written and played by others, the tracks on today’s playlist are exclusively performances of Leonard Cohen’s own songs by others.

Now, Leonard Cohen has observed on several occasions that his critical facilities are suspended when he hears others cover his songs.  Most recently, he assuaged the anxieties of those about to perform in his tribute concert at the May 14, 2012 Glenn Gould Prize Gala by informing them they need not worry about singing his songs in front of him because

I go into an immediate, childish ecstasy and paroxysms of gratitude … whenever anyone covers one of my songs.

 Nonetheless, there are certain Cohen covers he has specifically praised, and those form the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – The Cohen Covers.

The other two Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlists can be found at Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers] and Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2.

Today’s offering, Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – The Covers, can also be accessed on YouTube at Paroxysms Of Gratitude – Leonard Cohen’s Covers Jukebox.

Tracks: Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – The Covers

The links below go to the original posts about these songs, including documentation of Leonard Cohen’s approbation of them.

1. “Light As The Breeze” – Billy Joel
2. “Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On” – McComb & Peters
3. “Avalanche” - Nick Cave
4. “Suzanne” - Geoffrey Oreyama
5. “So Long Marianne” – Bell & Arc 
6. “Bird On A Wire” – Joe Cocker
7. “Hallelujah” - KD Lang

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox – The Playlists

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Video Playlists are composed of tracks from Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox and presented as an alternative to listening to the songs one at a time.

Ongoing readers will be familiar with this introduction to the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series of posts at Heck Of A Guy:

Biggest Influence On My Music – The Jukebox. I lived beside jukeboxes all through the fifties. … 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 Cohen (Yakety Yak by Scott Cohen, 1994)

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: Over the years, Leonard Cohen has mentioned a number of specific songs he favors. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Heck Of A Guy 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 Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.

Because there are over 30 songs in this series, they are divided into three playlists:

1. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers]
2. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2 [No Covers]
3. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Covers

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2 [No Cohen Covers]

Part 1 of this playlist can be accessed at Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers].

Today’s offering, Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2 [No Covers], can also be accessed on YouTube at Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2

Tracks: Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2

The links below go to the original posts about these songs, including documentation of Leonard Cohen’s approbation of them.

1. “A Case Of You” – Joni Mitchell
2. “Etude Op. 10, No. 1″ By Chopin
3. “If You Were (In My Movie)” – Suzanne Vega
4. Brownsville Girl”- Bob Dylan
5. “What A Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong
6. So Long Marianne By Bell & Arc Is On Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox
7. “Roll Over Beethoven” – Chuck Berry
8. “Don’t” – Elvis Presley
9. “Are You Lonely Tonight” – Elvis Presley
10. “You Win Again” – Ray Charles
11. “These Arms Of Mine”- Otis Redding
12. “Choices” – George Jones

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox – The Playlists

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Video Playlists are composed of tracks from Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox and presented as an alternative to listening to the songs one at a time.

Ongoing readers will be familiar with this introduction to the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series of posts at Heck Of A Guy:

Biggest Influence On My Music – The Jukebox. I lived beside jukeboxes all through the fifties. … 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 Cohen (Yakety Yak by Scott Cohen, 1994)

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: Over the years, Leonard Cohen has mentioned a number of specific songs he favors. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Heck Of A Guy 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 Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.

Because there are over 30 songs in this series, they are divided into three playlists:

1. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers]
2. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2 [No Covers]
3. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Covers

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Cohen Covers]

Today’s offering, Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers], can also be accessed on YouTube at Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1

Tracks: Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1

The links below go to the original posts about these songs, including documentation of Leonard Cohen’s approbation of them.

1. “Blueberry Hill” – Fats Domino
2. “Unchained Melody” – Righteous Brothers
3. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” – Hank Wilson
4. “Piece Of My Heart” – Janis Joplin
5. “Tomorrow Never Knows” - The Beatles
6. “Cold Hard Truth” – George Jones
7. “House Without Windows” - Roy Orbison
8. “Tangled Up In Blue” - Bob Dylan
9. “Waltzing Matilda” – Tom Waits
10. “Je ne regrette rien” – Edith Piaf
11. “I Fall To Pieces” – Patsy Cline
12. “The Grand Tour” – George Jones
13. “I And I” – Bob Dylan
14. “Gloomy Sunday ” -  Billie Holiday
15. “Concierto de Aranjuez” -  John Williams
16. “The Great Pretender” – The Platters 

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox – The Playlists

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Video Playlists are composed of tracks from Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox and presented as an alternative to listening to the songs one at a time.

Ongoing readers will be familiar with this introduction to the Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox series of posts at Heck Of A Guy:

Biggest Influence on My Music – The jukebox. I lived beside jukeboxes all through the fifties. … 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 Cohen (Yakety Yak by Scott Cohen, 1994)

Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox: Over the years, Leonard Cohen has mentioned a number of specific songs he favors. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox is a Heck Of A Guy 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 Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Page.

Because there are over 30 songs in this series, they are divided into three playlists:

1. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 1 [No Covers]
   
2. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Part 2 [No Covers]
   
3. Leonard Cohen’s Jukebox Playlist – Covers

Back In The Spotlight Together

This is a follow-up of sorts to my earlier post, Leonard Cohen and Adrienne Clarkson Meet Again At Tonight’s Glenn Gould Prize Ceremony.

The excerpt is from Lauding The Ladies’ Man by Shinan Govani  (National Post. May 16, 2012):

Among the highlights at the Leonard Cohen-palozza held Monday night in Toronto — an event that took on the characteristics of a liturgy, and constituted an all-out exercise in monotheism at Massey Hall — was an address, and a vow, by Adrienne Clarkson. Her speech — passionate, personal, on-point — stood out not just as a spiel of the sacred, but for a sub- and surtext verging on the romantic.

During Cohen’s last tour, the grooviest former GG told the room (in which the legend, and his fedora, sat as well), “I went to nine concerts in four different countries.” Including, yep, a stop in Bilbao, Spain, where she now carries the memory of 14,000 Basques singing Closing Time in unity [in English¹].

With Cohen set to tour again later this year, the super-duper groupie followed up, “I hope to beat that record.” (Expedia: you have been warned!) The memory lane, further strolled, included Clarkson’s remembrance of the bard doing her show on the CBC in 1967 (his first time singing on television!), as well as a swath of moments shared: in Paris at Café de Flore; brunch at Beauty’s in Montreal; and fun times at her own regal address of Rideau Hall.

All this — and as laudatory as she was! — Clarkson actually stopped short of the words she once spun in an essay she once wrote about the legend: “When he speaks to you, a pattern appears in the shadow on the wall, the floors moulds to your feet.”

Well, nobody said Cohen wasn’t a ladies’ man.

Adrienne Clarkson, Leonard Cohen, Adam Cohen

Credit Due Department: The image atop this post is adapted from a photo from the Glenn Gould Foundation site. The second photo from the top is from Torontoist.  The third from the top is by Roger Cullman Photography. The fourth photo from the top is from the Vancouver Sun. The shot of Adrienne Clarkson, Leonard Cohen, and Adam Cohen at the bottom of the post is from the Glenn Gould Foundation site.

1. "In English" were the words Clarkson actually used according to an audience member

By all accounts, this rendition of “Crazy To Love You” (from the Anjani Thomas-Leonard Cohen Blue Alert album) by Anjani with Neil Larsen on the keyboards, was a high point of the May 14, 2012 Glenn Gould Prize Leonard Cohen tribute concert held in Massey Hall, Toronto.

Video by Arlene Dick of Arlene’s Leonard Cohen Scrapbook