Remembering Roberta Flack’s stunning live cover of Leonard Cohen’s classic ‘Suzanne’
Roberta Flack has the sort of voice that could lull a hurricane into an awed hush. She doesn’t strain to rattle the rafters or don a leotard to juggle through her octaves, she simply appreciated every note and the story that they tell within a song. As she says of Leonard Cohen’s classic: “This next song story, and there are not a lot of songs today that tell stories.”
The story that she proceeds to tell in wondrous singing tones makes the gaudy glow of the spotlight seem like the ambient flicker of a candle. ‘Suzanne’ is an awesome piece of art, and this is the perfect way to appreciate it. Along with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, she sends up a serenade fitting of Cohen’s plucked symphony. 1975 was a pretty great year for music and this performance may well provide one of the live highlights.
‘Suzanne’ was first penned as a poem in 1966, but it cried out for the cushioned edges of a guitar to coax the reader along. The tale of a muse engaged with another, leaving nothing but platonic scraps for the singer to eagerly feed on, and then lament, in leaner times, is as dissonant and sparse as the melody and musical choices. Cohen had a fantastic knack of making you think that he was unlucky in love, even though he sang enough songs on that front to assert him as either a lothario or a liar.
Whilst the mentions of Montréal landmarks may well have symbolic implications, they also imbue the song with imagery and the sort of café culture creature comforts that we associate with the smartly sartorial songsmith. This all comes together to form the picture of a lovelorn wanderer in some frosted city, gazing at the couples skipping along alleyways and tossing pennies into pretty fountains. In this regard, the song is as complex but pure as the impetus that spawned it.
Flack conveys that all fantastically with an elongated, awe-inspiring rendition. It’s not the first time the star declared her admiration for Cohen. She also recorded a cover of ‘Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye’ in 1969. While her take on the meaning of ‘Suzanne’ is open to interpretation, it is somewhat a moot point given the sincerity with which she serves it up. As she said herself, “one of the primary qualities of a good performance is honesty.”
You can check out her live cover below.
