The song Joni Mitchell wrote as a goodbye kiss to her Leonard Cohen love affair
Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell have both written some of the most striking heartbreak songs of all time; it puts them in a unique position when it comes to their personal relationships. The archetypal observing poets Cohen and Mitchell provide a cultivated perspective on the fragile notions of love and lust.
Given their knack for channelling unrelenting emotion into their music, it’s no surprise that the intensely romantic love affair between the duo—even if it didn’t unfold as they might have hoped—became fertile ground for incredible songwriting. Thankfully, their brief dalliance yielded at least one beautiful track, which Mitchell penned as a heartfelt goodbye to their fleeting romance.
The two longtime friends—and one-time lovers—first met at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967. Instantly hitting it off, the two embarked on a romantic relationship that would burn out within a few short months. Joined by poetry and songwriting, the two would remain close friends until Cohen’s death in 2016. Cohen, who was nine years older than Mitchell when they met, often found inspiration from those he lived in close proximity with.
Mitchell was a pioneering force in alternative and folk music, often compared to Leonard Cohen during the early stages of her career. However, she quickly established her own unique style, despite some overlapping qualities in their work. Both were expert storytellers and confessional observers, yet they remained firmly in their own sonic lanes, each carving out a distinctive identity.
Following the festival appearance when the pair first met, Mitchell would spend a month living with Cohen at her Laurel Canyon home. The period coincided with a time when Hollywood producers urged him to score a film based on his song ‘Suzanne’. Tasked with the project, the Canadian musician attempted to enlist Mitchell’s assistance on the score—an effort that never actually came to fruition.
Mitchell, reflecting on her career years later, told Malka Maron this in the book Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words about their first meeting: “Leonard did ‘Suzanne’, I’d met him and I went, ‘I love that song. What a great song.’ Really. ‘Suzanne’ was one of the greatest songs I ever heard.” It’s a reminder of just how powerful Cohen was to other musicians. His unique, captivating ability to write world-inspiring lyrics was simply not being replicated elsewhere. “So I was proud to meet an artist,” she continued. “He made me feel humble because I looked at that song and I went, ‘Woah. All my songs seem so naive by comparison.’ It raised the standard of what I wanted to write.”
After their relationship as lovers fizzled out, Mitchell penned the incredible song ‘Rainy Night House’ as a farewell to their short but sweet relationship. Mitchell confirmed that the track was about her relationship with Cohen coming to an end, stating: “Yeah. I went one time to his home, and I fell asleep in his old room, and he sat up and watched me sleep. He sat up all night, and he watched me see who in the world I could be.”
She continued: “There’s some poetic liberty with those two lines; actually it’s ‘you sat up all night and watched me to see who in the world…’ I turned it around. Leonard was in a lot of pain. Hungry ghosts is what it’s called in Buddhism. I am even lower. Five steps down.”
It is also rumoured that the timeless ‘A Case Of You’ was written with Cohen in mind, but this has never been publicly confirmed. Really, Cohen’s name is just added to a long list of people it could have been penned about. Whether this is true, however, the timing would suggest that it could be the case. But though he may have had a claim to two songs from Mitchell, he could definitely lay his hands on one.
