Leonard Cohen in Greece
Leonard Cohen revisits his house in Hydra, where he wrote Bird on a Wire ( "and there's the wire"!)and many other songs. This is the house he shared with Marianne, his muse, and the Marianne of SO LONG MARIANNE . He is accompanied by his backing singers Perla Batalla and Julie Chistensen. Part of the 1988 film SONGS FROM THE LIFE OF LEONARD COHEN. During the interview for that film I asked him whether his Marianne was the same Marianne as David Blue's Marianne. "How do you know that?" he asked. But of course it was in his lyrics: I loved Marianne in the winter In the loft of her favorite lover She was growing older The winter nights were cold She told me I'm frightened I said yes I know Her eyes held me to her They burned with such a fire For the saints on the walls Holy candles in the halls For those who had left her I held her and cried Oh Marianne you are beautiful To be this friend To a stranger who Leaves you only to fall Do not cry you have helped me I will not say goodbye I knew her from another song Her older poet wrote before We played it in the morning laughing on the floor Till he came knocking on the lower East Side door Yes you know I miss her Her and her stories of the night I called her a rabbit She gave me back my life I haven't heard her voice since the Isle of Wight Oh Marianne you are beautiful To be this friend To a stranger who Leaves you only to fall Do not cry you have helped me I will not say goodbye In the interview Leonard calls her MariannAH, just as David Blue sings her name. | 
