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so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:04 pm
by faithfully
Is this song dedicated to Marianne Faithfull or not?
Some say yes, some not, some do not know...
Besides, are they still friends?
Please post, thanks!
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:57 pm
by Cate
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:59 pm
by faithfully
And who is this man on the picture???
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:29 pm
by ladydi
Have no idea. You posted it.
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:06 pm
by margaret
faithfully wrote:Is this song dedicated to Marianne Faithfull or not?
Some say yes, some not, some do not know...
Besides, are they still friends?
Please post, thanks!
The song has no connection at all to Marianne Faithful
They may have met at some point but as far as I know they are not (close) friends. The Marianne of the song is the lovely Norwegian girl that lived with Leonard on the island of Hydra in Greece for about 6 years in the 60's.
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:07 pm
by Womanfromaroom
In Germany, we had a documentary some time ago called "Beautiful Losers" about Willy DeVille, Marianne Faithfull and Leonard. If I am not HUGELY mistaken, I recall an interview from that film where Leonard expressly says that sadly, Marianne Faithfull is mistaken in thinking - and having told loads of people, too - that the song is about her; and, of course, Marianne Ihlen also makes quite a convincing point in her BBC Radio 4 interview when telling why Leonard has obviously written it for her. Why not believe that? But then, as with "Suzanne", if some women named either "Suzanne" or "Marianne" feel that Leonard is particularly talking to them - why not? There seems nothing wrong about that; I mean, after all, most of us will have had moments during his recent concerts when we felt singled out somehow and had an impression of being addressed in some extraordinary way by songs which for one reason or another have taken on some special meaning for us, at least I did... But when it comes to the actual genesis of the song "Marianne", as I have said, I am pretty sure that it has not been written and composed for Ms Faithfull!
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:26 am
by John Etherington
Nothing much to add here, but you only have to look at the back cover of "Songs From a Room" to see the real Marianne. I saw that documentary with Marianne Faithfull, Willy Deville etc some years ago, and Marianne F is wrong, of course - even though she no doubt felt that Leonard's song was speaking to her (which on some level, I'm sure it was).
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:45 am
by somewhat_nifty
How odd - does Marianne F go around saying that it was written for her? Rather presumptious! I suppose if you have only a passing knowledge of Cohen you might believe it...
Re: so long, Marianne
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:22 pm
by Mabeanie1
somewhat_nifty wrote:How odd - does Marianne F go around saying that it was written for her?
She was on the Andrew Marr programme in the UK a week or so back. He said something like "you're the Marianne in Leonard Cohen's song" but she said not so if she did believe it once she must have changed her mind since.
Wendy