Leonard Cohen - So Long, Marianne

You held to me as if I was a crucifix.

Album: Songs of Leonard Cohen [debut album]
Recorded: New York City
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Folk
Album Release: December 27th 1967
Length: 5.38
Producer: John Simon & John Hammond
Vocalist: Leonard Cohen [age 33]
Label: Columbia

Official Audio


Live in 1979

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 60 million
YouTube Music: Over 24 million
Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 60's: #190

Credits

Details

• Cohen wrote the song about his girlfriend. Initially the song was titled 'Come On Marianne' as he wanted to make another go of things, only to change it when he realised the relationship was over. The song was written in two parts. The earlier, more hopeful verses in Montreal and then the bitter later verses one year later in New York. The passage of time and with it the change in perspective can be felt in the song and serves to mimic the ups and downs of a tumultuous relationship.
  
  Couples fight and with hindsight they could realise that was the moment they broke up but in the midst of things it isn't so clear. It's possible the argument could be resolved and forgotten about. In other relationships, such as parent-child, there is always a bond of responsibility, a blood connection beyond feeling, but in a romantic relationship there is only love, and love can be a fickle thing, a flame that can grow but also grow smaller.
  
  Cohen would describe Marianne Ihlen, the Marianne from the song, as his muse. She inspired him and they would later rekindle their romance. A television series, also called 'So Long, Marianne', was made about the couples relationship in 2024. Both Cohen and Ihlen died in the same year, 2016, of the same disease, cancer. They were connected in death as they were in life. Cohen wrote to Marianne as he lay on his deathbed "and you know that I've always loved you." The note has been made available to the public. In 2019 the love letters he wrote to Marianne sold for $75,000.
  
  

  

  Marianne Ihlen
  

  
  
• There is a cover by Rufus Wainwright.
• There is a cover by James.
  
• There is a cover by Bill Callahan.
• There is a cover by Courtney Barnett.

Artwork