Rebecca:
>When this song was new, the sentiments in it paralleled those of the
>youth culture (I just didn't want to say hippies, you know?) so closely
>that it could have been a mystic anthem of the time. It fit like a
>glove, but does it have the ingredients that will stand the test of
>time?
  True, there is a certain hippie atmosphere about the song! Still, it
never caught on the way, say, "If you're going to San Francisco.." or
"The White Rabbit" did. As for standing the test of time, I can't myself
even imagine what this song sounds like now to people who hear it for the
first time. So we'll just have to wait and see. I very much agree that
in mostly every Cohen song it is


>the combination, though, of voice and lyric and music rather than just
>one or the other.
>...
>This verse, then. I'm going to cheat, and get a friend who knows
>more to check the biblical references for me. Then I can go on
>from there.
  I strongly suspect that even biblical experts can only pinpoint the
walking on the water as an actual reference.

Good idea in hopes of getting some information flowing, this looking
at the songs. If it dies out, then it does.


A question on Suzanne:
When this song was new, the sentiments in it paralleled those of the
youth culture (I just didn't want to say hippies, you know?) so closely
that it could have been a mystic anthem of the time. It fit like a
glove, but does it have the ingredients that will stand the test of
time?


Ron Mura mentioned, in a different context, that the songs meanings
did not come through the words, so that interpretation was not something
he focused on. I hope he says it again, here, since it was clearer
than I'm saying it. But I feel the same way.  There is something in
this, and in most Cohen songs, that allows you to feel the meaning.
It has to be the combination, though, of voice and lyric and music
rather than just one or the other.


So of course I realize I never wondered what it meant, and now, as I
read it through, it seems that only the verse about Jesus has potential
for interpretation. Suzanne has faded to one of the homeless persons
of the eighties, inextricably focused inwards, probably more than half
crazy. I see this vision of a person I know of whose whole life is
wound on some inner spool that moves only in time to the music of her
particular hero.


    And Jesus was a sailor
    When he walked upon the water
    And he spent a long time watching
    From his lonely wooden tower
    And when he knew for certain
    Only drowning men could see him
    He said "All men will be sailors then
    Until the sea shall free them"
    But he himself was broken
    Long before the sky would open
    Forsaken, almost human
    He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
    And you want to travel with him
    And you want to travel blind
    And you think maybe you'll trust him
    For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.


This verse, then. I'm going to cheat, and get a friend who knows
more to check the biblical references for me. Then I can go on
>From there.