Comment by barrkel

I named my son after him, and had to rename my cat after he was born - my cat is now Mr Cohen.

I did not discover him, though, I grew up to the sound of Suzanne and the rest of the Songs, one of the tapes my mother played fairly regularly when I was little. He, along with Tom Waits, was the soundtrack of my childhood and of course something you grow to appreciate more, not less, with age.

I think Suzanne is probably my favorite song of his. It's got one of the most soothing melodies, simple and gently repetitive, undulating, like the river itself. The imagery of Jesus, of the cross as a lonely wooden tower, as a man broken and forsaken, in contrast to a life-affirming personification of nature in Suzanne; the whole river / boat / sailor theme running throughout; it's just very well put together and thematically tight.