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I understand that back in the 60's that Leonard Cohen went to prison for 10 years for murdering his wife. I have not been able to find anything about this topic. Does anybody know? And please don't answer "Everybody Knows"

No-one knows...

Rather difficult to murder your wife when you've never been married...

This song tells you all you need to know:

Thoughts are free, who can guess them?
They flee by like nocturnal shadows.
No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them,
with powder and lead: Thoughts are free!

I think what I want, and what delights me,
still always reticent, and as it is suitable.
My wish and desire, no one can deny me
and so it will always be: Thoughts are free!

And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon,
all this would be futile work,
because my thoughts tear all gates
and walls apart. Thoughts are free!

So I will renounce my sorrows forever,
and never again will torture myself with some fancy ideas.
In one's heart, one can always laugh and joke
and think at the same time: Thoughts are free!

I love wine, and my girl even more,
Only I like her best of all.
I'm not alone with my glass of wine,
my girl is with me: Thoughts are free!

1. Die Gedanken sind frei,
Wer kann sie erraten,
Sie fliehen vorbei,
Wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen,
Kein Jäger erschießen
Mit Pulver und Blei.
Die Gedanken sind frei!

2. Ich denke was ich will
Und was mich beglücket,
Doch alles in der Still',
Und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch, mein Begehren
Kann niemand verwehren,
Es bleibet dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei!

3. Und sperrt man mich ein
In finsteren Kerker,
Ich spotte der Pein
Und menschlicher Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken
Zerreißen die Schranken
Und Mauern entzwei,
Die Gedanken sind frei!

4. Drum will ich auf immer
Den Sorgen entsagen
Und will dich auch nimmer
Mit Willen verklagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen
Stets lachen und scherzen
Und denken dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
_________________

Kerstin, Cohen sang this song a few times in his 1976 tour. Here it is: http://www.twoshakesofalambstail.com/st ... _Frei2.mp3 You can judge how well he sings it; between his german and mine, I never understood more than the title!

I'm afraid the cure for mis-behaving thoughts is located in the same place with the famous "cure for love". "The doctors working day and night/but they'll never find that cure for love"... If I'm wrong, and you ever find it, please tell me too!

And, btw, nice change of a thread that seemed almost like trolling to me (or at least very peculiar).

Laura

Hi Kerstin and Laura,

Thanks so much for posting the video and the Leonard version on here (I'm glad I mentioned the song). I heard Leonard sing it more than once, and love his lyrics "and if the tyrants take me and throw me in prison, my thoughts will break free like these blossoms in season/ and mountains will tumble, foundations will crumble and free men will cry "Die Gedanken Sind Frei".

Love, John E

Again, the ambiguity of the word 'free' (as before: 'the dove is never free').

Are thoughts liberated or do they cost nothing, or both?

In reply to the original question, I heard the same story in the mid-70s from an Australian whom I barely knew when I was living in Brighton, England.

I read a biography of Cohen about 10 years ago and there was no mention of that.

As far as I know Cohen was never legally married although he later lived with a woman named Suzanne Elroy (not the same Suzanne as in the song) as his common-law wife and gave her a Jewish wedding ring. The last I heard, she was still alive, as is the Suzanne from the song.

He spent most of the 1960s living on the Greek island of Hydra with his Norwegian girl-friend Marianne (also still alive) until 1967 when he returned to New York to record music and had a brief affair with the singer Joni Michell.

I think that story is unlikely to be true as, if found out, he would probably have been put in prison and we would have heard more about it.

It may have been a rumour that someone spread but I really don't know.

Hi crumbs ~

Absolutely and beyond a shadow of a doubt, what you have 'heard' is categorically wrong about THIS Leonard Cohen. There may be another Leonard Cohen out there, about whom it is true, but this one never spent time in prison, much less for murder, nor murder of a wife, common law or otherwise.

I do like the way this thread morphed on its own into something worthwhile, however.

Bono murdered

















Hallelujah

"Ten years" during "the '60s"??? That's the whole decade!

He was pretty busy behind bars, I must say. I've never read a prison diary like Spice-Box of Earth, Parasites of Heaven, Flowers for Hitler, The Favorite Game, or Beautiful Losers . . . and that prison must have had one hell of a recording studio for both Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs From A Room to be recorded there . . .

. . . and it must have had an extremely liberal furlough program to allow him to spend all that time on Hydra during those years.

Obviously, Canada has a very progressive prison system [Buncha damn socialists!] . . .

Did you notice that any photos from the 60's never showed his ankles where the electronic tag was placed......