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0 pointsdang2y ago0 comments

My parents-in-law had an old friend who with her folk-singer husband ran a club in Montreal in the early 60s. Bob Dylan came through town before he changed his name. They were sitting around after the show and Annette said to him: "Kid. You better go back to college. You need something to fall back on." Dylan told her: "If I don't, you'll eat my hat."

She had other great stories. Lenny Cohen played "Suzanne" for her and said "what do you think?" Annette: "it stinks. who wrote it?" Lenny: "I did."

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nraynaud2y ago

I'd like to add the caution that songs might change a lot during their author's life, and the "suzanne" she heard might be different from the one we know.

jszymborski2y ago

Annette sounds like a straight shooter.

Cheers from Montréal!

gonzo2y ago

She’s not wrong

jmmcd2y ago

Later on, Michael Stipe of REM wrote a song that shamelessly ripped off Suzanne, except it was about merging a human's DNA with a crocodile. He asked Peter Buck what he thought, and Buck said "it's great, but it was great when it was Suzanne too".

dangOP2y ago

Aw come on. It's Suzanne by Lenny Cohen.

nocoiner2y ago

I don’t know how exactly we got on this topic, but there’s also an excellent Weezer song called “Suzanne.”

Edit: I guess it’s actually spelled “Susanne.”

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