Leonard Cohen interviewed by Charlie Rose, 1988

[@zioop]

Don't you just love it when the person you want to hear gets into it and gets interrupted by the interviewer

[@guitarista666]

I don't think Rose really knew quite what to do with someone like Cohen, but it was always interesting to hear what Cohen had to say.

[@paulrxxxmann6718]

how did leonard refrain from strangling mr rose.... ?

[@garetcrossman6626]

Omg. Crazy that he got a job as an interviewer!!

[@haileyshannon7548]

You'd be happy to know he was cancelled during the MeToo tsunami a few year ago

[@myusername67]

Interviewer rule number 1, shut up and let the person answer the question you asked.

[@Lma832]

Leonard still managed to answer and the rose totally missed it

[@jimwbruce]

I have appreciated Cohen since the mid 60s when I would slip his poems into junior high English classes. He is like a fireworks display a beautiful sky image appears and while you enjoy another explosion happens and then more. Interviewers are determined to package him into sound bytes, and he reduces them to pure silliness. He lets them suffer and doesn't buy in. I want to understand Cohen and 60 years later I marvel but don't comprehend.

[@Outsider214]

it does not get better

[@MSYNGWIE12]

Merci beaucoup- he is next to my husband, My Man...I could not listen to his music for 3 years when he passed- I haven't seen this interview, thank you so much. On Suzanne- it's My Song, I want lines from it on my tombstone and I pray I meet him in the ether...

[@PeterChoyce]

How is it this guy had a TV program? These questions are absurd, as if my grandfather from squaresville were asking

[@rickpaton7538]

He was an absolutely terrible interviewer. A shame Terry Gross couldn't have had the spot instead.

[@Dunc2222]

Charlie Rose always talked too much, interrupting his interviewee, and thus often missing the potentially deepest insights. Here again. As someone else said below, he didn't quite seem to know what to do with Cohen. He clearly was intimidated by Cohen's intellect, didn't know his work well, and this interview doesn't do Cohen justice. I had to turn it off.

[@KeithCharlesDovoric]

It's rare that I go after the interviewer, and here's why: if the subject can be drawn out and made to elicit meaningful, enlightening responses, then the interview ain't bad; in fact, it can be pretty miraculous and thus shedding of a new, admirable light on said interviewer.

[@belensoria8600]

OH MY GOD! What a waaaaaste!!! so annoying to hear that guys asking and insisting on the most stupid questioooonnnssss

[@waterdragon2012]

I agree the interviewer had a really obnoxious approach, but I find it immensely inspiring how gracefully Cohen was able to navigate, even sublimate, the wretchedness that was getting thrown at him

[@belensoria8600]

@@waterdragon2012 That's a clever and much wiser perspective on it. Thanks for sharing!

[@andydixon2980]

Charlie Rose is a guy pretending to be smarter than he really is. Too much confidence, too little intelligence.

[@estebanramosjimenez7291]

How could it possible to ask stupid questions when your guest is so much an spiritual and intellectual soul as Leonard was... Rose tried to be interesting and pertinent but in front of this wise and elegant man you can't... 5 years and you i still missed you my Zen Master... God bless your soul forever... Forever I'm Your Fan 🙏🙌❤️

[@Lma832]

Haha I’m cracking up! It’s unreal. The interviewer really cut him off as he said just because they’re some cotton farmer doesn’t mean they’re not informed by the highest value, this type of thinking Leonard has is part of his genius and rose really just disregarded it so he could extract the answer he wanted

[@Dunc2222]

Rose seemed to always feel compelled to try to show he was as smart as his guests, and this tendency got worse in the presence of a particularly brilliant intellect like Cohen. This insecurity caused him to cut off his most interesting subjects just as they were making their most interesting remarks. Simply, Rose was nowhere near their level, and never should have been in a position to interview them.

[@estebanramosjimenez7291]

@@Dunc2222 yeah definitely. Well said. Tries to be interesting, but it's an egotrip, because he knows that in front of Leonard,he already lost...

[@freeatlast1963]

Songs from a Room - great

[@ConcreteBlonde111]

Everybody Knows Everybody Knows Everybody Knows

[@lisahileman6727]

The interviewer’s watch alarm went off and it took him a couple seconds to turn it off. This was poorly done. He was not at all prepared for him.

[@perseveremediaproductions4950]

« Do you still train your voice » guy has no idea of what he’s talking about lol

[@stevelivingstone4616]

The interviewer is very poor.

[@TymBenn]

I like how Leonard's melow voice calmed and slowed down Charlie deeper into the meaning. Charlie is usually a sleeper interviewer, he really gets artists to say deep things, and packs a lot into a 15 minute segment

[@richardmorgan8079]

It should read, Leonard Cohen interrupted by Charlie Rose. And did he really not know that Leonard wrote Suzanne?!

[@Esther_is_my_name]

Charlie's timex beeping away...technology always interrupting... The last clip in this video, and why I need to watch the entire video before commenting, less editing in stuff... 13:23mins, sigh, ...if I could find a man who isn't religious, and admits he has a deep faith in God, enjoys reading the Holy Scriptures, HE WOULDN'T NEED TO BE ASHAMED, he would indeed be "date-able"...in fact, marriage material. Please tell me Lord, is there another "Leonard" out there? This man was gorgeous inside out. Sigh again. ...artistic, poetic, I don't care for success like his career, but, has all his attributes physically as well? Yeah, Leonard was one of a kind. And I was born too late. Facts, sad as they may be...just being honest here. This man was a rare gem.

[@JCPJCPJCP]

Interrupting people just as they're expressing something meaningful or heartfelt can be a trick employed by a predatory narcissist. Edit: My guess is that is exactly what it was with Charlie Rose. That doesn't happen "accidentally" with anyone, especially when it happens repeatedly, and by a professional interviewer with a fancy education. Edit: Check out his interview with Noam Chomsky. It's classic Chaz.

[@ninjakat4815]

clueless Rose wtf !!

[@Guccifeathers]

I don't mean to judge but what a middle class interview on the interviewers part. Obviously not an artist to me at least.....

[@nuclearcatbaby1131]

He was like the Taylor Swift of his day.

[@atakurt6055]

lmao what

[@nuclearcatbaby1131]

@@atakurt6055 Started off country, wrote really good ballads as he matured, though maybe he didn’t go through a pop phase.

[@myhatmygandhi6217]

​@@nuclearcatbaby1131never went through a pop phase, correct, also never produced a country album. He was good right from the start with his debut album so he didn't have to mature to get good, his music was mature to begin with.

[@nuclearcatbaby1131]

@@myhatmygandhi6217 I dunno, “First We Take Manhattan” sounds pretty 80s synth pop

[@lenahughes7867]

Mr Rose is not a good interviewer....too conservative, lacking in innate security, tolerance and beliefs, take the pension Rose...go out before you're kicked out for mediocracy, and that's being kind....

[@dmgiova3788]

I don't like "Suzanne". I prefer "Dance me to the end of Love" and "Ain't no cure for love"; "Anthem"; "Bird on a Wire".; "So long, Marianne" and a whole lot of others......but NOT Suzanne. It's not Leonard's singing. I just don't think it's that great of a song.

[@dudeman5303]

??? How??? I agree that there are others I like more but that was the song that first got me hooked. The lyrics are just amazing for that one. Hearing that song was like my first poetry masterclass (before I moved on to his other songs). I think it's just a perfect song, I think the main reason it's probably not my favorite anymore is because I overplayed it and memorized every second of it, but I just don't get downplaying it's greatness just because you prefer another song or songs. It being his most popular doesn't suddenly mean it's not still a song written by the great Leonard Cohen. I see it as just as crucial as his others, but when you do look at it in the grand scheme of things that song put his music on the map in many ways so even if I didn't like it I still respect it for how it helped his career as a songwriter.

[@lukewilliam3601]

Interesting. Yes, he has a ridiculous number of great songs, agreed. But I think Suzanna is without question up there with the best. Maybe not THE best, but I'll be damned if it isn't top 5, or 10 at the very least.

[@benhodson7239]

It is an undeniably powerful song, the first time I heard I got chills and teared up haha, it was the song that got me into Cohen and I'm so grateful for it