Discover the story of the song > So Long Marianne – Leonard Cohen

- "So Long, Marianne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen.
- It appears on his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen.
- Pitchfork Media placed it at number 190 on its list of the "200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s."
- The song was inspired by Marianne Jensen, born Marianne Ihlen, whom Cohen met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960.
- She had just been left by her husband, the Norwegian writer Axel Jensen, leaving her alone on the island with their six-month-old son.
- Cohen and Marianne hit it off and he eventually brought her back from Hydra to his home in Oslo, Norway.
- He then invited her to come live with his son in Montreal, which she accepted.
- They lived together throughout the 1960s, commuting between New York, Montreal and Hydra.
- To quote Leonard Cohen (back cover of "Greatest Hits", 1976): "I started this on Aylmer Street in Montreal and finished it a year or two later at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. I didn't think I was saying goodbye, but I guess I was.