I don't know if this has been discussed here before, but listening to a
bootleg recording of Joni at the White Swan in Leicester, England, dated 1967,
I was struck by the blatant similarities between her unreleased song  `'Wizard
of Is` and Cohen's `Suzanne`` released in 1968 on his album `The Songs of
Leonard Cohen``.  We know Joni & Leonard spent time together at folk festivals
in Newport and Mariposa, and they were also photographed together in Greece in
1967. By many accounts, they were quite an item and she credits him as being a
mentor of sorts (O'Brien p.62).  I have always thought that A Case of You,
written during this period, was written for him. However, I suspect that
Wizard followed Cohen's Suzanne, because Cohen released his song commercially
and Joni never released Wizard.  But do we know if Wizard was written in
response to Suzanne, or vice-versa?

Michael in Quebec

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