When I was a child, my parents had an record by Esther Opharim, with Esther with a big floppy hat and her huge eyes on the cover, and on it was a cover version of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, which was my introduction to the song. I loved her sweet haunting voice. Now, I've looked for her version of it everywhere but haven't found it. I realize in my quest, I've got 5 versions of the song (1- Leonard Cohen himself, master song writer, awful singer, even though his intonation is great 2. Neil Diamond, who has a spectacular voice and surprisingly suited to the song. 3. Judy Collins, too sweet for my taste. 4. Nick Cave, Julie Christensen & Perla Batalla, which has 3 of them singing together, interesting but lacks the purity I want. and 5. the classic Roberta Flack version. But none of them match my memory of Esther Opharim. Of course it's many years since I heard the version I'm looking for, and even if I found it, it may not sound right... funny how memory is like that.
(and for those interested in a hamster update - no one's been eaten yet, and Amelia ate and ate appropriate hamster food and is now sleeping. And did you know one of the leading causes of death of baby hamsters is that they can't reach the water in the cages and die of thirst - how awful that sounds! We're going to get a low tiny basin (a lid?) and put water in that, so our babies get the water they need... And yet, if they hadn't warned me, that may well have happened to us, sometimes the obvious has to be pointed out.)
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