Quite a few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Leonard Cohen. He told me that he wrote this song after discovering he'd been put on the Nixon Administration's "Enemies List" -- a list of artists, writers, musicians, and other public figures whom the ever-paranoid Nixon considered somehow "dangerous" or "subversive." In some cases, the "enemies" found themselves harrassed by the FBI/CIA, the IRS, or other governmental goons sent by Nixon. (I have no idea whether or not this happened to Cohen, or even why he was on the list in the first place -- probably because he was popular among "hippies" and other unsavory folks!)
Cohen asked me not to print this in the article I was writing -- he said, "I don't want to inflame them even more." So I didn't use it, and as far as I know, it was never revealed anywhere else either, But he definitely did tell me this.
You're close!
Quite a few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Leonard Cohen. He told me that he wrote this song after discovering he'd been put on the Nixon Administration's "Enemies List" -- a list of artists, writers, musicians, and other public figures whom the ever-paranoid Nixon considered somehow "dangerous" or "subversive." In some cases, the "enemies" found themselves harrassed by the FBI/CIA, the IRS, or other governmental goons sent by Nixon. (I have no idea whether or not this happened to Cohen, or even why he was on the list in the first place -- probably because he was popular among "hippies" and other unsavory folks!)
Cohen asked me not to print this in the article I was writing -- he said, "I don't want to inflame them even more." So I didn't use it, and as far as I know, it was never revealed anywhere else either, But he definitely did tell me this.