THE greatest Leonard Cohen song of the 1980s was one he never sang. “Summertime” was a delicate, yearning ballad tucked away on Diana Ross’s underperforming 1987 album Red Hot Rhythm & Blues. It was the first song Cohen wrote with Sharon Robinson, who’d initially been hired to sing back-up on the Field Commander Cohen tour of 1979.
Robinson was a singer/songwriter/ dancer, “with the emphasis on the slash”, she laughs. “You wore a lot of hats as someone trying to earn a living in the music industry back then.” She was working with Ann- Margret in Vegas at the time, and knew little of Cohen’s work, but sensed she could learn an awful lot from this charismatic Canadian.