"I wandered into a place called The Dome. There was this incredibilly beautiful blonde woman singing, the apotheosis of the Nazi earth mother, and behind her playing guitar was this boy ho had an equally angelic face. It was Nico, and the boy [...] was Jackson Browne. [...] I just stood there with my jaw agape. My song Suzanne was out (Judy Collins had just recorded it) so I had a credential and somehow I managed to meet her. And within five minutes of our conversation she told me to forget it, because she was only interested in young men. But she said, I`d love to be a friend of yours - and we became friends".
There followed the Nico story, or stories - of fruitless assignations, no-show cinema visits, chance encounters - and a rare insight into Cohen`s seduction technique. "I was madly in love with her. I was lighting candles and praying and performing incantations and wearing amulets, anything to have her fall in love with me, but she never did". Their star-crossed affair did have a climax of sorts. "The years went by and we became quite tender with each other, but nothing romantic ever came of it. Then one year I bumped into her at the bar of the Chelsea Hotel where I was staying. [...] So we were talking about old times, and I thought I detected some remote invitation. I didn`t know if it was the drink, but she said, Let`s go to the room and talk, because they were closing the bar. So we went up to the room and sat on the bed, and I sat close to her and she sat close to me and I put my hand on - I think it was her wrist... and she hauled off and hit me so hard it lifted me clean off the bed, and she screamed and screamed. And suddenly the door came down and about 20 policemen came in, thinking I was the killer they were looking for..."