In a resurfaced 1974 interview with Zig Zag Magazine, Leonard Cohen singled out German singer-songwriter Nico for praise, calling her "one of the really original talents in the whole racket" despite her being largely overlooked by the wider public. Cohen, who had only recently established himself as a songwriter with his 1967 debut after years as a poet, recognised in Nico an unconventional but genuine artistic talent similar to his own, even though her music was more visceral and confrontational than his.

Cohen expressed hope he would see Nico again on returning to France and admitted his frustration that so few others shared his admiration for her work, noting she likely sold barely any records at the time. Nico, best known then for her contribution to The Velvet Underground and Nico, released the same year as Cohen's debut, took a far rawer and more transgressive approach to poetry-inspired music than Cohen did. Her refusal to conform to conventional musical standards was, in Cohen's eyes, evidence of true originality, a view that took much of the wider public far longer to come around to.