Monday, April 6, 2009

Yes, people who are sick of my Cohen obsession can skip this entry. I will keep on proclaiming my undying love for this legend. His songs are pure, fragile poems. I don't care about his vocal quality or the chord charts or the blahblahyadayadas. Seriously.

Here is something that I wanted to share. This one is called ' Chelsea Hotel No.2'.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

...


and yes, I must get over this fixation with hotel-pub-poems. they are just so darned attractive!!!!

4 comments:

Arse Poetica said...

But hotel-pub poems are the only poems that can intoxicate like no other...

Unknown said...

" I don't care about his vocal quality or the chord charts or the blahblahyadayadas."

I know who thats directed at dont I? :P

Anoo. said...

YES! to both :D

Sayan said...

Although a self-admitted badsinger (I don't necessarily agree, his singing is thoroughly enchanting in the first two albums), Leonard Cohen has always, always been a brilliant songwriter.

He wrote this after Janis Joplin died, and..

You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music.