This week we have a Leonard Cohen song from 1974. The song is probably the most notable Cohen composition in the album called "New Skin for the Old Ceremony". It refers to a sexual encounter in the Chelsea Hotel, probably New York City's most famous Bohemian hostelry. For some years, when performing this song live, Cohen would tell a story that made it clear that the person about whom he was singing was Janis Joplin. Cohen would eventually come to regret his choice to make people aware that the song was about Joplin, and the graphic detail in which the song describes their brief relationship. In a 1994 broadcast on the BBC, Cohen said it was "an indiscretion for which I'm very sorry, and if there is some way of apologizing to the ghost, I want to apologize now, for having committed that indiscretion.
Here is the song for this week;
"Chelsea Hotel #2"
According to Ira Nadel's 1996 Cohen memoir Various Positions, the singer finished writing "Chelsea Hotel #2" at the Imperial Hotel in Asmara, Ethiopia. Cohen himself said the same thing but this argument was challenged by Ron Cornelius as you will read below...
The Chelsea Hotel in New York city is where Cohen lived when he wasn't at his home in Montreal or his cottage on the Greek Island of Hydra. He chose the Chelsea because he heard he would meet people with a similar artistic bent, which he did.
Introducing this song in concert, Leonard Cohen sometimes admitted that he wrote it about a very brief affair he had with Janis Joplin in 1968, explaining that she came to the Chelsea Hotel looking for Kris Kristofferson, and when they ended up in an elevator together, he told her that he was Kristofferson. She knew he wasn't, but figured he would do on this particular evening. "We fell into each other's arms through some process of elimination," Cohen said.
Joplin left in the morning, and he saw her only a few times after that. She eventually did find Kristofferson, and recorded his song "Me And Bobby McGee," which became a #1 hit when it was released after her death. However as stated above, in his later years Cohen apologized to the public to reveal this.
Ron Cornelius is a guitarist who played on sessions with many artists, including Johnny Cash, Loudon Wainwright III and Bob Dylan. Before branching out into production and music publishing, he served as Leonard Cohen's band leader for four albums. Ron gave us this response regarding his role in writing this song: "He claims that I helped him with a chord change in writing an earlier version of this song. The truth is that I co-wrote the song with him on an airplane (8 hours) from New York to Shannon, Ireland. The reason it has a #2 behind it is that he tried to cheat me out of my share by recopyrighting it that way (he changed nothing) - it was just 'Chelsea Hotel.' Anyone can check out the writer credits by contacting BMI to get the truthful writer credits. I ran his band for a long time (worldwide), played on his records, and have nothing but honest input to look back on - Leonard can't say that!!!"
Later on, the song's name was converted to just "Chelsea Hotel" with many covers...
Here are the 7 versions I picked for you;
- Lloyd Cole - "Chelsea Hotel"
- Maryanne - "Chelsea Hotel"
- Rufus Wainwright - "Chelsea Hotel"
- Lambchop - "Chelsea Hotel #2"
- Meshell Ndegeocello - "Chelsea Hotel"
- Lana Del Rey - "Chelsea Hotel No 2"
- Regina Spektor - "Chelsea Hotel"
No comments:
Post a Comment