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 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 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


Lyrics submitted by Mopnugget

Chelsea Hotel #2 song meanings
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29 Comments

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  • +6
    General Comment

    Leonard's publicist unbeknownst to Leonard revealed that this song was bout his secret affair with Janis Joplin. While it did great for the record publicity, it really angered Cohen that someone he trusted had leaked the info. Although I'm sure the sogn would ahve been just as affecting without the history of the story I still can't ever listen to this song without picturing the heady(sex crazed) leonard coupling with the physical(sex crazed) joplin. And no, it's anot a pretty image.

    nezitibraincaston July 27, 2005   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    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"

    Clenched fists and fixing yourself. Heroin?

    Riccoon July 08, 2006   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    Just to add an observation of a lyric towards the end of the song: "I'll never confess, 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"- to some, this may seem to be a sarcastic line, as if to say to himself "I want to seem like I don't care, but underneath I really do care about the death of this lover..but I don't want to admit it to myself or else I might feel really sad about it". Well, yeah, there's a bit about that emotion in this line. But there's another meaning here. I think Leonard is trying to be honest. Perhaps to say he really cared after the fact, this could be hypocritical and a lie, because in reality, maybe he really didn't care about her and brushed her aside like so many of the other fallen robins he dated. It may seem mean, but perhaps that is the truth, that he really didn't care and to lie and say that he did, would dishonor her life and death. But again, he may have had the other emotion as well at the same time. Double meanings like this in Cohen's lyrics, I think are intentional and one of the things that make him such a fascinating, meaningful and credible writer. L. Cohen, you are my mentor, my guru and my musical/lyrical soulmate. The gift of your wisdom is the most invaluable gift I've ever been given (while intentional or not)

    marcalterneton June 21, 2009   Link
  • +4
    Song Meaning

    One note on the falling robin:

    From the Christian Bible, Matthew 10:29 "What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it."

    So Leonard isn't God. He can't keep everyone in mind all the time. He doesn't presume a closeness of a long relationship, or the entitlement of a deep and lasting grief. This was the experience, it mattered as much as it mattered, no more, no less.

    (I have a shorthand for interpreting Leonard Cohen songs: Presume it's about sex, death, faith/religion, and the experience of being an imperfect human. I have yet to find one of his very popular songs that doesn't have at least a touch of all four.)

    gementon February 07, 2011   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    PS. Another song about Janis Joplin is "Bird Song" by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Joplin was the girlfriend of Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of the Grateful Dead ,for a while. He died of alcoholism.

    kenkcon April 05, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    i think that rufus wainwright does the best cover!

    racheleliseon March 31, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    "I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best. I can't keep track of each fallen robin"

    I'm pretty sure he is referring to fact that Janis had broken the hearts of many men and that he can't say that out of all those men, he loved her the most.

    mac1021094on January 09, 2017   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Chelsea Hotel is a hotel in New York City often frequented by musicians, artist and writers (also the place where Nancy Spungen was allegedly murdered by Sid Vicious). The lyrics are about Leonard's sexual encounter with Janis Joplin at the hotel.

    zeroglitteron October 30, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    The song is only little bit about a moment between two conventionally unattractive people, communing as both homely and immensely talented. Sure, the affair was super short, but they "had the music" a lot better than most anyone else alive at the time. More importantly Janis "got away" because she died. The song is just as much about all the musicians who didn't surviving the lifestyle, the drugs, the decade...

    "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"

    "clenched fist" evocative of shaking it in anger- oppressed by beautiful people. "fixed yourself" probably a pun. "each fallen robin" dead singers.

    nada2dadaon January 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I've always wondered... what happened to Chelsea Hotel No. 1?

    Fypaston July 04, 2005   Link

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