Chelsea Hotel

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.

Leonard Cohen

a beautiful song, yeah...

Dedicada a otra estrella, prematuramente apagada: Janis Joplin.
Por lo que explican, Janis Joplin y Leonard Cohen se encontraron casualmente en el ascensor del hotel y se enrollaron por eliminación (es decir, ambos buscaban, en realidad, a otras personas) que es, como dice el propio Cohen, como ocurren la mayoría de las cosas. Entonces, la Joplin le dice algo así como: 'bueno a mi me van más los guapos, pero contigo haré una excepción' , debía ser broma, no?

Otra de las frases memorables de la canción es la que Cohen le atribuye a su amante: 'well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music.' ¿Cuántas veces habré podido aplicarme yo la frase? Infinidad, y no es porque yo sea horrible (que yo sepa, vamos) , pero evidentemente es algo extrapolable a tantos ámbitos; y desde luego, la fealdad externa es de las menos desagradables. Pensemos en el egoísmo, la crueldad, la insolidaridad, la avaricia, la mezquindad, y un gran etcétera. Aunque, por rizar el rizo y por amor a la conjetura, no creo que se refiriera a estos rasgos humanos tampoco, sino quizás a los fracasos que somos, a niveles no tan melodramáticos, seguro. Al menos yo la interpreto así, me gusta más.

Mi eterna gratitud a todos los artistas que con sus palabras me consuelan tantas veces.