Heck Of A Guy

Yes, That’s Chelsea Hotel #1

I ran across this video a week ago, but what with the hip fracture, bandwidth restrictions, and all, didn’t get around to viewing it until today. My advice to you is not to wait - watch it now.

Maybe I’m missing something
… but as far as I can determine, video and audio recordings of Leonard Cohen performing Chelsea Hotel #1, the original version of Chelsea Hotel , are rare, existing predominantly on bootlegs and personal recordings. Yet, this appeared online about a week ago, and there are only 124 viewings at YouTube as of this time; the video is also on one other site with about the same number of plays.

Perhaps the hard-core Cohenistas are jaded from watching Chelsea Hotel #1 too many times on private concert videos or this is a fake or it’s available elsewhere, or …

In any case, watching the video was a treat although its quality is flawed. Some lyrics differ from the current version, the most significant being the “sweet little sound” attributed to the woman in the earlier rendition of the song that isn’t found in Chelsea Hotel #2. Enjoy.

According to the blurb accompanying the video at Youtube (and at least one other video site),

Leonard Cohen Introducing Chelsea Hotel and The Connection With Janis Joplin

This recording is from a bootleg of Leonard Cohen’s 1976 Montreux concert. It tells the story of Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen meeting at the Chelsea Hotel.² A rendition of Chelsea Hotel #2 is included.

Footnotes

1. From LeonardCohenFiles, “The world premiere of this feature film [Bird On A Wire] by Tony Palmer was at the Rainbow Theater on July 5, 1974, in London. The original version cost over 120.000 USD to produce, but Cohen was not satisfied. He spent six months in England editing and rearranging the film to show the deeper elements in music, the conditions that produced it, and his interaction with the audiences. It contains songs from albums as well as concerts, including those of Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Israel in March and April 1972. It is a documentary rather than an art film. Color, 90 min. (Ira Nadel: Life in Art, p. 111; Dorman & Rawlins: Prophet of the Heart, p. 279)”

   From LeonardCohenLive, “Songs most probably from Manchester March 20, 1972 concert are: #2 Bird On The Wire #4 You Know Who I Am #5 Seems So Long Ago, Nancy #6 Sisters Of Mercy #7 Famous Blue Raincoat #8 One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong #15 Suzanne #16 Chelsea Hotel.” (emphasis mine) ↩

2. As this introduction explains, the liaison between Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin at the Chelsea Hotel was the factual basis and inspiration for the song, “Chelsea Hotel.” But you knew that already, didn’t you?↩

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