In the spirit of Chelsea Fragments, here are the lyrics to an unreleased (early? draft?) version of the Leonard Cohen classic, "Chelsea Hotel No. 2". I have no idea where I originally found these words, but I've kept them copied in a notebook for so long there's no guessing where it first came from. If nothing else, however, the following provides an interesting glance at how the song evolved. In particular, I'm intrigued by the pronoun shifts that have taken place between versions: "I was running for the money and the flesh" as opposed to "you". But I'll spare us further poetry analysis and let the words speak for themselves:


Chelsea Hotel No. 1 (unreleased)

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
You were talking so brave and so free.
Giving me head on the unmade bed
While the limousines wait in the street
And those were the reasons and that was New York,
I was running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
It still is for those of us left.
But you got away, didn't you, baby?
You just threw it all to the crowd.
You got away, they can't pay you now
For making your sweet little song.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
In the winter of 67.
My friends of that year they were all trying to go queer
And me I was just getting even
And those were the reasons and that was New York,
I was running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
It still is for those of us left.
But you got away, didn't you, baby?
You just threw it all to the crowd.
You got away, they can't pay you now
For making your sweet little song.

---Leonard Cohen

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