Leonard Cohen—poet, sage, musician, lover—died last week at the age of 82. It was another deeply-felt loss in a week filled with such losses for much of the nation—and as with David Bowie at the start of the year, many New Yorkers paid tribute to Cohen by putting flowers, letters, photos and more outside the famed Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan.
Cohen will forever be tied to the Chelsea Hotel because of his 1974 classic, "Chelsea Hotel #2" (from the highly underrated New Skin For The Old Ceremony), which detailed a sexual encounter with Janis Joplin there. In later live performances, Cohen would often recount the story of how they met in an elevator while introducing the tune: "She was riding it with as much delight as I was. Even though she commanded huge audiences, riding that elevator was the only thing she really knew how to do," Cohen says in the clip below.
"Finally, I gathered my courage," he continued. "I said to her, 'Are you looking for someone?' She said, 'Yes, I'm looking for Kris Kristofferson.' I said, 'Little lady, you're in luck, I'm Kris Kristofferson.' Those were generous times, and even though she knew I was somewhat shorter than Kris Kristofferson, she never let on. A great generosity prevailed in those doomed decades." (Note: Cohen later came to regret naming Joplin as the subject of the song, telling the BBC that 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.")
Cohen's son Adam released his own tribute to his father on social media, thanking fans for their sympathy and remembering his father as only he could: “As I write this I’m thinking of my father’s unique blend of self-deprecation and dignity, his approachable elegance, his charisma without audacity, his old-world gentlemanliness and the hand-forged tower of his work."
There have been dozens of tributes from fellow musicians, former collaborators and long-time admirers, including Beck, Nick Cave, John Cale, Lady Gaga, Questlove, Courtney Love, Justin Timberlake, Lana Del Rey, Deerhunter, Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend. And of course, Kate McKinnon performed "Hallelujah" while in character as Hillary Clinton on SNL this weekend.
