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"I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel/
you were famous, your heart was a legend."
Sorry, nobody made this obvious reference (probably for good reason), so I guess I will. Seriously, your review sent me right to the song. "I need you. I don't need you and all of that jiving around."

I used to walk past the Chelsea on the way to work (30th and 9th, to the office at 20th and 5th) twice a day. Every time, I'd stop and look at the facade thinking, "twenty years ago I could've afforded to live there" and feeling like I could just die of envy for the people who did.

Now it's forty years since the cool kids lived there, and I still feel the precise same way.

Steve wrote: ""I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel/
you were famous, your heart was a legend."
Sorry, nobody made this obvious reference (probably for good reason), so I guess I will. Seriously, your revie..."

yes, there's a reason I referenced Bob Dylan here and not Leonard Cohen...

Richard wrote: "I used to walk past the Chelsea on the way to work (30th and 9th, to the office at 20th and 5th) twice a day. Every time, I'd stop and look at the facade thinking, "twenty years ago I could've affo..."

Patti Smith did make me feel that envy with this book, but I wonder if I could put up with the hardships they went through.

B0nnie wrote: "Patti Smith did make me feel that envy with this book, but I wonder if I could put up with the hardships they went through."

I suspect we'll never know because, from the middle aged vantage point, it all looks so arduous. From the 20s, it looks like LIVING.

...?

B0nnie wrote: yes, there's a reason I referenced Bob Dylan here and not Leonard Cohen.."

I remember from your profile that you have a thing for Dos, Dylan, and Orwell. Naturally, you'd go with Dylan here. Having ruled out the possibility that you object to Canadian singer/songwriters and in the hope that your possible objection to Chelsea Hotel #2 is merely a preference for Mr. Dylan's over Mr. Cohen's raspy, atonal voice (in my opinion, Dylan's voice is not much better), [PAUSE FOR AIR]... may I offer Rufus Wainwright's rendition of Chelsea Hotel #2, my favorite cover, as a more melodic substitue:



The above is a clip from a documentary I like called: "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man." I didn't appreciate Cohen until I heard others sing his music. The clip is just the one song, but, elsewhere in the doc, Rufus sings "Hallelujah" and "If It Be Your Will"-- my personal Cohen favorite. Also Nick Cave and Wainwright sisters sing "Suzanne."

However, If your objection to Chelsea #2 is based on offensive lyrics, then I am very sorry for sending this to you, and I ask you not to play the clip. The last thing I want to do is offend one of my first GR friends.

Beautiful rendition, Steve, glad to have it in my YouTubage.

Richard wrote: "Beautiful rendition, Steve, glad to have it in my YouTubage."

Thanks, Richard.

Steve wrote: "B0nnie wrote: yes, there's a reason I referenced Bob Dylan here and not Leonard Cohen.."

I remember from your profile that you have a thing for Dos, Dylan, and Orwell. Naturally, you'd go with Dyl..."

Thanks Steve. No one can touch Dylan of course, but I like Cohen too. That clip of Rufus Wainwright's rendition of Chelsea Hotel #2 is great, quite moving. The song is somewhat a fail: the line "giving me head on the unmade bed" is not good writing and comes across like it was written by a teen who needs to brag about his sexual exploits. Smug, oily, I dunno. I know it when I see it :-) I believe Cohen has apologized for the song, not necessarily for that line, but because it was bad manners toward Janis Joplin.

B0nnie wrote: "The song is somewhat a fail."
That one particular line to which you refer aside...the song (for me) conveys trying to come to terms with the loss of a lover who died tragically young and the almost callous disregard for that lover that the singer expresses ("I don't even think of you that often") as if to convince himself he does not need her or miss her. (I don't really know much about these famous people or the timing of the song in relation to Janis Joplin's death.) In relation to "Just Kids," the song captures how I imagine Patti moved on from Robert and the Chelsea. I think she lives in Ohio now and is happily married with kids.

This exchange reminds me of how we filter books, music, and film through our own psyche and make the work of art our own. In art, the subjective so often overrules the objective. Not understanding another's mental prism, I like to be charitable to others who have a completely different take. So thanks to you for letting me crash your review and take the discussion off in a direction that you did not originally intend. (Good reviews, like works of art, are subject to be appropriated by the gr reader of the review.):)

Steve, interesting thoughts and I agree with your analysis. Crashing is always welcome and appreciated, btw. What I loved about Just Kids is that it evokes a certain nostalgia (like the songs of Cohen and Dylan) and makes one feel the fleeting sensation of having been there, done that. Failed. Succeeded. But above all, being young and living and trying. Like Richard said - from the middle aged vantage point, it all looks so arduous. From the 20s, it looks like LIVING.

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you ro good plppe

nice night and the new one of this is not t

ok and you

I like your photo

Hi and merry chirmas

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Oh wow, nice book

I thought that too. That time and that location so many things were possible, just by walking by somebody.