It’s four in the morning, the end of December
I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better
New York is cold, but I like where I’m living
There’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening.

I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You’d been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody’s wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane’s awake —

She sends her regards.
And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

— Sincerely, L. Cohen

I had to do a bit of travelling on my own in the car last week and as a break from the radio I idly switched on the CD player to see what Sile had been listening to. This turned out to be a Leonard Cohen “Greatest Hits” which I played and sang along with happily. I was amazed that after all these years I was still word perfect in songs like Suzanne, and The Sisters of Mercy and (this one a great personal favourite) Thats no way to say goodbye.
Then along came the above;, The Famous Blue Raincoat and, even though I had been aware of Jennifer Warnes having a hit with it some years ago, it was one of his songs that I had never really listened to.
I ended getting completely absorbed by the song and the strange story it told.
I kept pressing the repeat button on the player and happily listening to it again and again.
It tells a story of a man whose wife Jane has an affair with his friend/ brother the wearer of the blue raincoat.
Cohen tells the story in beautifully spare verse where one finds oneself searching for the meaning in the words, and to make sense of some of the ambiguous hints Cohen gives out.

I found a web page where there is a long discussion, over several years,by nerds like myself about what exactly he intended to tell us in the song.
There are two wonderful parts in the song where Cohen conveys lots of information in simple sentences. One is his discription of the friend /brother who he indicates has fallen on hard times by saying:

The last time I met you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder

This gives a sharp snap shot of the man and makes me sympathetic with the people who have decided that the “brother” had a drug problem.

The other lines I love are ones of extraordinary generousity and I think forgiveness when he says;

If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

These lines remind me so much of lines of a similar sentiment he expresses in “Sisters of Mercy” when he says;

We wern’t lovers like that, and besides it would still be alright

Good on you Leonard.
It is great to think that 38 years later you can still get me thinking.

May 19th

It is no good, six days later and this song is still lodged in my head.
I am hoping that this will fix it.

Its four in the morning in the middle of May and I cannot sleep because the words of this bloody song are running through my head and haunting me.
I am hoping that this effort at line by line analysis will exorcise it and let me sleep.

Famous Blue Raincoat

Its four in the morning, the end of december
Im writing you now just to see if youre better
New york is cold, but I like where Im living
Theres music on clinton street all through the evening.

Here Cohen sets the scene, the format is a letter to a friend, the prosaic style anchors the verse, we are led to believe that it is going to be a formulaic letter. The adressee (I’m going to call him John) has been unwell, I’m going to assume this was the result of abusing drugs, I think the text will bear me out, but Cohen is being cheerful, he often is despite his reputation for glumness, he is making the best of living in New York.

I hear that youre building your little house deep in the desert
Youre living for nothing now, I hope youre keeping some kind of record.

Again I think this smacks of drug recovery, I can hear clearly a well intentioned counsellor telling John to keep a diary of his recovery.

Yes, and jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

This is a moment of total insensitivity in the song, John had cuckolded Cohen and then the errant wife/girlfriend comes back, affair over, carrying a lock of his hair given the night he tried to give up drugs.

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder

This is Cohen at his most masterly as a poet, I love the seedy picture he paints of John in a few spare words, you can see a man who has let himself go with drugs.

Youd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without lili marlene

This is , I think pure narrative, John’s (german?) girl had let him down and doesn’t arrive-who can blame her?

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobodys wife.

The crux of the song, John seduces Jane and so destroys her relationship with Cohen.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief

The weakest line in the song I think, seeing John, the seducer, as a Lothario. Cohen uses a gypsy frequently as a symbol of romantic lawlessness

Well I see janes awake —

She sends her regards.

This is a sly moment from Cohen, It seems in the context of a letter a natural and real piece of writing but it also tells us that Jane is actually sleeping with Cohen.

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
Im glad you stood in my way.

Cohen at his most magnamimous, almost fatalistically accepting that the cuckolding has improved his-Cohens- life in some way.

If you ever come by here, for jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Another huge gesture of magnaminity, or is it, or is Cohen saying that he is prepared to offer up Jane because he knows she will stay with him this time?

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

This is one of Cohen’s most beautiful and generous lines, ranks with
“We weren’t lovers like that and besides it would still be all right “ in The Sisters of Mercy.

And jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear

— sincerely, l. cohen

And so he finishes as he started, but somehow manages to surprise us with the formula of the letter coming back in and the regular signing off.