‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ Leonard Cohen - Chords In Description (Standard - Capo 5)

Some titilating facts from Songfacts:

The Chelsea Hotel in New York city is where Cohen lived when he wasn't at his home in Montreal or his cottage on the Greek Island of Hydra. He chose the Chelsea because he heard he would meet people with a similar artistic bent, which he did.

When introducing this song in concert, he would often tell a story about meeting a famous singer in an elevator of the Chelsea, which led to the sexual encounter he describes in this song.

In Leonard's Greatest Hits (1997) album notes he says: "I wrote this for an American singer who died a while ago. She used to stay at the Chelsea, too.

I began it at a bar in a Polynesian restaurant in Miami in 1971 and finished it in Asmara, Ethiopia just before the throne was overturned. Ron Cornelius helped me with a chord change in an earlier version."

I believe the star in question in Janis Joplin.

Chords

Intro
C

Verse
‘I remember you well in that Chelsea Hotel…’
C
F
G
C

F
G
Am (hammer-on 1st finger)

‘Giving me head on the unmade bed…’
C
F
G
C

F
G (can then go to: 3-2-0-0-1-3)

‘Those were the reasons, and that was New York’
Am
F
C
Cmaj9 (x-2-0-0-1-0)
Am (hammer-on 1st finger)

‘And that was called love…’
F
C
F
G

Chorus
‘Ah but you got away…’
F
C

C
Cmaj9 (x-2-0-0-1-0)
Am (hammer-on 1st finger)

‘You got away I never once heard you say…’
F
C

‘…I need you, I don’t need you…’
F
C

‘…I need you, I don’t need you…’
F
C

‘…and all of that jiving around’
F
Am
G

…and back into verse

:0)