Talk:Famous Blue Raincoat

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[edit] Page history

When I moved the page here the history got lost. The following people worked on the page beforehand:

  • 22:18, 6 December 2005 . . Hattrem
  • 21:59, 5 December 2005 . . Shervinafshar
  • 09:59, 14 September 2005 . . Janetmck (Wikified, tidied, added album info.)
  • 09:51, 11 September 2005 . . RHaworth
  • 09:50, 11 September 2005 . . RHaworth ("Famous blue raincoat" has been moved to Famous blue raincoat.)
  • 19:59, 10 September 2005 . . 80.111.173.235

Maybe an administrator can undelete Famous blue raincoat in order to conserve the author history, copy the contents of this article there, delete this page, and then move Famous blue raincoat back here? – Hattrem 00:12, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

I have fixed this. All revisions are undeleted and reside at this title. — FREAK OF NURxTURE (TALK) 15:21, Dec. 20, 2005

Thank you for fixing this! – Hattrem 17:19, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] No mention of Scientology?

I'm going to refrain from adding a section in myself, as someone may object, but don't you think some mention should be made of the song's obvious reference to Scientology?

"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?"

Going clear is a process that Scientologists undergo to get magical powers. This has never been confirmed by Leonard Cohen, but the majority of people I've met have agreed with this interpretation of this section of the song.

I guess he means that he (the man Cohen is writing to) has planned being sincere with his own couple, or/and that she (Cohen's lover) explains everything to Cohen himself. I don't think he's messing a love letter with religion, honestly. Ictlogist 15:44, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Hard to say, since it's a poem and not a biography, but the linked analysis does point out that Cohen spent some time with Scientology, as he himself has said in interviews like this one. I don't know that I'd call a possible allusion an "obvious" reference to Scientology, but neither would I rule the possibility out. For what it's worth, having "magical powers" isn't how a Scientologist would describe the state of being clear.— OtherDave 03:25, 26 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] An Interpretation

This song is a letter of reconciliation to an old friend who once had a drug-addled affair with the author’s wife. The author offers forgiveness and wants reassurance that his friend is doing better, “living for nothing now” (instead of living for cocaine).

At the time of the affair, the friend, described as a “thin gypsy thief”, had a serious cocaine problem indicated by the line “You’ve been to the station to meet every train” (“Riding the train” is slang for doing cocaine). In the depths of his addiction, he was looking old, wearing the same clothes all the time until they started to fray. He had worn out his once incredibly loyal girlfriend, who had finally left him. (Lili Marlene is a famous German love song about an heroically loyal girlfriend waiting for her man to get back from war).

The author refers to his old friend as “my brother, my killer”, indicating that he and Jane shared cocaine with the friend on a number of occasions. (In other words, offering the cocaine was an act of friendship, but cocaine can kill.) Eventually, Jane started doing “flake” (also slang for cocaine) with the friend a lot, and got involved with him sexually, as expressed by the lines:

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

At the end of the affair, determined to leave town and clean up his life, and having no other possessions left to give Jane to remember him by, the friend gives her a lock of his hair.

As much as the affair hurt the author, and as much as he disapproved of the excessive drug use, in retrospect he admits that for whatever reason, the affair was ultimately good for Jane, helping her through a rough time. He invites his friend to come for a visit saying, “Your enemy (cocaine) is sleeping, and his woman (Jane) is free.” This is to reassure his friend that returning to New York will not ignite a relapse, especially since Jane has stayed clean.

Note 1: Much has been made of Leonard Cohen’s use of the word “clear” instead of “clean” in the song. I agree that his word choice may have been affected by his brush with Scientology, but I don’t believe that this implies that the friend in the song has joined the Scientologists. Rather, Cohen was simply using the word in the same way a Scientologist might. “You planned to go clear” means “You planned to clear your life of all the junk (drugs, etc.) which is holding you back.”

Note 2: I believe that Cohen’s protestation that he doesn’t remember who or what the song is about exactly is a cop out. Like many artists, he doesn’t want to alienate listeners who have developed their own deeply personal interpretations of his songs by telling them what the “right” one is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.175.117.42 (talk) 03:59, 30 November 2007 (UTC)