30-Day Song Challenge :: Day 1 :: Your Favorite Song

A musical Sophie’s Choice of a question, as if one could love music to the extent and depth that I do, and actually choose a single favorite. That said, I knew this would be one of the questions in any kind of 30-day challenge of questions/prompts, so I will do my best with answering it and go with what may be my predictible choice: Famous Blue Raincoat.

There is a special spot in my lyrical, gypsy soul where the songs of Leonard Cohen reside. This song, in particular, has had a hard hold of me since the first time I heard it. I have quite a weakness for storytelling in song, and this tale of a marriage failing, screaming infidelities, and the betrayal of a friend all resonate deep within my own life and landscape. I feel the song, and its story, deeply.

I want to write about the man in the raincoat, about Jane (though I have a Jane in a story, a younger version, though she could have some of this Jane in her), and about the Leonard of this song, awake in the darkened room on Clinton Street in the middle of the night writing, nay pleading, for some kind of reprieve, or understanding. Is this a “Dear Jane” letter, a way of saying goodbye? Is it an action of letting go of all of it, his wife, his friend, the betrayals, and perhaps his own love?

What would Jane’s letter say, if she wrote one? What is her side of this story? I have always wanted to know what regards Jane would actually send. And, I have always wanted a lyrical tattoo, somewhere on my skin, that says she sends her regards.

Famous Blue Raincoat :: Leonard Cohen