For over a century , New York City’sHotel Chelsea — or , more commonly , the Chelsea Hotel — on West 23rd Street has played host to artists of all variety and inspired art of all kind , including , by nature , music .
Some Song are wide mistaken to be about the Chelsea Hotel , like Joni Mitchell ’s “ Chelsea Morning , ” which she actuallywroteabout her flat seven blocks south of it . Others mention the hotel but are n’t reallyaboutit . Bob Dylan ’s “ Sara ” light into this class with the cable “ Stayin ’ up for days in the Chelsea Hotel / Writin ’ ‘ Sad - Eyed Lady of the Lowlands ’ for you . ” And “ Sad - Eyed Lady of the Lowlands ” itself is often cited as a quintessential Chelsea Hotel strain since Dylan did write ( at least some of ) it while living there .
But “ songs written in the Chelsea Hotel ” is really its own deep family that feature everything from Patti Smith ’s “ Fire of Unknown Origin ” to Jefferson Airplane ’s “ Third Week at the Chelsea . ” The nature of inspiration construct it hard to take that these songsaren’tabout the hotel , even if the text does n’t reflect that in any real fashion .
For this leaning , though , we ’re focusing on the more literal examples ( including songs about outcome that occurred in the Chelsea ) .
“Visions of Johanna” by Bob Dylan
The undecomposed argument to make for aBob Dylansong that actually is about the Chelsea Hotel is probably “ Visions of Johanna ” from 1966’sBlonde on Blonde . Dylan student generally believe that he pen it whileliving therewith Sara Lownds in 1965 , which supports the hypothesis that lines like “ visible light spark from the opposite loft / In this room the heat pipes just coughing ” could refer to their hotel quarter . It ’s even beensuggestedthat the cartroad was specificallyinspiredby the northeastblackoutof November 1965 .
“Chelsea Hotel #2” by Leonard Cohen
This tiresome valse is an ode to Leonard Cohen ’s fleeting but very famous romance withJanis Joplinin the spring of 1968 . The two , both staying at the hotel , had a fortune confrontation in the elevator and decided not to part ways when the doors opened . “ She was n’t looking for me , she was attend for Kris Kristofferson ; I was n’t front for her , I was expect for Brigitte Bardot . But we fall into each other ’s arm through some process of elimination , ” herecalled20 old age after the fact . The vocal , releasedon Cohen ’s 1974 albumNew Skin for the Old Ceremony , is labeled “ # 2 ” because there ’s an former translation that was never officially recorded but ispreservedin the 1974 concert documentaryBird on a Wire(filmed in 1972 ) .
“Chelsea Girls” by Nico
After the premiere ofAndy Warhol’s1966 filmThe Chelsea Girls(orChelsea Girls ) , Velvet Underground member Lou Reed and Sterling Morrisonwrotethis strain as an unofficial companion art object , chronicling the body process of the Chelsea Hotel ’s buzziest young residents in much the same way the film does . Nico , one of the star Chelsea Girls , recorded it for her 1967 album , entitle — wouldn’t you know it?—Chelsea Girl .
Iconic though the record album is now , Nico ’s lack of dominance in the studio left her dysphoric with the whole thing , specially the flute glass that sport so hard on “ Chelsea Girl . ” “ The first time I heard the record album , I cried . I still can not listen to it , because everything I wanted for that track record , they take it by , ” she after said , according to Dave Thompson’sYour Pretty Face Is die to Hell . “ I expect for drums , they said no . I asked for more guitars , they enunciate no . And I postulate for simplicity , and they cover it in flutes ! They add chain and — I did n’t wish them , but I could endure with them . But the flute ! I cry and it was all because of the transverse flute . ”
“Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979” by Okkervil River
Jobriath , né Bruce Wayne Campbell , was charge as glam rock ’s next big matter in the other 1970s but never satisfy his promise as a phenomenon — a failure partially due to misguided marketing strategy and the public ’s discomfort with his being gay . So Campbell drop the Jobriath character and became Cole Berlin the piano lounge performing artist alternatively ( the name is a nod to Cole Porter and Irving Berlin ) . His interview for a 1979Omega Onecover level [ PDF]—conducted on the roof of the Chelsea Hotel , where he lived at the time — is a portraiture of superstardom with no stage , the kind of frenetic aesthetic energy so vulgar among the hotel ’s residents .
Four yr later , Campbell , cured 36,diedin the Chelsea Hotel of an AIDS - related illness . Okkervil River front man Will Sheff write this call for 2008’sThe Stand Insas a time capsule of Campbell in 1979 . “ You check a biopic about Ray Charles or Johnny Cash , and it ’s gon na be the history of this meteorological salary increase from modest roots to smashing succeeder , and we ’re learn to need and treasure it , ” Sheff tell Kansas City’sThe Pitchin 2008 . “ You never really see the story of an artist who never made it , who failed miserably , who is fate to be remembered as a footer . Yet these are stories that almost all artist receive . ”
“Chelsea” by Phoebe Bridgers
In “ Chelsea , ” from 2017’sStranger in the Alps , Phoebe Bridgers revisit the execution of Nancy Spungen at the hotel in October 1978 . It ’s sung from Spungen ’s view to her then - boyfriend , Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious , wide believed to have killed her . ( He waschargedwith the law-breaking but snuff it of a heroin overdose before the trial . )
“ I see a picture of Sid Vicious inRolling Stone , covered in blood . And it got me thinking about how romanticized he is , and Nancy Spungen ’s mental wellness , and how they were put on the uncanny column , ” Bridgers toldBrightonsfinest . The call reflect Bridgers ’s own notion that the world ’s glamorizing of their human relationship ( and their drug addiction ) is perverse .
“Chelsea Hotel ’78” by Alejandro Escovedo
Musician Alejandro Escovedo ’s clip at the Chelsea Hotel overlapped with Spungen ’s murder ; he and his band The Nuns live there while they tour the East Coast between summer 1978 and fall 1979 . “ Chelsea Hotel ’ 78 , ” released on 2008’sReal Animal , is Escovedo ’s decennium - removed reflection on the sinful magic of the hotel and the hazy revulsion of Nancy ’s destruction . “ Once the Sid and Nancy incident played out , it became unmistakable that there was a motivation to anchor our sprightliness in a direction that I had never really considered before , ” EscovedotoldINDY Weekin 2008 . The songfadesout with “ So we all moved out / And we all moved on / And on and on . ”
“The Chelsea Hotel” by Graham Nash
Graham Nash also stayed at the hotel during hisyounger yearsand wrote about the place decades later . But his song “ The Chelsea Hotel , ” from 2002’sSongs for Survivors , is less a personal look - back than a study of the hotel as a mausoleum of dreams and an on-going creative person ’ harbour . He cites “ Raymond … writing of poets and painters , ” believably a reference to hisfriendRaymond Foye , a author and longtime hotelresident .
“Chelsea Hotel” by Dan Bern
A stay at the Chelsea Hotel in the summertime of 1997 and “ a brand name - new romance , ” in Dan Bern ’s words , inspired the song “ Chelsea Hotel ” off his 1998albumSmartie Mine . Berntoldwriter Ed Hamilton in 2005 that he chose the Chelsea “ because it was 3 in the morning and the [ G]ramercy had no rooms , ” and one of the highlights of his metre there was the nearby Krispy Kreme . Do n’t be gull by the insouciance : The strain itself is much a hymn to the construction ’s Dylan earned run average . ( Bob , not Thomas . Well , perhaps both . )
“Chelsea Hotel” by Jesse Jo Stark
The Chelsea Hotel gets a twenty-first - century polished soda pop rock-and-roll makeover in this track from Jesse Jo Stark ’s 2018 EPDandelion . ( Stark is thedaughterof the founder of fashion line Chrome Hearts — and also the goddaughter ofCher . )
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