Avi Goldfinger - Famous Blue Raincoat

Yesterday was the second time this week that I woke up to depressing news. But unlike waking up with a shock to a red electoral map, this time I was more prepared, and more at peace with the news. Leonard Cohen was a poet of the blues but his real talent was finding the light in the darkness and laying it out so beautifully. "Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes // I thought it was there for good so I never tried". This sincere optimism appears in many of his songs, but my favorite has to be in "Tonight will be fine", which I take pride in discovering all on my own, and not as one of the songs I heard at home off of his Essential album.
"Famous Blue Raincoat" is one of those songs included in the Essential album which I first heard and loved before I could even understand the lyrics. Avi Goldfinger presents a beautiful translation to the song and an even more beautiful vocal performance with chilly Berlin as the perfect setting. Discover more of Avi's music here.

Original lyrics:

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 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
And 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