Third Week in the Chelsea

Album: Bark (1971)
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Songfacts®:

  • Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen wrote this song, which is about the band's stay in New York City's Chelsea Hotel. Bassist Jack Casady recalled to Uncut magazine: "That's the story of us all spending three weeks in the Chelsea Hotel, and coming to grips with the weight of all those years there'd been, and how we had all been at it non-stop since 1965. I mean, every day."
  • The Chelsea Hotel has been immortalized in several other songs over the years. They include Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2," where the Canadian describes meeting a famous singer in one its elevators that led to a sexual encounter and Bob Dylan's "Sara" in which he reveals that he was, "Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel writin' 'Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' for you."
  • Will Scarlett, formerly of Jefferson Airplane spin-off Hot Tuna, guested on harmonica.

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