Famous Blue Raincoat

Like several other posters here, I am truly impressed with the intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate observations here — puts 99.9% of the Internet to shame ;-) It is almost impossible to imagine a world without Leonard Cohen, whom I discovered in my early 20s, over 20 years ago, and almost impossible to imagine Cohen without this song, "flaws" and all. My wife (like the song, not legally but emotionally) chokes up whenever I sing the lines about taking the trouble from her eyes, and "I thought it was there for good, so I never tried." What a naked admission of failure, and what generosity of spirit, to thank another man for giving "his woman" such a gift. Being in a long-term triangle myself, I recognize some of the dualities and ambiguities of emotions at play. There is some anger toward the Brother — Cohen faintly disparages what sounds like his spiritual journey ("your little house deep in the desert") and his rather obvious attempts at romance ("one more thin gypsy thief") and maudlin search for love ("been to the station to meet every train, and you came home without Lili Marlene," which is a symbolic character of steadfast love and also always makes me think of Dietrich) — but at the same time he does grudgingly forgive him, does miss him, and realizes there are things he genuinely owes his rival. I think he realizes the good done when the Brother "liberated" Jane with his erratic passion and also touched some part of her Cohen could not reach. He has forgiven Jane entirely, though knowing she is less his now than she was. He is elegiac, but also aware of the necessity of loss; New York is a cold place to live, after all, but there's that beautiful street music. More inner conflict: Cohen the ascetic versus Cohen the sensualist; the free lover versus the possessive one. Thanks for mentioning the Burberry raincoat Cohen always wore — I pictured that as the "famous blue raincoat" as well. And it was a very interesting question brought up about whether Cohen was speaking to himself, as this is always a possibility whenever poets are concerned ;-), though I do perceive the song as a bit more literal than that, if not by much. Generally, I think, Cohen is far less reliant on symbolism than on metaphor, so I don't take the drug references from flakes and trains as some do. Interesting also that to "go clear" is a Scientology term; I took it to mean any spiritual enlightenment, or letting go of whatever has been holding one back. The Brother, pitiably and to some extent ridiculously, is waiting for the thunderclap which, Cohen thinks, will never come to his stunted spirit. Bipolar? Yes, I can certainly see that in the Brother. Anyway, enough of my take. Well done, everyone.