Leonard Cohen – Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye Lyrics

On the 2009 Greatest Hits compilation textbook, Leonard wrote:

This song arises from an over-used bed in the Penn Terminal Hotel in 1966. The room is too hot. I can’t open the windows. I am in the midst of a bitter quarrel with a blonde woman. The song is half-written in pencil but it protects us as we manoeuvre, each of us, for unconditional victory. I am in the wrong room. I am with the wrong woman.

There is a second quote from his 1976 Live at Montreux recording that further describes his songwriting experience at his brown hotel room at the Penn Terminal:

As you eastern metaphysicians know, just as from the darkest mud blooms the whitest lotus, so from the brownest hotel room you occasionally get a good song.

A picture of the Penn Terminal Hotel along with an address for a pilgrimage.

Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

[Verse 1]
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm
Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you
But now it’s come to distances and both of us must try
Your eyes are soft with sorrow, hey, that’s no way to say goodbye

[Verse 2]
I’m not looking for another as I wander in my time
Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me
It’s just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea
But let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow, hey, that’s no way to say goodbye
[Verse 3]
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm
Yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you
But let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow, hey, that’s no way to say goodbye