The only real compliment Cohen gives Janis in the song is that she doesn’t bother him with emotionality. She doesn’t whine about needing him, or not needing him, a presumably female tendency he refers to as “jivin’ around.” That this is about a once-in-a-generation genius who could sing two damn notes at the same time does make it sting a bit extra, but no woman deserves this as her biggest compliment. Because we’ve all done some “jivin’ around”: that endless game of trying to be heard without accidentally saying too much—of daring to express an emotion that might be subject to change, to a
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