Famous Blue Raincoat | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 1986 | |||
Recorded | 1986 | |||
Studio | The Complex, Amigo Studios, Hollywood Sound, The Enterprise, Mama Jo's, Salty Dog Recording, The Record Plant | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 41:32 | |||
Label | Cypress | |||
Producer | C. Roscoe Beck, Jennifer Warnes | |||
Jennifer Warnes chronology | ||||
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Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen is the sixth studio album recorded by the American singer Jennifer Warnes. It debuted on the Billboard 200 on February 14, 1987, and peaked at No. 72 in the US Billboard chart, No.33 in the UK albums chart, and No.8 in Canada. Originally released by Cypress Records (RCA Records in the UK), it was reissued by Private Music after Cypress went out of business. It is the only Jennifer Warnes album to make the UK albums chart (up to September 2014).
Released in November 1986, Famous Blue Raincoat is a tribute to Leonard Cohen, with whom Warnes had toured as a backup singer in the 1970s. The album's songs span much of Cohen's career, from his 1969 album Songs from a Room to his 1984 album Various Positions (on which Warnes sang), and even two songs ("First We Take Manhattan" and "Ain't No Cure for Love") from Cohen's then-unreleased album I'm Your Man .
The idea for the album originated when Cohen assisted Warnes with the lyrics of "Song of Bernadette" while on tour in 1979. Warnes had suggested the album at Arista Records and later MCA Records with no luck. The album's producer, C. Roscoe Beck said, "Leonard seemed to be A&R poison." [1]
Guest contributors include guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Lindley and Robben Ford, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, keyboardist Russell Ferrante, arranger Van Dyke Parks and Cohen himself duetting on "Joan of Arc".
The album is the first record produced by Roscoe Beck. [2] The liner notes include a cartoon by Cohen of a torch being passed with the caption, "Jenny Sings Lenny."
In August 2007, a remastered and expanded 20th anniversary edition was released by Private Music with four bonus tracks.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Robert Christgau | B− [4] |
PopMatters | [5] |
Writing retrospectively for Allmusic, music critic William Ruhlmann wrote of the album
Where other singers tended to geld Cohen's often disturbingly revealing poetry, Warnes, working with the composer himself and introducing a couple of great new songs ("First We Take Manhattan" and "Song of Bernadette," which she co-wrote), matched his own versions. The high point may have been the Warnes-Cohen duet on "Joan of Arc," but the album was consistently impressive... For Warnes, the album meant her first taste of real critical success: suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist. [3]
In reviewing the reissue, Steve Horowitz of PopMatters noted, "This anniversary edition... may finally give the album the acclaim it initially deserved." [5] Peter Gerstenzanga of The Village Voice wrote after the reissue,
As much as one admires Warnes's taste in songwriters, the unadorned truth is that Cohen's dark, grave voice is a better instrument for his songs. Also, his original arrangements—from solo-guitar bare to brass-band ironic—are more fitting than the slick stuff here. Stevie Ray Vaughn playing processed blues licks on "First We Take Manhattan"? Inappropriate. Smoky sax on the title track? It's a meditation on betrayal and revenge, not a lounge song. Furthermore, Warnes's melismas (think a less histrionic Ronstadt) sound sweet, not murderous. [6]
All songs written by Leonard Cohen except where noted.
Chart (1987) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [7] | 21 |
Canada (RPM) [8] | 8 |
Chart (1987) | Position |
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Canada (RPM) [9] | 40 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Canada (Music Canada) [10] | 3× Platinum | 300,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [11] | Silver | 60,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Jennifer Jean Warnes is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 for the Bill Medley duet "(I've Had) The Time of My Life". Warnes also collaborated closely with Leonard Cohen.
Vincent Peter Colaiuta is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert.
Songs of Love and Hate is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records.
I'm Your Man is the eighth studio album by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, released on February 2, 1988 by Columbia Records. The album marked Cohen's further move to a more modern sound, with many songs having a synthesizer-oriented production. It soon became the most successful studio album which Cohen had released in the US, and it reached number one in several European countries, transforming Cohen into a best-selling artist.
Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring is a Joan Baez album, recorded live in the bullring of Bilbao, Spain. It featured twelve songs, six of which were performed in English, five in Spanish and one - "Txoria Txori" - in Basque. Most of the songs had been performed and recorded by Baez previously, with the exception of Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", Sting's " Ellas Dancen Solas" and the aforementioned Basque number.
Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979 is a live album by Leonard Cohen, released in 2001. Songs were recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 4, 5, and December 6, 1979, and at the Dome Theatre, Brighton, on December 15, 1979. It has been said Cohen considered it his best tour ever.
"Famous Blue Raincoat" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, Songs of Love and Hate, released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter. The lyric tells the story of a love triangle among the speaker, a woman named Jane, and the male addressee, who is identified only briefly as "my brother, my killer."
Bathhouse Betty is the ninth studio album by the American singer Bette Midler, released in 1998. Bathhouse Betty was Midler's debut album for Warner Bros. Records, after having parted ways with sister label Atlantic Records in 1995 following the moderate commercial success of her later-platinum certified album Bette of Roses. Bathhouse Betty was certified Gold by the RIAA and spawned the Billboard Dance Club chart topper "I'm Beautiful".
"First We Take Manhattan" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was originally recorded by American singer Jennifer Warnes on her 1986 Cohen tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat, which consisted entirely of songs written or co-written by Cohen.
"Ain't No Cure for Love" is a song written by the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Living is a 1971 live album by American singer and songwriter Judy Collins, released by Elektra Records in 1971. The album is taken from performances on the singer's 1970 concert tour. It peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard 200 charts.
Bodies and Souls is the seventh studio album by The Manhattan Transfer, released in September 1983 on the Atlantic Records label.
Charles Roscoe Beck is an American bassist with a reputation as "a solid bottom-liner". Beck has played with artists like Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, Leonard Cohen, and The Dixie Chicks. He is also a successful record producer with two Grammy Award nominations.
The Hunter is the seventh studio album by Jennifer Warnes, released in 1992.
"Joan of Arc" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was released as a single in March 1971 from his third album, Songs of Love and Hate. The song lasts almost six-and-a-half minutes, and is composed of four stanzas of eight lines each with a "la-la" refrain.
"Song of Bernadette" is a song written by Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Bill Elliott, and first recorded on Jennifer Warnes' 1986 album Famous Blue Raincoat. The title refers to Bernadette Soubirous, a young French girl in the mid-19th century who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary on several occasions. She was canonized by the Catholic Church and proclaimed a saint.
Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 is a combo CD/DVD live album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Released in October 2009, it is his nineteenth album. The album was recorded in 1970 at the Isle of Wight.
Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy is an album by Judy Collins, released in 2004. It collected songs written by Leonard Cohen from Collins' previous albums, as well as four previously unreleased recordings.
The Well is the eighth studio album by Jennifer Warnes. It was released in 2001, Warnes' first album in nine years. It includes her own compositions and covers renowned songwriters Arlo Guthrie, Billy Joel, Allen Toussaint and Tom Waits. Guthrie lends guest vocals to his "Patriot's Dream" while Doyle Bramhall I duets with Warnes on the classic Eddy Arnold song "You Don't Know Me". The album has been reissued over the years, first in 2003 in the Super Audio CD format, and then in 2009 with additional bonus tracks. The album saw its debut European release in 2016, when it was released by BMG records on March 4.
Thanks for the Dance is the fifteenth and final studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, released posthumously through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on November 22, 2019. It is the first release following Cohen's death in November 2016, and includes contributions from various musicians, such as Daniel Lanois, Beck, Jennifer Warnes, Damien Rice and Leslie Feist. The song "The Goal" was released with the announcement of the album, on September 20, 2019.