Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen

by Jennifer Warnes

Overview

Jennifer Warnes was familiar with Leonard Cohen from a tour of duty as one of his backup singers in the early '70s, but this collection of Cohen's songs must have shocked her AM radio fans who knew her from her '70s country-pop hits and her movie themes, if they were even able to connect the woman who sang "It's the right time of the night for makin' love" with the one who declared "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin" over stinging guitar work by Stevie Ray Vaughan on the opening track here. As that pairing suggests, Warnes wisely took a tougher, more contemporary approach to the arrangements than such past Cohen interpreters as Judy Collins used to. 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. And it went a long way toward reestablishing Cohen, whose reputation was in a minor eclipse in the mid-'80s. A year later, with the way paved for him, he released his brilliant comeback album I'm Your Man. 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. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2024
Label:	Impex
UPC:	0856276002336
Rank:	35431

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jennifer Warnes   Primary Artist,Vocals,Vocal Harmony
Leonard Cohen   Guest Artist,Vocals
Van Dyke Parks   Guest Artist,Accordion,Keyboards,Synthesizer
Bill Payne   Guest Artist,Synthesizer
Stevie Ray Vaughan   Guest Artist,Guitar
Terry Evans   Vocals
Steve Forman   Percussion
Sid Page   Violin
Bill Ginn   Piano,Conductor,Keyboards,Percussion,Synthesizer,Piano (Electric)
Larry Corbett   Cello
Larry Brown   Shaker,Tambourine
Greg Prestopino   Vocals
Doyle Bramhall II   Guitar
David Lindley   Guitar (Steel)
Russell Ferrante   Keyboards,Synthesizer
Jorge Calderon   Bass
Dean Parks   Guitar
Jack Bruno   Drums
Lenny Castro   Percussion
Joseph Powell   Vocals
Roscoe Beck   Bass,Guitar,Keyboards,String Bass,Fretless Bass
Jimbo Ross   Viola
Kal David   Vocals
Michael Landau   Guitar
Arnold McCuller   Vocals
C. Roscoe Beck   Bass,Guitar,Synthesizer,Fretless Bass
Dave Stone   Bass
Rev. Dave Boruff   Saxophone
Vinnie Colaiuta   Drums
Suzie Katayama   Cello
Bobby King   Vocals
David Lasley   Vocals
Robben Ford   Guitar
Fred Tackett   Guitar
Mitch Watkins   Guitar,Keyboards
Alex Acuna   Percussion
Novi Novog   Viola
William D. "Smitty" Smith   Synthesizer,Organ (Hammond)
Richard Feves   Bass
Gary Chang   Synthesizer
Willie Green, Jr.   Vocals
Willie Greene   Vocals
Barbara Porter   Violin
Oliver Marland   Piano
Smitty Smith   Organ,Synthesizer
William "Bill" Greene   Vocals
Paul Ostermayer   Saxophone,Sax (Tenor)
George Ball   Vocals
Robert Groslot   Conductor
Deric Dyer   Percussion
DeTweede Adem   Choir/Chorus
Tim Stone   Vocals
Joel Deroin   Violin
Het West Brabants Operakoor   Choir/Chorus
Sharon Robinson   Vocals
Sid Porter   Violin
Warren McCrae   Bass

Technical Credits

Bill Youdleman   Engineer
Henry Lewy   Engineer
Sharon Rice   Assistant Engineer
Paul Brown   Engineer
Bill Ginn   Arranger,Composer,Vocal Arrangement
Leonard Cohen   Composer,Lyricist,Sketches
Bill Elliott   Composer
Billy Youdelman   Mixing,Engineer
Larry Brown   Mixing,Engineer
Elliot Scheiner   Mixing
Duane Seykora   Assistant Engineer
John Lissauer   Composer
Jennifer Warnes   Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Art Direction
Jeremy Lubbock   String Arrangements
Steven Strassman   Engineer
Terry Dunavan   Assistant Engineer
Tim Boyle   Engineer
C. Roscoe Beck   Producer
Stephen Barber   String Arrangements
Csaba Petocz   Engineer
Frank Wolf   Mixing,Engineer
Garth Richardson   Assistant Engineer
Joel Stoner   Assistant Engineer
Van Dyke Parks   Arranger,Vocal Arrangement
Mitch Watkins   Producer
George Massenburg   Mixing
Dan Reed   Assistant Engineer
Gary Chang   Programming,Synthesizer Arrangements
Chuck Barth   Programming
Jeff Park   Assistant Engineer
Nyya Lark   Assistant Engineer
Ken Fowler   Assistant Engineer
Steve Postell   Mixing
Todd Yyega   Programming
Steven Bradley Ford   Assistant Engineer
Leslie Wintner   Design,Art Direction
Russ Bracher   Assistant Engineer
Lori Nafshun   Project Coordinator
Luc VanHove   Arranger