Famous Blue Raincoat (album)

Background

Released in January 1987, 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.

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. 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.

Reception

Writing 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." In reviewing the reissue, Steve Horowitz of PopMatters noted, "This anniversary edition... may finally give the album the acclaim it initially deserved." 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."

Track listing

All songs written by Leonard Cohen except where noted.

1. "First We Take Manhattan" – 3:47
2. "Bird on a Wire" – 4:42
3. "Famous Blue Raincoat" – 5:33
4. "Joan of Arc" – 7:57
5. "Ain't No Cure for Love" – 3:21
6. "Coming Back to You" – 3:43
7. "Song of Bernadette" – 3:55 (Jennifer Warnes, Bill Elliott, Cohen)
8. "A Singer Must Die" – 4:52
9. "Came So Far for Beauty" – 3:37 (Cohen, John Lissauer)

10. "Night Comes On" [New Recording]
11. "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" [New Recording]
12. "If It Be Your Will" [New Recording]
13. "Joan of Arc" [Live in Antwerp, Belgium, 1992]

Additional personnel