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Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Cypress Records
Released: 1987
Time:
 41:27
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.jenniferwarnes.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2002.01.22
Price in €: 6,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


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

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


JENNIFER WARNES - Vocals, Producer, Harmony Vocals, Art Direction

LEONARD COHEN - Sketches, Vocals on [4]
DAVID LINDLEY - Steel Guitar
WILLIAM D. "Smitty" SMITH - Synthesizer, Hammond Organ
VAN DYKE PARKS - Synthesizer, Accordion, Arranger
C. ROSCOE BECK - Synthesizer, Bass, Guitar, Producer, Fretless Bass
BILL GINN - Synthesizer, Percussion, Piano, Arranger, Conductor, Electric Piano
GARY CHANG - Synthesizer, Programming, Synthesizer Arrangements
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN - Guitar
ROBBEN FORD - Guitar
JORGE CALDERON - Bass
ROSCOE BECK - Fretless Bass
REVEREND DAVE BORUFF - Saxophone
LARRY BROWN - Tambourine, Engineer, Shaker, Mixing
LENNY CASTRO - Percussion
VINNIE COLAIUTA - Drums
RUSSELL FERRANTE - Synthesizer
RICHARD FEVES - Bass
STEVE FORMAN - Percussion
MICHAEL LANDAU - Guitar
PAUL OSTERMAYER - Tenor Saxophone
FRED TACKETT - Guitar

LARRY CORBETT - Cello
BARBARA PORTER - Violin
SID PAGE - Violin
NOVI NOVOG - Viola
SUZIE KATAYAMA - Cello

WILLIAM "Bill" GREENE - Vocals
JOSEPH POWELL - Vocals
BOBBY KING - Vocals
DAVID LASLEY - Vocals
KAL DAVID - Vocals
TERRY EVANS - Vocals
GREG PRESTOPINO - Vocals
SHARON ROBINSON - Vocals
TIM STONE - Vocals
ARNOLD MCCULLER - Vocals
WILLIE GREEN, Jr. - Vocals
GEORGE BALL - Vocals

FRANK WOLF - Engineer, Mixing
BILLY YOUDELMAN - Engineer
STEVEN STRASSMAN - Engineer
TIM BOYLE - Engineer
CSABA PETOCZ - Engineer
PAUL BROWN - Engineer
CHUCK BARTH - Programming
TODD YYEGA - Programming
GEORGE MASSENBURG - Mixing
DAN REED - Assistant Engineer
RUSS BRACHER - Assistant Engineer
TERRY DUNAVAN - Assistant Engineer
SHARON RICE - Assistant Engineer
GARTH RICHARDSON - Assistant Engineer
DUANE SEYKORA - Assistant Engineer
JOEL STONER - Assistant Engineer
NYYA LARK - Assistant Engineer
JEFF PARK - Assistant Engineer
LESLIE WINTNER - Art Direction, Design
LORI NAFSHUN - Project Coordinator

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


 1987 LP Private Music PVT2092
1987 CS Private Music 82092-4
1987 CD Private Music 82092-2
1990 CS A&M 100
1990 LP A&M 100
2000 CD BMG International 258418

This album's worth of Leonard Cohen tunes was originally released in 1987. It remains as an audiophile's dream, as the recording is generally regarded as one of the best engineered ever. Many cite this disc as a benchmark to really put a stereo system to the test. Not to mention the fact that the performance is brilliant. Features the guitar work of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan & includes the Cohen staples 'Bird on a Wire', 'Joan of Arc (with L.C. on the guest vocal), and seven others.



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 re-establishing 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 approbrium: Suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretative artist.

William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Since Ella Fitzgerald never produced a songbook of Leonard Cohen songs, Jennifer Warnes's plush 1986 tribute is the next best thing. The sleekly seductive "First We Take Manhattan" is gilded by the guitars of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robben Ford. Warnes doesn't add much to an evergreen like "Bird on a Wire," but she lays claim to the noirish title song with a confidential vocal that complements the chamber-pop arrangement. "Song of Bernadette" is a ripened gem, and the selection where Warnes lets down her refined vocal technique to reveal deep emotions. More often, Warnes is as professionally accomplished on this well-chosen set as her band of studio pros.

John Milward - Amazon.com



Die Kanadierin mit der markanten Stimme singt hier Lieder von Leonard Cohen: eine melancholische, atmosphärisch dichte Digitalaufnahme aus dem Jahr 1987, die Klangmaßstäbe setzte.

© Audio



Yeah, that Jennifer Warnes, "Right Time Of The Night," "Up Where We Belong." But what better way to (re-)establish credibility as a chanteuse than with an album of Leonard Cohen songs endorsed by a duet with the old master himself. For the unfamiliar (and we're sad to say there are many), Cohen is the acknowledged master of depressing folk-pop, an often brilliant poet with a warm and sometimes deathly voice. Warnes, on the other hand, is a pop vocalist seeking to gain credibility as an interpreter, which she does, without resorting to the Linda Ronstadt/Pia Zadora route. Famous Blue Raincoat is wonderful listening; Warnes' performances are warm and affecting, and the songs take on renewed meaning in these brighter settings. "First We Take Manhattan" (with guitar by Stevie Ray Vaughan), "Joan of Arc" (the duet), "A Singer Must Die" and the title cut are recommended for airplay. And dig out your old Leonard Cohen records, please.

CMJ New Music Report Issue: 105 - Nov 21, 1986
© 2001 CMJ Network, Inc.
 

 L y r i c s


FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by the birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I'd really like to live beside you, baby
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes
But you see that line that's moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, I told you, I was one of those

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

I don't like your fashion business mister
And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin
I don't like what happened to my sister
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
Then we take Berlin,then we take Berlin


BIRD ON THE WIRE

Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a fish on a hook,
like a knight from an old fashioned book
I have saved all my ribbons for thee.
If I have been unkind,
I hope that you could just let it go by.
And if I have been untrue
I hope you know it was never to you. No, no

Like a baby, stillborn,
like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.
But I swear by this song
By all I have done wrong
I'll make it all up to you. Yes I will
I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
H called out to me, "Don't ask for so much."
And a young man leaning on his darkened door,
He cried out to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?"

Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.


FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT

It's four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.

I hear that you're building your house deep in the desert
Are you living for nothing now, hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night when you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you, you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
But she never turned up I'm Lili Marlene

And you treated some woman to a flake of your life
And when she got home she was nobody's wife.
Well I see you there with a rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane's awake
She sends her regards.

And what can I tell you oh what can I tell you
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad that you stood in my way.

And if you ever come by here, be it for Jane or for me
I want you to know your enemy's sleeping, I want you to know your woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never really tried.

And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night when you planned to go clear

Sincerely, a friend


JOAN OF ARC

Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
as she came riding through the dark;
no moon to keep her armour bright,
no man to get her through this dark and smoky night.
She said, "I'm tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
a wedding dress or something white
to wear upon my swollen appetite."

Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way,
you know I've watched you riding every day
and something in me yearns to win
such a cold and lonesome heroine.
"And who are you?" she sternly spoke
to the one beneath the smoke.
"Why, I'm fire," he replied,
"And I love your solitude, I love your pride."

"Well then fire, make your body cold,
I'm gonna give you mine to hold,"
saying this she climbed inside
to be his one, to be his only bride.
And deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and high above all these wedding guests
he hung the ashes of her lovely wedding dress.
La...

It was deep into his fiery heart
he took the dust of Joan of Arc,
and then she clearly understood
if he was fire, oh she must be wood.
I saw her wince, I saw her cry,
I saw the glory in her eye.
Myself I long for love and light,
but must it come so cruel, must it be so brave?
La...


AIN'T NO CURE FOR LOVE

I've loved you for a long, long time
I know this love is real
It don't matter how it all went wrong
That don't change the way I feel
I don't believe that time can heal this wound I'm speaking of
Ah, there ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love.

I'm aching for you baby
I can't pretend I'm not
I love to see you naked
In your body and your thought
I've got you like a habit
Oh I'll never get enough
Ah, there ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love

There ain't no cure for love
There ain't no cure for love
No cure no drug, it's all been
I can't get nothing done, and be with anyone
I want your brother love, I want that other love
And no cure for love

I don't expect the melody
Just because the things are rough
And I seem became so careful
To forget how good it were
I've never given in
Oh, I've never given up baby
Ah, there ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure,
There ain't no cure for love
Ain't no cure for love
No cure no drug, no no
I can't get nothing done, I can't be with anyone
There ain't no cure for love


COMIN BACK TO YOU

Maybe I'm still hurting
I can't turn the other cheek
But you know that I still love you
It's just that I can't speak
I looked for you in everyone
And they called me on that too
I lived alone but I was only
Coming back to you

They're shutting down the factory now
Just when all the bills are due
And the fields are under lock and key
Tho' the rain and the sun come through
And springtime starts but then it stops
In the name of something new
And all the senses rise against this
Coming back to you

And they're handing down my sentence now
I know what I must do
Another mile of silence while I'm
Coming back to you

There are many in your life
Many still to be
Since you are a shining light
There's many that you'll see
So I got a deal with envy
When you choose the precious few
Who've left their pride on the other side of
Coming back to you

Even in your arms I know
I'll never get it right
Even when you bend to give me
Comfort in the night
So I've got to have your word on this
Or none of it is true
And all I've said was just instead of
Coming back to you


SONG OF BERNADETTE

There was a child named Bernadette
I heard the story long ago
She saw the Queen of Heaven once
And kept the vision in her soul
No one believed what she had seen
No one believed what she heard
But there were sorrows to be here
And mercy, mercy in this world

So many hearts I find, broke like yours and mine
Torn by what we've done and can't undo
I just wanna hold you, come on let me hold you
Like Bernadette would do

We've been around, we fall, we fly
We mostly fall, we mostly run
And every now and then we try
To mend the damage that we've done
Tonight, tonight I just can't rest
I've got this joy inside my breast
To think that I did not forget that child
That song of Bernadette

So many hearts I find, broke like yours and mine
Torn by what we've done and can't undo
I just wanna hold you, won't let me hold you
Like Bernadette would do
I just wanna hold you, come on let me hold you
Like Bernadette would do


A SINGER MUST DIE

Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess.
Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is Yes.
Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine,
I will ask for the mercy that you love to decline.
And all the ladies go moist, and the judge has no choice,
A singer must die for the lie in his voice.

And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,
You keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty.
Your vision was right, my vision was wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging the air with my song.
Oh la...

Oh, the night it is thick, my defences are hid
In the clothes of a man I would like to forgive
In the furs of his leather, the shade of his eyes
Where I have to go begging in beauty's disguise.
Oh good night, good night, my night after night,
My night after night, after night, after night, after night, after night.
Do do do ...

So save me a place in the ten-dollar grave
With those who took money for the pleasure we gave
With those always ready, with those who are dressed
So you could lay down with your head on their breast yes
And the ladies gone moist, and the judge has no choice,
A singer must die for the lie in his voice.
Oh la la la...


COME SO FAR FOR BEAUTY

I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned
I thought I'd be rewarded
For such a lonely choice
And maybe he would answer
To such a hopeless voice
I practiced all my sainthood
I gave to one and all
But the rumours of my virtue
They moved him not at all
I changed my style to silver
I changed my clothes to black
And where I would surrender
Now I would attack
I stormed the old casino
For the money and for the flesh
And I myself decided
What was rotten, what was fresh
And men to do my bidding
And broken bones to teach
The value of my pardon
The shadow of my reach
But no, I could not touch him
With such a heavy hand
His star beyond my order
His nakedness unmanned
I came so far for beauty
I left so much behind
My patience and my family
My masterpiece unsigned

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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