Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat
ORDER LIMITED TO ONE ITEM PER CUSTOMER
Jennifer Warnes – vocals, harmony vocals [click here to see more vinyl featuring Jennifer Warnes]
Leonard Cohen – vocals (on "Joan of Arc"), sketches
Roscoe Beck – bass, fretless bass, synthesizer, guitar
Larry Brown – tambourine, shakers
William D. "Smitty" Smith – synthesizer, Hammond organ
Jorge Calderón – bass
Lenny Castro – percussion
Gary Chang – synthesizer, programming, synthesizer arrangements
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Larry Corbett – cello
Russell Ferrante – piano, synthesizer
Richard Feves – bass
Robben Ford – guitar
Van Dyke Parks – synthesizer, accordion, arranger
Michael Landau – guitar
David Lindley – lap steel guitar
Fred Tackett – guitar
Stevie Ray Vaughan – guitar [click here to see more vinyl featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan]
Steve Forman – percussion
Bill Ginn – synthesizer, piano, percussion, arranger, conductor
Kal David – background vocals
George Ball – background vocals
Terry Evans – background vocals
Willie Green, Jr. – background vocals
William "Bill" Greene – background vocals
Bobby King – background vocals
Arnold McCuller – background vocals
Joseph Powell – background vocals
David Lasley – background vocals
Tim Stone – background vocals
Greg Prestopino – background vocals
Sharon Robinson – background vocals
Reverend Dave Boruff – saxophone
Paul Ostermayer – tenor saxophone
Novi Novog – viola
Suzie Katayama – cello
Sid Page – violin
Barbara Porter – violin
Music by Bill Elliott (B3), John Lissauer (B5), Leonard Cohen (A1 to B2, B4, B5)
1 LP, standard sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : RTI
Label : Impex Records
Original Label : Ariola
Recorded in 1986 at The Complex, Amigo Studios, Hollywood Sound, The Enterprise, Mama Jo's, Salty Dog Recording, The Record Plant
Engineered by Bill Youdelman
Produced by Jennifer Warnes, C. Roscoe Beck
Remastered by Bernie Grundman
Originally released in 1986
Reissued in 2020
Tracks:
Side A :
- First We Take Manhattan
- Bird On A Wire
- Famous Blue Raincoat
- Joan Of Arc
Side B :
- Ain't No Cure For Love
- Coming Back To You
- Song Of Bernadette
- A Singer Must Die
- Came So Far For Beauty
Reviews :
"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." AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann
Ratings :
AllMusic : 4,5 / 5 , Discogs : 4,35 / 5