Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition [Collector's Edition]

Jennifer Warnes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 7, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Collector's Edition
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B000OPO6WY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,958 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. First We Take Manhattan

2. Bird on a Wire

3. Famous Blue Raincoat

4. Joan of Arc

5. Ain't No Cure for Love

6. Coming Back to You

7. Song of Bernadette

8. A Singer Must Die

9. Came So Far for Beauty

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

On Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Warnes rearranged and reinterpreted some of Leonard Cohen's greatest songs for a unique album that remains the ultimate tribute to Cohen's music. It was greeted with rave reviews, and made numerous year-end best-of lists. This deluxe new reissue contains four previously unreleased songs and a 24-page booklet with rare photos from Warnes' personal collection.

Best known for such pop hits as the Oscar- and Grammywinning duets "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," with Bill Medley, from the film Dirty Dancing, and "Up Where We Belong," with Joe Cocker, from the film An Officer and a Gentleman, Jennifer Warnes has earned her greatest acclaim for Farmous Blue Raincoat, considered by many to be one of thebest albums of the '80s

Features four previously unreleased recordings

Digitally remastered from the original analog tapes

Deluxe booklet that tells the story behind one of the most acclaimed albums of all time

"Her voice is like the California weather--filled with sunlight , but there's an earthquake behind it." --Leonard Cohen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raincoat Remastered, August 11, 2007

By 

Great Faulkner's Ghost (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

This landmark 20-year-old collaboration between songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen and singer Jennifer Warnes is in my opinion the most successful album for either artist, both artistically and commercially. Warnes' pitch perfect, emotionally charged voice teases out every last nuance and dimension of Cohen's inspired lyrical and musical compositions. Even on Cohen's most highly charged songs, one is able to fully appreciate the sweet timbre of Warnes' voice, but at the same time the sensuality and beauty of her voice never obscures the sharp edged, painfully romantic, tragic, fatalistic themes that have marked Cohen's finest and most characteristic compositions, many of which are represented on this album.

Compared with the original CD release, the sound on this remastered version is better in almost every respect, with the possible exception of the first song "First We Take Manhattan," in which a slight, digital-sounding sibilance has been added to Warnes voice. The other cuts are just great, with the digital remastering adding a more authoritative bass note and greater ambience and spaciousness to the soundstage. .

If the overall improved sound isn't enough, this remastered album offers four additional performances of Cohen compositions that are not from the original studio album sessions, including a Warnes-only live version of Joan of Arc, which is riveting even though it doesn't offer the magical duet with Cohen featured on the original studio album. Each of the four additional cuts would have been worthy of inclusion on the original release of Famous Blue Raincoat, which is high praise indeed.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful artistry at the highest level, August 13, 2007

By 

David S. Rubin (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

Jennifer Warnes is a master of nuance and inflection. No one weds a sound to a lyric (or a lyric to a sound) better than she does. More importantly, her content has always been rich in substance and inspiring in tone. She can locate the silver linings in sadness, and remind us that we all are capable of transcending our setbacks and healing our wounds. These are among the reasons why I have been so dedicated to her music for more than thirty years, and why Leonard Cohen himself has given her his blessings repeatedly and many times over. As I would expect from the gifted singer Warnes, the familiar tunes on the 20th anniversary edition of Famous Blue Raincoat still resonate with elegance and warmth, and, technically, they sound better than ever. In the new songs, Warnes takes us to some exciting new places that will delight her fans and win her new ones. "If It Be Your Will" is an entrancing journey into poetic tenderness, while "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" is a masterful narrative that Warnes meticulously articulates with wonderfully complex rhythms, accompanied by an array of subtle sound effects that are beautifully suited to the story. And for pure soothing comfort, Warnes gifts us a sensuous lullaby for adults with "Night Comes On." A final treat is a recording of a live performance of "Joan of Arc." Accompanied by an orchestra and chorus, Warnes gives a spellbinding performance that shines with honest spontaneity and grace.

David S. Rubin

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite interpretations, September 8, 2007

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Famous Blue Raincoat: 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

This original album was released at a time when Cohen was almost forgotten, about seven years before tribute albums like the breathtaking I'm Your Fan and the rather tepid Tower of Song would spur renewed interest in his work. Warnes' versions are always graceful and moving. She understands Cohen's music well, having done backing vocals on albums like Various Positions so she interprets his songs with loving dedication.

My favorites include Aint No Cure For Love from Cohen's I'm Your Man, Coming Back To You and Night Comes On from Various Positions, Came So Far For Beauty and Ballad Of The Runaway Horse from Recent Songs and of course the formidable Joan Of Arc where Cohen himself sings some of the verses. The title track stands out with its smoky sax and desolate ambience whilst the live version of Joan Of Arc really fires on all fours.

Warnes' voice is the perfect vehicle for Cohen's poetic lyrics of romantic longing and resigned despair. The new tracks are superb. She slightly adapted the lyric of Night Comes On to a female perspective, and Ballad Of The Runaway Horse becomes a long excursion with a complex arrangement and a display of great virtuosity in the instrumentation which includes viola and cello.

If It Be Your Will is a straightforward rendition close to the original, and the album ends on a spectacular note with the live version of Joan Of Arc, from Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate which was recorded in Antwerp in 1992 and includes the Novecento Orchestra and two choirs: Het West Brabants Operakoor and De Tweede Adem, in addition to her regular backing musicians.

The luxurious fold-out CD box contains a booklet with two line drawings by Cohen, full color and black & white photographs, letters from Lenny to Jenny, a short 1956 school essay on St Bernadette by Jenny and information on all the songs. My only complaint is that I would have loved to hear her interpretations of Suzanne and Sisters Of Mercy too.

Other Cohen tribute albums that I recommend are Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy by Judy Collins, which includes a live version of Song Of Bernadette, the song co-written by Jennifer Warnes, and the soundtack album Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man with artists like Martha Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Jarvis Cocker, Perla Batalla, Nick Cave and U2.