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JENNIFER WARNES - FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT (LIMITED EDITION 180g 45RPM 3LP BOX SET)

Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat On 180 Gram 45RPM 3LP Box Set From Cisco Music

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 success: suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist.

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. Jennifer 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 Jennifer 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.

Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat Track Listing

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

Bonus Tracks
10. Night Comes On
11. Ballad of the Runaway Horse
12. If It Be Your Will (Reprise)
13. Joan of Arc (Live in Belgium)
14. A Singer Must Die (Demo)