Famous Blue Raincoat (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Famous Blue Raincoat
Type = cover
Artist = Jennifer Warnes


Released = January 1987
Recorded = 1986 The Complex, Amigo Studios, Hollywood Sound, The Enterprise, Mama Jo's, Salty Dog Recording, The Record Plant
Genre = Rock
Length = 41:32
Label = Private Music
Cypress Records
Producer = C. Roscoe Beck, Jennifer Warnes
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:64320roac489 link]
Last album = "Shot Through the Heart"
(1979)
This album = "Famous Blue Raincoat"
(1987)
Next album = "The Hunter"
(1992)

"Famous Blue Raincoat" is the 6th album by Jennifer Warnes, and her first with the Private Music label. It peaked at No. 72 on the Billboard 200.

Released in 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 tracks from Cohen's then-unreleased album "I'm Your Man".

Guest contributors include guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Lindley and Robben Ford, keyboardist Russell Ferrante, arranger Van Dyke Parks and Cohen himself duetting on "Joan of Arc."

The liner notes include a cartoon by Cohen of a torch being passed with the caption, "Jenny Sings Lenny."

The album is the first record produced by Roscoe Beck and is considered one of the most well-produced of all time and is often used by audiophiles to test or demonstrate high-end stereo equipment. It was recorded on Sony digital equipment. In August 2007, a remastered and expanded 20th anniversary edition was released.

Track listing

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

Additional tracks on 20th anniversary reissue

10. "Night Comes On"
11. "Ballad of the Runaway Horse"
12. "If It Be Your Will"
13. "Joan of Arc (Live in Belgium)"

Personnel

*Jennifer Warnes – vocals, harmony vocals
*Leonard Cohen – vocals (on "Joan of Arc")
*Roscoe Beck – bass, fretless bass, synthesizer, guitar
*Larry Brown – tambourine, shakers
*William D. "Smitty" Smith – synthesizer, Hammond organ
*Jorge Calderon – 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
*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

Production notes
*Sketches – Leonard Cohen
*Engineers – Csaba Petocz, Tim Boyle, Steven Strassman, Paul Brown, Larry Brown, Frank Wolf
*Assistant engineers – Jeff Park, Nyya Lark, Terry Dunavan, Ken Fowler, Dan Reed, Sharon Rice, Garth Richardson, Duane Seykora, Russ Bracher, Joel Stoner
*Mixing – George Massenburg, Larry Brown, Frank Wolf, Billy Youdelman
*Programming – Chuck Barth, Todd Yyega
*Art Direction – Jennifer Warnes, Leslie Wintner

External links

* [http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/cover1.html Album info at Leonard Cohen Files website.]