Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat 20th Anniversary Edition

Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat\
Best known for such pop hits as the Oscar- and Grammy winning 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 this landmark collaboration “Famous Blue Raincoat” with songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen in what remains the ultimate tribute to Cohen's music. Warnes' voice is the perfect vehicle for Cohen's poetic lyrics of romantic longing and resigned despair. Her sweet timbre and sensuality complement to perfection the sharp edged, painfully romantic, tragic, fatalistic themes that have marked Cohen's finest and most characteristic compositions, many of which are featured on this collaboration. Cohen himself states: "Her voice is like the California weather--filled with sunlight, but there's an earthquake behind it". The re-mastered album offers four tracks not on the original release. Musicians: Jennifer Warnes on vocals, Roscoe Beck on bass, guitar and keyboards, Jorge Calderón, Richard Feves, Warren McRae and Dave Stone on bass, Jack Bruno, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Mitch Watkins, Gary Chang, Russell Ferrante, Bill Ginn, Oliver Marland, Smitty Smithm Bill Payne and Van Dyke Parks on keyboards, Robben Ford, Michael Landau, Doyle Bramhall, Greg Leisz, David Lindley, John Miles, Dean Parks, Fred Tackett and Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitars, Larry Brown, Deric Dyer, Steve Forman and Lenny Castro on percussion, Dave Boruff and Paul Ostermayer on saxophone, plus strings and background vocals.


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
10. Night Comes On
11. Ballad of the Runaway Horse
12. If It Be Your Will
13. Joan of Arc

1 comment:

  1. One of my favorite records of all-time. Easily in my top 25. Thanks for your review. I couldn't agree more!

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