I will confess that I first heard Leonard Cohen through his album I'm Your Man from 1988. The use of synthesizers on that album really had my jaw dropping simply because it sounded like he had taken a Casio synthesizer with preprogrammed accompaniment and sang on top of it - especially on the song Tower of Song. Other songs on the album were absolutely awesome - and there is no coincidence that when songs from I'm Your Man were selected for The Essential Leonard Cohen collection, six of the eight songs made it on there. This album came on the heels of Jennifer Warnes having released a collection of her interpretations of his songs - and it let me and Arve, who really was the Leonard Cohen fan among the two of us, to seek out his earlier works as well. When we eventually ended up with his album The Best Of Leonard Cohen from 1975, I was completely drawn to today's song, Famous Blue Raincoat. The vocals are great, the melody is greater, but the lyrics are the greatest. So today, when you listen to this song, please follow the lyrics as well. It's well worth it.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
August 14 - Famous Blue Raincoat
In Norway, we have an expression that goes, "Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær" - or "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." And what is better when it rains than a raincoat. It might not be a good thing it is famous and blue, because that coat might very well be torn at your shoulder, and that does not help when it rains. However, in Leonard Cohen's song Famous Blue Raincoat from Songs About Love and Hate (1971).
I will confess that I first heard Leonard Cohen through his album I'm Your Man from 1988. The use of synthesizers on that album really had my jaw dropping simply because it sounded like he had taken a Casio synthesizer with preprogrammed accompaniment and sang on top of it - especially on the song Tower of Song. Other songs on the album were absolutely awesome - and there is no coincidence that when songs from I'm Your Man were selected for The Essential Leonard Cohen collection, six of the eight songs made it on there. This album came on the heels of Jennifer Warnes having released a collection of her interpretations of his songs - and it let me and Arve, who really was the Leonard Cohen fan among the two of us, to seek out his earlier works as well. When we eventually ended up with his album The Best Of Leonard Cohen from 1975, I was completely drawn to today's song, Famous Blue Raincoat. The vocals are great, the melody is greater, but the lyrics are the greatest. So today, when you listen to this song, please follow the lyrics as well. It's well worth it.
I will confess that I first heard Leonard Cohen through his album I'm Your Man from 1988. The use of synthesizers on that album really had my jaw dropping simply because it sounded like he had taken a Casio synthesizer with preprogrammed accompaniment and sang on top of it - especially on the song Tower of Song. Other songs on the album were absolutely awesome - and there is no coincidence that when songs from I'm Your Man were selected for The Essential Leonard Cohen collection, six of the eight songs made it on there. This album came on the heels of Jennifer Warnes having released a collection of her interpretations of his songs - and it let me and Arve, who really was the Leonard Cohen fan among the two of us, to seek out his earlier works as well. When we eventually ended up with his album The Best Of Leonard Cohen from 1975, I was completely drawn to today's song, Famous Blue Raincoat. The vocals are great, the melody is greater, but the lyrics are the greatest. So today, when you listen to this song, please follow the lyrics as well. It's well worth it.
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