Famous Blue Raincoat
Famous Blue Raincoat is a song by Leonard Cohen . It appeared on his third album Songs of Love and Hate in 1971 .
text
The lyrics are written in the form of a melancholy letter, possibly a suicide note, and tells the story of a love triangle between the author, a woman named Jane and the addressee, who is known as "my brother, my killer" ("my brother, my killer") is addressed. After a sleepless night at four in the morning, the narrator looks back on this relationship, which ends the moment Jane has come closer to the third. The narrator thanks the other for the fact that Jane is now better because of this, he had not been able to achieve this improvement in her, although he admits that he would not have assumed that he could influence Jane's bad shape for the better (" I thought it was there for good, so I never tried ”). When Jane wakes up from sleep, he notices that her thoughts are completely with the third, although she now seems to be equally far away from the two men (“and when she came back she was nobody's wife”). It remains to be seen what it might mean that the addressee's “enemy” is “sleeping” after Jane is now “free” (“If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me, your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free "). The narrator draws the letter with the name of the author ("Sincerely, L. Cohen"). Numerous verses are written in Amphibrachys .
As with many of Cohen's texts, there is also a real background for this one. The question "Did you ever go clear?" At the end of the song was sometimes understood as an allusion to the "clear" that Scientology is trying to bring about in its followers. In fact, Cohen was part of this sect for a short time, despite his Jewish belief. He once said that he only went there because he heard that it was easy to meet women there. In an interview with Details magazine in 1993, he said that, similar to the song Bird on the Wire , he never had the feeling with this song that he had finished. After all, he was “good enough” to publish it, although he continues to find it “too mysterious, too unclear”. There are similarities to Cohen's story, Beautiful Losers , but in a 1994 BBC radio interview he said he had forgotten who he meant by that.
In the notes to his best-of album, which was released in 1975 and can also be heard on the "Famous Blue Raincoat", Cohen writes that the "famous blue coat" that gave the song its name actually belonged to him , not another. It was a Burberry he bought in London in 1959 and he had worn it for so long that the sleeves eventually had to be mended with leather. During this time he knew how to dress. The coat was stolen from Marianne Ihlen's New York loft one day in the early 1970s , at a time when he hadn't worn it that often.
Cover versions
Famous Blue Raincoat has also been picked up by numerous other artists including:
- AaRON on the album Artificial Animals Riding On Neverland (2007)
- Tori Amos on the tribute album Tower of Song (1995)
- BAP ( Cologne title: Wat schriev mer en su enem Fall? ) On the album Aff un zo (2001)
- Joan Baez on the live album Diamonds & Rust in the Bullring (1989)
- John Bergeron on the tribute album In the House of Mystery (2002)
- Kari Bremnes on the tribute album Hadde månen en søster: Cohen på norsk (1993), as "Gikk du noen gang fri?"
- Katie Buckhaven on the album Katie Buckhaven (2005)
- Lloyd Cole on the compilation Rare on Air, Vol. 2 (1995)
- Judy Collins on the live album Living (1971) and the tribute album Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy (2004)
- Jonathan Coulton on Thing a Week III (2006)
- Luce Dufault on the album Soir de première (2000)
- Eivør on the album Live in Tórshavn (2018)
- Angel Falls (live)
- Karen Jo Fields on the album In Your Pages (2005)
- The Handsome Family on Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (OST), (2006)
- Paul Hayden Desser, (1996)
- Steve Hogarth (live)
- Andrew John on the album The Machine Stops (1972)
- Matej Krajnc on the album Likvidamber (2004)
- Swan Lee (Danish cover) on the tribute album På danske læber , as Din gamle blå frakke
- Sharon Lifshitz on the album Kav HaOsher (1993)
- Jared Louche and the Aliens on the album Covergirl
- Laurie MacAllister on the album The Things I Choose to Do (2005)
- Tom Mega on the album Songs & Prayers (1995)
- Marissa Nadler on the album Songs III: Bird on the Water (2007)
- Dax Riggs (live)
- Damien Saez on the live album God Blesse (2002)
- Richard Shindell on the live album Live at The Chandler Music Hall Randolph, Vermont: Archive Series # 1 (2008)
- Beth Sorrentino on the album Nine Songs, One Story (2006)
- Jennifer Warnes on the tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat (1987)
- Solveig Slettahjell on the album Antologie (2011)
- Reinhard Mey on the album "Poem" (2014)
"When I Need You"
The refrain melody of Albert Hammonds and Leo Sayer's hit When I Need You is very similar to that of Famous Blue Raincoat . In an interview with Cohen in Globe & Mail it says:
“I once had that [nicking] happen with Leo Sayer. Do you remember that song When I Need You ? " Cohen sings the chorus of Sayer's number one hit from 1977, then segues into “And Jane came by with a lock of your hair,” a lyric from Famous Blue Raincoat , a Cohen composition from his third record, 1971's Songs of Love and Hate . "Somebody sued them on my behalf ... and they did settle," even though, he laughs, "they hired a musicologist who said that particular motif was in the public domain and, in fact, could be traced back as far as Schubert ."
“I had that [theft] once with Leo Sayer. Do you remember the song When I Need You ? "Cohen sings the chorus of Sayer's number one hit from 1977, then moves on to" And Jane came by with a lock of your hair, "a text from Famous Blue Raincoat , a Cohen composition from his third album, Songs of Love and Hate . "Someone sued them on my behalf ... and they paid," although, he laughs, "they hired a music expert who said that this motive is common knowledge and can even be traced back to Schubert."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eivør Pálsdóttir - Live In Tórshavn. Retrieved May 24, 2018 .
- ↑ Legal battles? Cohen's Zen with that theglobeandmail.com