I met Jennifer Warnes together with Leonard Cohen in Munich in 1987while working as a freelance journalist for various magazines.I made my interview with Leonard into a celebrity feature that was published in COSMOPOLITAIN. I wonder ,what has happened to Jennifer..a great voice ,underrated like so many other voices in this cruel music business.She also was a lovely,genuine person...we had a great time !
The most brilliant lyricist of his generation. Everybody got better because of him, everyone wrote better because of him. And everybody knows. (That Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar still sends chills......)
Absolutely one of the greats. It's worth remembering that his generation includes Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Steve Goodman and others
@@MaximumEfficiency - I'm completely mystified how the lyrics would be "anti-German". As I understand it, the lyrics are from the point of view of a hypothetical terrorist (see en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_We_Take_Manhattan#Meaning for example). (The spoken German at the beginning and end of this version was a radio announcement about a terroristic attack that happened in Germany in the 1980s.)
Well said! The juxtaposition of Cohen‘s poetry and song, SRV‘s guitar and the vocals and production is absolute magic. Just like The Beatles or Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen‘s songs are so good that they work in very different contexts and reinventions. Just think of Jeff Buckley‘s ‚Hallelujah‘, Jimi Hendrix‘s ‚All Along The Watchtower‘ or Joe Cocker‘s ‚With A Little Help From Your Friends‘
Warnes got her start as a backing singer for Cohen. She later on became an arranger for backing vocals and the full band on Cohen tours. Getting the SRV tracks was an accident. The producer met SRV at the grammys and brought SRV into the studio to record some stuff.
I am a HUGE fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but somehow I missed that it was HIM playing guitar on this song! And I've always loved this guitar even without knowing who it was! It's always just kinda stirred me. *MIND BLOWN*
It also took me a while to figure it out. It always seemed oddly familiar, but it didn't click. Once you make the connection, you hear it rom a mile away, Stevie is just one of those players that you recognise immediately!
Me too. I have played this song a hunndred times and watched the video dozens of times, but didn't recognize SRV. Only found out Aprill 2023. Talk about being slow.
Jennifer Warnes has done the greatest versions of several Leonard Cohen on her Famous Blue Raincoat album of Cohen compositions--the definitive versions of this song and several others. She has not just a beautiful voice but a voice that lifts the song and conveys so much feeling, not forced or phony but deep and compelling. It takes the songs into a more melodic and emotionally soaring realm.
@@sisterrosetta57 He seems to have given his blessing, but he went further: he joined her for at least one song on the album. Whatever his view of the project, I applaud her for taking these songs into a more fully realized form where they feel both richer and, oddly, more commercial.
@@timj9418 Warnes got her start as a backup singer for Cohen and later did a lot of arrangement and transcription for his tours in the seventies. She returned the favor with this album with covers of classics and unreleased material. She brought Cohen back to the mainstream in the late eighties. Cohen would make a comeback with "I'm Your Man" and get a tribute album called "I'm Your Fan".
Jennifer Warnes version recreates and makes it her own. It is very 1987 with the chic street yuppie model NY warehouse apartment that was vogue at the time. Leonard Cohen's brilliant song-writing and Stevie Ray Vaughan's one in a million master skill of the guitar complete the picture. Unforgettable.
Best of the best ever: the songwrighter, the guitarist and the singer, and the clipmaker came together.. The result is something absolutely incomparable, the only of a kind!
I second this - Jennifer Warnes Sings Leonard Cohen is a great album! SPOILER: On one song, she's singing a duet with LC. Fun fact (if I remember correctly): JW used to be a background singer for LC.
I've always enjoyed this entire album of Leonard Cohen songs, "Famous Blue Raincoat", offered by Jennifer Warnes. But it's "First We Take Manhattan", just one song off the entire album, that caught my attention most only because it offers the great - and I mean great - Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. As to the video we see many images of the author himself, Leonard Cohen, but it's SRV that we catch only a glimpse of two or three times in an almost ghostly way giving the song an incomparable musical flavour with his marvelous guitar work. Stevie Ray Vaughan makes this version of the song what it is.
This is just about the only track in the world keeping me sane! I,ve always been a huge fan of leopard Cohen and you can feel his influence throughout the album I am in hospital now since Sept 11th having being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but expect to be discharged this Monday then I have to face the chemo but hey ho, worst things happen at sea! This track will keep me sane!! Regards to you Rudz, a fellow Cohen fanatic
That's why I'm here - I didn't even know they made a cover until I saw it there. They included this over the Cohen original. I prefer Cohen's - this sounds like a typical 80's track - it doesn't have the arrangement or biting cynicism of Cohen.
Although my bad, more recently I found out that this was technically the original, as Cohen, after writing the song, gave it to Warnes to sing first, then he came out with his version a couple years later, but my point still stands.
This is such a beautiful, powerful album, maybe the best of all time. She means what she sings and what she sings is some of Leonard Cohen's best writing.
Fabulous song. Its about what you believe its about. Capitalism,greed,fashion consumerism. Could be about McDonalds. There are Mcdonalds in Manhattan and Berlin. Me. I'm about music. The out on this is where a guitar player really comes to the fore. Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan. Take a bow. How the hell does he do that? Better guitar players than me please advise.
This song just popped into my head. My parents had her cassette tape and I remember dancing to this and Laurie Andersen as a kid. Couldn’t remember her name! Glad to rediscover 🙏
This is a great video, of two genius songwriter/singers. I've had the distinct honor of seeing both of them. Jennifer Warnes really knew how to interpret his songs.
From the album "Famous Blue Raincoat" which was nothing less then genius. I remember buying the tape and listening to it so much that I wore it out. No kidding. Music today just doesn't produce that kind of excitement. At least not for me anyway.
I love FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT!!! I STILL HAVE THE CASSETTE!!! I USED TO SING ALONG TO THE ENTIRE TAPE!!! BRILLIANT ALBUM!!! Better than today's machine-produced caca.
Somewhere, in a vault. Is a dusty master track of Stevie Ray playing on James Brown's "Living in America" he said in an interview he was "all over that track, had a great time". Unfortunately, all his parts were scrubbed for the commercial release. But it's out there somewhere, someday maybe we will hear it. If this track is any indication, one can only imagine.
sound was so much better in the 80's... Songs had Lots of passion and emotional wisdom..everything is dubbed down these bleak days and sound hasn't improved.
If there is a music video, back in the 80s, that gave me the desire and inspiration to create music videos myself and become a video editor, it is definitely this artistic video.
love the part where she says "I don't like what happened to my sister" and it shows the two women being catty with each other. LOL Well-timed and illustrates that line pretty well!
I was there for stevies helocopter crash. It was so very sad. I was on the scene for 14 hours. It was a loss I wont forget. I got a call at 3 am and got near the scene but the helicopter was not found until 715 am. I have been to several helo crashes and the only good thing is you die very quickly.. I have been to many many aircraft crashes. I am retired and god willing will never see another myself.
Great Cover, great video! Look out for Leonard in this video. It was during the shoot that the iconic picture of LC in shades holding a banana was taken, later became the cover of his "I'm Your Man" album.
Bith Cohen's and Jennifer's versions are unique - although I am partial to Jennifer Warne's voice which this song is perfectly suited to. The genius of Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar complements everything. Circa 1987 when city warehouse apartments, side screenshots, Paulina Porizka type beautiful models - were vogue.
Famous Blue Raincoat is still one of my go-to albums. I waa there 2 days ago. Thank you Leonard, Jennifer, and Stevie...
I met Jennifer Warnes together with Leonard Cohen in Munich in 1987while working as a freelance journalist for various magazines.I made my interview with Leonard into a celebrity feature that was published in COSMOPOLITAIN.
I wonder ,what has happened to Jennifer..a great voice ,underrated like so many other voices in this cruel music business.She also was a lovely,genuine person...we had a great time !
She lives in San Francisco and releases music still.
I've loved this version for years, but had no idea it was Stevie Ray Vaughn doing the brilliant guitar work.
Within seconds of hearing this being played on the radio, I knew it was Stevie on guitar, he had THAT tone. A fantastic "film noir" video.
Exactly. You just KNEW, in your blood, it was S.R.V. Nobody else could do that stuff.
Jesus Holy Moses, how underestimated is this? Absolutely wonderful....😘
As a shy 15-year old I remember hearing this song and getting my first glimpse of a life beyond my bedroom in those ugly new houses.
The most brilliant lyricist of his generation. Everybody got better because of him, everyone wrote better because of him. And everybody knows. (That Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar still sends chills......)
Absolutely one of the greats.
It's worth remembering that his generation includes Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Steve Goodman and others
arent lyrics anti-German?
and Bob Dylan sold his soul.
@@MaximumEfficiency - I'm completely mystified how the lyrics would be "anti-German". As I understand it, the lyrics are from the point of view of a hypothetical terrorist (see en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_We_Take_Manhattan#Meaning for example). (The spoken German at the beginning and end of this version was a radio announcement about a terroristic attack that happened in Germany in the 1980s.)
Everybody Knows!
Well said! The juxtaposition of Cohen‘s poetry and song, SRV‘s guitar and the vocals and production is absolute magic. Just like The Beatles or Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen‘s songs are so good that they work in very different contexts and reinventions. Just think of Jeff Buckley‘s ‚Hallelujah‘, Jimi Hendrix‘s ‚All Along The Watchtower‘ or Joe Cocker‘s ‚With A Little Help From Your Friends‘
RIP Leonard and Stevie, I love Jennifer's version of this great tune!
Doodad, lol ! i always wondered why the guitar is so good, it's SRV, RIP dear Leonard
RIP Also to 2 of these ICONS,I love this version also.
The only name i could come up with was it's perhaps Robert Cray, thanks for saying it's Stevie,
Jesus who came to this idea (Cohen+Warnes+SRV)? Genious!
Jesus
Magic music
A good producer 💯💯
Sometimes everything lines up and we get to heard this.
Warnes got her start as a backing singer for Cohen. She later on became an arranger for backing vocals and the full band on Cohen tours. Getting the SRV tracks was an accident. The producer met SRV at the grammys and brought SRV into the studio to record some stuff.
Wow- I play this song on the radio when it first came out. Just learned today that’s SRV on guitar!
An amazing revolutionary song! Great performance!
Agreed 2:22
I am a HUGE fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but somehow I missed that it was HIM playing guitar on this song! And I've always loved this guitar even without knowing who it was! It's always just kinda stirred me. *MIND BLOWN*
Robben Ford plays rhythm guitar on this cut, with Roscoe Beck (producer) on bass and the legendary Vinnie Colaiuta on drums.
It was what really drew me to this track.. So clear. I think it was written by Leonard Cohen. This is a great version,
It also took me a while to figure it out. It always seemed oddly familiar, but it didn't click. Once you make the connection, you hear it rom a mile away, Stevie is just one of those players that you recognise immediately!
Me too. I have played this song a hunndred times and watched the video dozens of times, but didn't recognize SRV. Only found out Aprill 2023. Talk about being slow.
Jennifer Warnes has done the greatest versions of several Leonard Cohen on her Famous Blue Raincoat album of Cohen compositions--the definitive versions of this song and several others. She has not just a beautiful voice but a voice that lifts the song and conveys so much feeling, not forced or phony but deep and compelling. It takes the songs into a more melodic and emotionally soaring realm.
Such a great album ❤
Yes, he gave his blessing to her project
@@sisterrosetta57 He seems to have given his blessing, but he went further: he joined her for at least one song on the album. Whatever his view of the project, I applaud her for taking these songs into a more fully realized form where they feel both richer and, oddly, more commercial.
@@timj9418 Warnes got her start as a backup singer for Cohen and later did a lot of arrangement and transcription for his tours in the seventies. She returned the favor with this album with covers of classics and unreleased material. She brought Cohen back to the mainstream in the late eighties. Cohen would make a comeback with "I'm Your Man" and get a tribute album called "I'm Your Fan".
@@timj9418 Warnes was just off her Song of the Year Oscar for Dirty Dancing when she pitched this record.
Jennifer Warnes version recreates and makes it her own. It is very 1987 with the chic street yuppie model NY warehouse apartment that was vogue at the time. Leonard Cohen's brilliant song-writing and Stevie Ray Vaughan's one in a million master skill of the guitar complete the picture. Unforgettable.
wow - Jennifer, Stevie Ray, Leonard... all at the same time!
Jennifer Warnes, wonderful voice. I like this better than Cohen's version.
Agreed ironpirites.
It's about the song of Neo-Marxism human made idea to take over the Western Nations from within?
I love Leonard, but her albums of covers are almost all better than the originals... they stand on their own.
@@Bjellekua100 I don't believe that.
She only sings the chorus once, unfortunately.
Best of the best ever: the songwrighter, the guitarist and the singer, and the clipmaker came together.. The result is something absolutely incomparable, the only of a kind!
you are absolutely right!
It has never lost its up-to-dateness
I was lucky to get to interview this Oscar winner. She was a sweetheart!
The more we head into the future, the more I reach back to classics like this - and great musicians.
Brilliant song. Brilliant cover by Jennifer Warnes. Brilliant guitar work. Beautifully produced.
This is the original performance, I believe. Cohen's song, but he recorded it himself later.
+Joe Dez And better than Leonard Cohen's version IMHO.
+duvalin chanters Leonard Cohen wrote the song. The guitarist's identity is not relevant.
***** Certainly the guitar work is a central focal point of what adds up to the some of the parts of this classic.
Stevie Ray Vaughan shortly before he died.
Just listen to the whole album she has a voice of diamond
I second this - Jennifer Warnes Sings Leonard Cohen is a great album!
SPOILER: On one song, she's singing a duet with LC.
Fun fact (if I remember correctly): JW used to be a background singer for LC.
I've always enjoyed this entire album of Leonard Cohen songs, "Famous Blue Raincoat", offered by Jennifer Warnes. But it's "First We Take Manhattan", just one song off the entire album, that caught my attention most only because it offers the great - and I mean great - Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. As to the video we see many images of the author himself, Leonard Cohen, but it's SRV that we catch only a glimpse of two or three times in an almost ghostly way giving the song an incomparable musical flavour with his marvelous guitar work. Stevie Ray Vaughan makes this version of the song what it is.
This whole record is one of the best ever
Leonard and SRV, forever in our hearts, their music lives on R.I.P.
KDLang has hit the button too!
This is just about the only track in the world keeping me sane!
I,ve always been a huge fan of leopard Cohen and you can feel his influence throughout the album I am in hospital now since Sept 11th having being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but expect to be discharged this Monday then I have to face the chemo but hey ho, worst things happen at sea! This track will keep me sane!! Regards to you Rudz, a fellow Cohen fanatic
You might have given Jennifer Warner’s a mention. It was all down to her that she recorded the album which resurrected Leonard’s career.
This made it into the book 1,001 songs you must hear before you die.
That's why I'm here - I didn't even know they made a cover until I saw it there. They included this over the Cohen original. I prefer Cohen's - this sounds like a typical 80's track - it doesn't have the arrangement or biting cynicism of Cohen.
@@nl3064 I agree 💯
Although my bad, more recently I found out that this was technically the original, as Cohen, after writing the song, gave it to Warnes to sing first, then he came out with his version a couple years later, but my point still stands.
This is such a beautiful, powerful album, maybe the best of all time. She means what she sings and what she sings is some of Leonard Cohen's best writing.
Agreed!
Here SRV's guitar-work does to Cohen's song what Hendrix did to Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower."
Everything about this track is absolutely brilliant.
Jennifer Warnes - what a great voice! Pierces to the heart!!!
My mom had this album and I remember this song. I completely forgot that SRV played guitar on it. Glad I rediscovered it.
One of the greatest albums of all time.
YES!
Wow I played this song on the radio when it first came out. Just today learned it’s SRV on guitar
Stevie Ray Vaughan Stevie Ray Vaughan Stevie Ray Vaughan Stevie Ray Vaughan Stevie Ray Vaughan Stevie Ray Vaughan
Fabulous song. Its about what you believe its about. Capitalism,greed,fashion consumerism. Could be about McDonalds. There are Mcdonalds in Manhattan and Berlin. Me. I'm about music. The out on this is where a guitar player really comes to the fore. Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan. Take a bow. How the hell does he do that? Better guitar players than me please advise.
April 2022. Splendid piece of history and amazing collection.
Take the time to read the lyrics and look at today.
Wow what a song, huh? Beautiful from every angle
This song just popped into my head. My parents had her cassette tape and I remember dancing to this and Laurie Andersen as a kid. Couldn’t remember her name! Glad to rediscover 🙏
... featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan and... Vinnie Colaiuta. Luv this version. Just luv.
Thanks for that one to Stevie!
Miss you Leonard, please sing in the Heavens ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Adore this song and Famous Blue Raincoat album sung by incomparable JW 👌🏻💜💜💜💜
Nice Video
THANKS for Sharing
👋👋Have a nice day
❤️🧡💛💚💙🖤💜💛
Amazing version
...this track is perfect and repeatedly fulfilling.
This is a great video, of two genius songwriter/singers. I've had the distinct honor of seeing both of them. Jennifer Warnes really knew how to interpret his songs.
From the album "Famous Blue Raincoat" which was nothing less then genius. I remember buying the tape and listening to it so much that I wore it out. No kidding. Music today just doesn't produce that kind of excitement. At least not for me anyway.
I love FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT!!! I STILL HAVE THE CASSETTE!!! I USED TO SING ALONG TO THE ENTIRE TAPE!!! BRILLIANT ALBUM!!! Better than today's machine-produced caca.
Gilbert Martinez Yeah no kidding.
I had it on tape, vinyl, cd and finally digital. All great.
I have it only on digital and my computer started to melt.
Famous Blue Raincoat: Jen Does Len
Somewhere, in a vault. Is a dusty master track of Stevie Ray playing on James Brown's "Living in America" he said in an interview he was "all over that track, had a great time". Unfortunately, all his parts were scrubbed for the commercial release. But it's out there somewhere, someday maybe we will hear it. If this track is any indication, one can only imagine.
The beginning of this with the voices is just outstanding.
I don't know what it is about this some but I have loved it since I first herd it....and I am a metal head!!
I love L. C. but this version is my childhood. I got it on vinyl.
This video introduced me to the CD Jenny sings Lenny, and to Leonard Cohen’s songs! I love the CD famous blue raincoat, too!
sound was so much better in the 80's... Songs had Lots of passion and emotional wisdom..everything is dubbed down these bleak days and sound hasn't improved.
Society was much better in the 80s
If there is a music video, back in the 80s, that gave me the desire and inspiration to create music videos myself and become a video editor, it is definitely this artistic video.
Good song of the 80's
Best track of my favourite album of all time, Famous Blue Raincoat, Jennifer Warnes.
Like from Germany !
Love the Leonard Cohen cameos
GOT TO LOVE JENNIFER AND THE LATE GREAT STEVIE RAY VAUGHN
Having Cohen in the video was just next level genius. As if to say, "I'm Leonard Cohen, and I approve this video."
Classy song. Always liked it since its release.
Stevie-Ray for president!
Yea who ever placed that song writer with that singer and SRV Brilliant!!!!!
Stevie Ray Vaughan❤
This is one great piece if music.
RIP Leonard Cohen, a true Canadian icon.
At first I read "a true Canadian bacon"
A true JEWISH icon.
Always reminds me of Lady Diana...
Rest in Love RIL
love the part where she says "I don't like what happened to my sister" and it shows the two women being catty with each other. LOL Well-timed and illustrates that line pretty well!
Love this version
Thank you WXRT Saturday Morning Flashback for getting me here.
Thanks for this! When I was in Chicago in the '80s, it was XRT or NPR. Thanks for THAT flashback.
I like everything Warnes and Cohen did together.
I was there for stevies helocopter crash. It was so very sad. I was on the scene for 14 hours. It was a loss I wont forget. I got a call at 3 am and got near the scene but the helicopter was not found until 715 am.
I have been to several helo crashes and the only good thing is you die very quickly..
I have been to many many aircraft crashes. I am retired and god willing will never see another myself.
Jennifer Warnes' voice is underrated, despite being rated very highly by pretty much everyone.
Joni Mitchell is at the top but JW is right up there.
It's so cool that this is the original version even though she didn't write it.
Cohen giving Warnes cred by appearing in the vid. R.I.P. you poet lauerate.
Great song, first heard this version on Entertainment USA on BBC 2
A great track...………..BUT what really makes it so is Steve Ray Vaughan !
absolutely love this rendition , absolutely miss Leonard Cohen...left too soon and left a huge holes in all of our hearts& heads
One of my all time favourite albums!
Love the guitar by Stevie ray Vaughn
Great Cover, great video! Look out for Leonard in this video. It was during the shoot that the iconic picture of LC in shades holding a banana was taken, later became the cover of his "I'm Your Man" album.
This is SICK!!! Wow
"I don't like your fashion business mister.
I don't like those drugs that keep you thin.
I don't like what happened to my sister...."
This may well be the perfect song...
+Greg Warner Agreed!
You are not wrong…
Sweet Stevie
This was my introduction to LC...
High Five
Me 2
Mine as well. And this song totally blew me away. Bought a cassette of Famous Blue Raincoat and wore it out.
Same
What a great song this is
Great! Another by Jennifer. Thank you Mr. Cohen! But then, I got wind that the guitar is Stevy Ray Vaughn...?
Let me know...?
Yup. It's Stevie.
RIP Leonard and Stevie sadly missed
Fantastic. Why argue about it?
Great album one of my favorites
Jennifer Warnes: taken a Grammy and two or three oscars!😎
amazing play by SRV
George Massenburg (The recording engineer for this song) brought me here!!!!
Brillant album
An album everyone should own.
best version of this song
Jeff Stubler I think Leonard does it best but Jennifer and SRV share the magic
Joe Cocker did a masterpiece. Long live dear Joe❤️❤️❤️❤️
Bith Cohen's and Jennifer's versions are unique - although I am partial to Jennifer Warne's voice which this song is perfectly suited to. The genius of Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar complements everything. Circa 1987 when city warehouse apartments, side screenshots, Paulina Porizka type beautiful models - were vogue.
Amazing!
Awsome.
GREAT SONG LOVE IT........