I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen album)
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| I'm Your Man | ||||
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| Studio album by Leonard Cohen | ||||
| Released | February 2, 1988 (LP) 1990 (CD) |
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| Recorded | August–November 1987 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock, folk rock | |||
| Length | 40:41 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Leonard Cohen, Roscoe Beck, Jean-Michel Reusser, Michel Robidoux | |||
| Leonard Cohen chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone |  [2] |
| Robert Christgau | A− [3] |
I'm Your Man is the eighth studio album by Leonard Cohen,[4] released in 1988. The album marked Cohen's further move to a more modern sound, with many songs having a synthpop production.
"First We Take Manhattan" had been released the previous year by Jennifer Warnes on her album of Cohen songs, Famous Blue Raincoat. The song "Everybody Knows" was one of Cohen's first writing collaborations with Sharon Robinson, who would become a frequent collaborator in the future. Most notably, Robinson co-wrote every song on Cohen's 2001 outing Ten New Songs. In "Tower of Song", Cohen discusses songwriting and acknowledges the influence of Hank Williams ("a hundred floors above me").
"I'm Your Man" was number 1 in Norway for 16 weeks.[5] The album is silver in the UK and gold in Canada.[citation needed]
It was ranked 51 on Pitchfork Media's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s.[6] Tom Waits has named it one of his favourite albums.[7] Slant Magazine listed the album at #29 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".[8]
Nick Cave performed the song "I'm Your Man" and Jarvis Cocker performed the song "I Can't Forget" in the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs written and composed by Leonard Cohen, except where noted[4].
| No. | Title | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "First We Take Manhattan" | 6:01 | |
| 2. | "Ain't No Cure for Love" | 4:50 | |
| 3. | "Everybody Knows" (Cohen, Sharon Robinson) | 5:36 | |
| 4. | "I'm Your Man" | 4:28 | |
| 5. | "Take This Waltz" (Cohen, Federico García Lorca) | 5:59 | |
| 6. | "Jazz Police" (Cohen, Jeff Fisher) | 3:53 | |
| 7. | "I Can't Forget" | 4:31 | |
| 8. | "Tower of Song" (Cohen, Jennifer Warnes) | 5:37 |
[edit] Personnel
- Leonard Cohen: keyboards, vocals
- Jude Johnson: vocals
- Anjani Thomas: vocals
- Jennifer Warnes: vocals
- Mayel Assouly: backing vocals
- Evelyine Hebey: backing vocals
- Elisabeth Valletti: backing vocals
- Jeff Fisher: keyboards
- Bob Stanley: guitar
- Sneaky Pete Kleinow: pedal steel guitar
- Peter Kisilenko: bass
- Tom Brechtlein: drums
- Vinnie Colaiuta: drums
- Lenny Castro: percussion
- Michel Robidoux: drums, keyboards
- John Bilezikjian: oud
- Richard Beaudet: saxophone
- Raffi Hakopian: violin
[edit] Song covers
- On the soundtrack to Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, there are two versions of "Tower of Song". One appears as a sparse live version by Martha Wainwright and the other a more elaborate studio recording by Leonard Cohen and U2. In the latter, Bono sings the second last verse while a deep-voiced Cohen does the rest.
- Aaron Neville, who had earlier recorded Cohen's "Bird on the Wire", contributed a cover of "Ain't No Cure for Love" for the tribute album Tower of Song.
- "Everybody Knows" was covered by Concrete Blonde on the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume. The original version was the main theme played on the film, although only the cover by Concrete Blonde was released in the official soundtrack.
- "Everybody Knows" was covered by ex-Eagle Don Henley on Tower of Song.
- The 1991 indie rock tribute album I'm Your Fan takes its name from the pathos-filled love song title track "I'm Your Man".
- R.E.M. contributed "First We Take Manhattan" to I'm Your Fan. They also released it as an extra track on their 1992 CD single "Drive".
- Bill Pritchard performed the song for the same tribute.
- Pixies covered "I Can't Forget" for I'm Your Fan.
- In 1986, an early mix of "Take This Waltz" reached #1 in the Spanish charts (as a single off the Federico García Lorca tribute album Poets in New York). The words were translated by Cohen from García Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés".
- "Take this Waltz" was also covered by Enrique Morente on his 1996 album Omega, performed with Lagartija Nick and other musicians. Morente used the original Lorca's poem "Pequeño vals vienés" and new musical arrangements.
- A very abstract cover of "Tower of Song" was recorded by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for I'm Your Fan.
- "Tower of Song" has also been covered by Robert Forster, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Russell, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Tom Jones and Howe Gelb.
- Michael Bublé covered "I'm Your Man" in 2007 for his album Call Me Irresponsible. Joe Cocker also covered this song on his album One Night of Sin in 1989
- Dax Riggs has performed live cover versions of "I'm Your Man" and "Tower of Song".
- Native artist Florent Vollant covered "Everybody knows", which he translated in Innu, for his album, Katak.
- Norwegian gothic metal band Sirenia covered "First We Take Manhattan" on Sirenian Shores EP.
- Mohanlal sings "I'm Your Man" in the 2011 Malayalam movie Pranayam directed by Blessy.
[edit] Movie
- The album's title track appears on the soundtrack of the 2002 film Secretary.
- A 2006 tribute film and album to Cohen were titled Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.
- "Everybody Knows" was in the movie/documentary King of Kong (A Fistfull of Quarters) and Atom Egoyan's film Exotica. It also featured in Pump Up the Volume.
- "Hallelujah" was featured in the 2009 film Watchmen and was included on the official soundtrack. Though absent from the official soundtrack, "First We Take Manhattan" was also featured in the film's closing credits.
[edit] References
- ^ Ankeny, Jason. I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen album) at Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^ Rolling Stone 16 June 1988
- ^ Christgau, Robert. Leonard Cohen. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^ a b Ankeny, Jason. "I'm Your Man". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r96061. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
- ^ "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man - VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958". Lista.vg.no. 2006-06-01. http://lista.vg.no/album_info.php?AlbumOp=show&albumId=5940&albumtype=album&albumtype_id=1. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
- ^ Pitchfork Staff (2002-11-20). "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5882-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s/. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
- ^ Waits, Tom (2005-03-20). "It's perfect madness". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/mar/20/popandrock1. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ^ Best Albums of the 1980s | Music | Slant Magazine
[edit] External links
- I'm Your Man (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
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