The Album
Jennifer Warnes spent much of the 1970s as a backing singer in Leonard Cohen's touring band, and Famous Blue Raincoat grew directly out of that long friendship and musical apprenticeship as a full-album tribute to his songwriting, released in November 1986. A key impetus was 'Song of Bernadette,' which began as Warnes' own composition sketch before Cohen helped shape it, and the album also premiered 'First We Take Manhattan' and 'Ain't No Cure for Love' before Cohen recorded his own versions. Co-produced by Warnes and bassist Roscoe Beck, the record surrounds her warm, precise readings with lush, cinematic arrangements from an elite bench of West Coast session players - a deliberate contrast to the spare textures of Cohen's originals - and Cohen himself duets with her on 'Joan of Arc,' taking the role of the fire to her Joan. Initial critical reaction was mixed, with some reviewers finding the production overblown next to Cohen's austerity, but the album became a slow-burning commercial phenomenon, introducing a wide pop audience to Cohen's catalog at a low point in his visibility. It stands as Warnes' best-known and most enduring solo statement, cementing her reputation as an interpretive singer of exceptional taste. Its standing has only grown with time: it is now routinely cited as one of the finest tribute albums in popular music and is credited with helping revive broad interest in Leonard Cohen's work during the late 1980s.
The Label
This copy carries the original 1986 Cypress 'tree silhouette' stereo label: pink/black tree artwork, block CYPRESS RECORDS logo, ©1986 copyright line, 'Printed in U.S.A.' and 'Distributed by PolyGram Records, Inc.' rim text. Cypress was a short-lived Los Angeles boutique label (division of Cypress Entertainment, Cornyn Street address on the jacket) whose entire 1986-87 catalog run was PolyGram-distributed, so this design is the sole first-issue US configuration. Crucially, the '49' printed below the speed line on the Side 1 label is the documented Specialty Records (Olyphant, PA) plant code - Discogs splits this release into a '49' Specialty pressing and a '57' Columbia Carrollton pressing sharing the identical 661-111-1-A/B stamped matrix family. That printed code settles this copy as the Specialty pressing; the two plant sub-variants are otherwise contemporaneous first issues and trade interchangeably.
Fidelity
Mastered by Bernie Grundman (Bernie Grundman Mastering credit on the jacket); the album itself was digitally tracked (the original CD carries a DDD SPARS code), so the LP is a Grundman cut of the digital-era production rather than all-analog. The original Cypress LP has long been an audiophile reference disc, prized for pristine, close-miked vocal clarity and dynamic low end, with no meaningful sonic difference reported between the Specialty and Carrollton runs. In the album's fidelity hierarchy it remains the reference vintage cut - above the Private Music reissue and the various CD/gold-CD editions - but it now sits below the modern summit editions: the 2015 Impex 180g 33rpm (Grundman cut from Warnes' personal analog mixdown masters) and especially the 2023 Impex 35th Anniversary 1STEP 45rpm box, which reviewers rank as the ultimate presentation.
Notes
Original 1986 US first pressing on Cypress Records 661 111-1, stereo, Specialty (Olyphant PA) plant. Decisive evidence: the printed '49' plant code under the speed line on the Side 1 label is the documented Specialty identifier (the companion '57' code marks the Columbia Carrollton sub-variant), the ©1986 tree label with 'Distributed by PolyGram Records, Inc.' and 'Printed in U.S.A.' matches the sole first-issue US configuration, and the typed runouts 661-111-1-A/B match the shared original-issue matrix exactly. Released November 1986.
