The classic Leonard Cohen song that featured Stevie Ray Vaughan
In the 1960s and ’70s, Leonard Cohen captured attention with his delicate acoustic guitar-led songs, becoming one of the most influential folk artists across the contemporary landscape. His previous exploits as a poet and novelist informed the lyrical quality of his writing, frequently referencing mythology and religion while exploring innately human themes of love, death, identity, and politics.
However, as the 1970s drew to a close, Cohen branched out and began incorporating fuller instrumentation to accompany his words. A broader scope of instruments, such as synthesizers and trombones, joined the sparse guitars and strings that formed his early work. This transition began on his 1977 album, Death of a Ladies Man, influenced by producer Phil Spector. Although Cohen returned to a more stripped-back sound on his following LP, Recent Songs, it didn’t take long for him to branch back out and utilize a more modern sound on his succeeding records, Various Positions and I’m Your Man.
Released in 1988, I’m Your Man became one of Cohen’s most commercially successful albums, hitting the number-one spot in Norway for a whopping 16 weeks. The record opens with the synth-led cut ‘First We Take Manhattan’, which Cohen explained as being “a response to terrorism”. He revealed during a backstage interview, “There’s something about terrorism that I’ve always admired. The fact that there are no alibis or no compromises. That position is always very attractive. I don’t like it when it’s manifested on the physical plane – I don’t really enjoy the terrorist activities – but Psychic Terrorism.”
However, the song was actually recorded by Jennifer Warnes before Cohen released his version, appearing on her album Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, which she created as a tribute to the musician with whom she toured as a backing singer. On the record, Warnes covers a range of tracks spanning Cohen’s discography, including ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, ‘Bird on a Wire’ and ‘Joan of Arc’. Cohen helped bring the album to life by providing additional vocals on the latter track and supplying Warnes with unreleased material to record, like ‘First We Take Manhattan’.
Producer Roscoe Beck recalled to Uncut, “I was working on Jennifer Warnes’ record of Leonard’s songs, Famous Blue Raincoat, so I called him in Montreal to ask if he had any new material for it, and he played me, ‘First We Take Manhattan’. I was stunned. Leonard had written on keyboards since the early ’80s, but this was a much more heavily synthesized, Eurodisco approach.”
So, despite Cohen writing the track, Warnes’ take existed for two years before the singer released his own version. Yet, Warnes’ rendition contained something quite extraordinary that Cohen’s did not – blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. The collaboration came about when Beck asked Vaughan, a friend of his, to contribute to the track. Accepting the proposal, Vaughan recorded during the early hours of the morning. Although the guitarist, who was in town for the Grammy Awards, didn’t have his instrument with him, he borrowed Beck’s guitar and provided the distinctive riff.
The music video, directed by Paula Walker, features Warnes, Cohen and Vaughan, with the latter playing his guitar on Brooklyn Bridge. Check it out below.
