I'm Your Fan: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen

The ‎Music on Vinyl double lp version of I'm Your Fan sounds terrific. The audio is very faithfully reproduced here and, in my opinion, benefits from the intrinsic warmth of the vinyl sound. Owners of the original 1991 CD and cassette versions from Atlantic will notice that track order is slightly altered on this vinyl version. Track 1, R.E.M's version of First We Take Manhattan, is swapped with track 10, The House of Love's version of Who By Fire. I imagine this was a choice made by the sound engineers in order to make everything physically fit on the lp while achieving the best sound for the medium. It took me a minute to accept this. Owners of the original release will also notice that the lyric/photo booklet was not reproduced for this lp. I imagine that this was due to copyright limitations. Other than those two issues, it is wonderful to have this compilation available on vinyl as the previous versions become harder to locate.

I liked this record so much I bought it twice by accident. I must have lost the first copy. It's worth buying just for this track alone: "I Can't Forget" – Pixies.

In my opinion, the best compilation of Leonard Cohen's songs done by other artists is the "Tower of Song" CD. Don Henley's version of "Everybody Knows" is top rate. The only sore spot is Bono's goofy version of "Hallelujah." Stick with Jeff Buckley's rendition.

This is a tribute album with an assortment of artists and I think it needs to be approached as something where you'll probably not like some of the stuff. The measure of something like this is how much of the music is genuinely great and how much you learn about songs you already appreciated.I feel that REM's cover of "First We Take Manhattan", probably the most popular track on the album, is true to the spirit of the song and not bad at all, but not brilliant. In spite of effort spent, I don't believe anyone has really captured both the menace and humor of the original, although there are probably some versions of this song out there that I haven't heard yet.In contrast, Lloyd Cole's cover of "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" is bright and poppy and quite at odds with the vibe of the original. It sounds simply wonderful and brilliant. This strikes me as the most valuable work on this album, and very much in the spirit of things, as Lloyd Cole took something old and wonderful and did something new and wonderful with it.The Pixies make "I Can't Forget" sound like a Pixies song, a really good one. It's fun"Stories of the Street", "Suzanne", and "So Long Marianne" do not strike me as truly insightful covers but they're very pleasant by virtue of being sung by very gifted vocalists."Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On" is a totally ridiculous song and David McComb & Adam Peters do a wonderful job with it. It sounds great. I'm sure this is the definitive cover of this song.My first few listens to "Who By Fire" by The House of Love didn't do anything for me but I'm listening to it now and it's really very good.There are two rather bad covers of "Tower of Song" on this thing.Jean-Louis Murat's rendition of Avalanche in French is fascinating. I think a musically darker French rendition by the same artist might be very interesting to hear.Any Cohen fan will enjoy this album, I think.

Bought this for John Cale's version of Hallelujah and it alone is worth every penny.

One of my favorite all time albums and a must for any afficiandos of pre-"alternative" late 80s and early 90s indie and college radio. Some gorgeous covers, including Cohen's favorite cover of any of his songs, "Don't Go Home (with you hard-on)" - David McComb and Adam Peters, and additional greats by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, James, REM, Pixies etc. So glad to have it on vinyl.

I can't believe this isn't available online anywhere. I loved it from when I was younger and could only find it on CD. So many excellent songs by some of my favorite artists.

Some great covers.

Had the cassette of this for over twenty years - that technology having now given up the ghost for me, I've joined the late 20th century by getting the CD, it still being available a testimony to the uneven but overall very high standard of this Covers album. Well the John Cale "Hallelujah" is worth the price of admission alone - simply sublime, and I only wish my brain could be cleansed of the umpteen inferior overwrought X-factor style knockoffs that have come since. As for the rest, it's truly a great album in that you can go back to it and discover a new favourite - currently Lloyd Cole's "Chelsea Hotel" just edges it for me from the Pixies "I Can't Forget", but I'm fickle and next time I listen there'll be another fave.Track List"First We Take Manhattan" – R.E.M."Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" – Ian McCulloch"I Can't Forget" – Pixies"Stories of the Street" – That Petrol Emotion"Bird on the Wire" – The Lilac Time"Suzanne" – Geoffrey Oryema"So Long, Marianne" – James"Avalanche IV" – Jean-Louis Murat"Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On" – David McComb & Adam Peters"Who by Fire" – The House of Love"Chelsea Hotel" – Lloyd Cole"Tower of Song" – Robert Forster"Take This Longing" – Peter Astor"True Love Leaves No Traces" – Dead Famous People"I'm Your Man" – Bill Pritchard"A Singer Must Die" – The Fatima Mansions"Tower of Song" – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds"Hallelujah" – John Cale

I bought this for a real Leonard Cohen fan and had a listen before wrapping it. I hadn't heard of most of the bands covering the numbers apart from Nick Cave and wasn't overly impressed with how they interpreted the songs. If you are going to cover a song you need to improve on it and I am not sure you can improve on a Leonard Cohen song - unless you are Leonard Cohen. Note to X Factor judges and producers - please don't let 19 year old X Factor winners cover Leonard Cohen songs - it really doesn't work. (the same with Bob Dylan ...) Thank you.

I owned this album when it first came out but original copy got damaged. The record was my first time introduction to the great mans works as bought purely on the artists who appear. God knows if I had turned into such an admirer of L.C if not for this record. A great introduction of the genius that was.

There's some good stuff on this but - overall - what it tells you is that no one does Cohen's sings better than the man himself. Unlike some of the covers of Dylan's works - where other people have taken his songs and given us better versions - you couldn't say that of many songs on this collection. Interesting though; I'd say it's strictly one for paid-up afficianados.

Some good cover versions others not as good. I am a huge fan of his music and love other cover CD's such as Tower of Song and Famous Blue Rain Coat by Jennifer warnes. This CD is Ok at best.