Leonard Cohen – I'm Your Man

I'm Your Man is the ninth non-compilation album from Leonard Cohen. Although only a middling commercial success (#36 in Canada, #48 in the UK, and going gold in both countries), I'm Your Man was generally heralded as a return to form for Cohen:

• AllMusic gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a stunningly sophisticated leap into modern musical textures"
• Robert Christgau graded it an A-, arguing that Cohen is really a "singing poet who'll cheerfully appropriate any simple music that fits his meter," and that these "poems are his most consistent in a decade"
• Pitchfork rated it a 9.5 out of 10 and named it the 51st best album of the 1980s
• Rolling Stone gave it 4 stars out of 5, calling it "an unabashedly contemporary record"

I'm Your Man is often included in lists of the best Canadian albums: it placed 11th in the 1992 Mar*Star poll, 19th in the 1996 Chart magazine poll, 29th in Bob Mersereau's 2007 The Top 100 Canadian Albums book, 30th in the 2011 Mar*Star poll, and 46th in CBC Radio's 2013 list of the Greatest Canadian Albums Ever.

Five of the eight songs on I'm Your Man were released as singles, with "I'm Your Man" and "Everybody Knows" charting in France. The previous year, Jennifer Warnes had worldwide hit singles with "First We Take Manhattan" (with a Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo) and "Ain't No Cure for Love" (with significantly different lyrics) – Cohen's version of those songs, as well as the fifth single, "I Can't Forget," did not chart.

Click on a heading below to toggle more information.

Track Listing

1. "First We Take Manhattan" – 6:01
2. "Ain't No Cure for Love" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:50
3. "Everybody Knows" (Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson) – 5:36
4. "I'm Your Man"(Leonard Cohen) – 4:28
5. "Take This Waltz" (Leonard Cohen, based on poem by Federico García Lorca) – 5:59
6. "Jazz Police" (Leonard Cohen, Jeff Fisher) – 3:53
7. "I Can't Forget"(Leonard Cohen) – 4:31
8. "Tower of Song"(Leonard Cohen) – 5:37

Personnel

• Leonard Cohen – vocals, keyboards (on 3, 4, 8), piano (on 7)
• Anjani Thomas – vocals (on 1, 2, 4, 6)
• Jennifer Warnes – vocals (on 3, 5, 7, 8), backing vocals (on 2)
• Jeff Fisher – keyboards (on 1, 2, 6)
• Vinnie Colaiuta – drums (on 2, 6, 7)
• Michel Robidoux – keyboards (on 3), drums (on 4)
• Richard Baudet – saxophone (on 2)
• Peter Kisilenko – bass (on 2)
• Bob Stanley – guitar (on 2)
• John Bilezikjian – oud (on 3)
• Tom Brechtlein – drums (on 4)
• Jean-Philippe Rykiel – keyboards (on 5)
• Evelyine Hebey – backing vocals (on 5)
• Mayel Assouly – backing vocals (on 5)
• Elisabeth Valletti – backing vocals (on 5)
• Raffi Hakopian – violin (on 5)
• Jude Johnstone – backing vocals (on 7)
• Larry Cohen – keyboards (on 7)
• Sneaky Pete Kleinow – steel guitar (on 7)
• Lenny Castro – percussion (on 7)

• Leonard Cohen – Songs of Leonard Cohen (album)
• Leonard Cohen – The Future (album)
• Leonard Cohen – Various Positions (album)
• Leonard Cohen – Suzanne (song)
• Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah (song)
• Leonard Cohen – Bird on the Wire (song)
• Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat (song)