1. Everybody Knows
2. Coming Back to You
3. Sisters of Mercy
4. Hallelujah
5. Famous Blue Raincoat
6. Ain't No Cure for Love
7. I'm Your Man
8. Bird on a Wire
9. Suzanne
10. Light as the Breeze
11. If It Be Your Will
12. Story of Isaac
13. Coming Back to You
Amazon.com
If ever an artist deserved the tribute-album treatment, it's Leonard Cohen, an intermittently fascinating songwriter but perhaps the worst singer to ever release more than one major-label album. Cohen has never written a song which couldn't be improved by someone else singing it, and it's no coincidence that he's been the subject of three tribute albums. The latest is Tower of Song, which turns Cohen's work over to such middle-brow pop stars as Don Henley, Billy Joel, and Suzanne Vega. The results from this new project are mixed. Melodramatic, angst-ridden vocals by Tori Amos ("Famous Blue Raincoat") and Peter Gabriel ("Suzanne") emphasize Cohen's narcissism and purple poetry. On the other hand, Elton John delivers a delightfully campy, irreverent reading of "I'm Your Man," and Sting joins the Chieftains for a nicely understated, Celtic-folk arrangement of "Sisters of Mercy." --Geoffrey Himes
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Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
- Audio CD: 0 pages (1995-09-26)
- Publisher: Polygram UK
- Label: Polygram UK
- Format: Import
- Studio: Polygram UK
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 27 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #17761
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: just another interpretation 2007-11-23
Comment: ok, some love this and other hate it. fair enough. i personally quite liked the don henley version of 'everybody knows'. bono on 'halelujah' sounded as if his trousers were hitched up too high and too tight. and willie nelson's 'bird on a wire' could have been a nashille chestnut like 'she'll have to go'.
cohen can write. at least there doesnt seem to be any doubt about that. and perhaps he does have an honest voice. maybe robert frost had an honest voice too. never heard him sing.
sunu charles
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Like any collection of covers you take the bad with the good 2006-05-16
Comment: Leonard Cohen is a brilliant songwriter. His lyrics are true poetry; a rare commodity in the world of popular music. However his "singular" style of performing can be a bit trying at times, so I really don't mind an attempt like this one. Get some talented artists together and see what they can do with his songs. Like any work of this type you will get a few high notes and low notes.
The Good:
Trisha Yearwood puts a bit too much country yodel in "Coming Back To You", but you end up believing her.
Tori Amos's sparse arrangement for "Famous Blue Raincoat" works perfectly and her delicate vocal, breathing in deeply throughout, is beautiful.(I should really think about getting some of her stuff.)
Aaron Neville gets all country on "Ain't No Cure For Love" and makes his great voice plead for a cure, which ain't forthcoming.
Willie does "Bird On A Wire " proud. Softly with guitar then organ and harmonica build up, then drums, but never changing the basic plaintive quality of the vocal.
Peter Gabriel's version of "Suzanne" is haunting and true.
Great Billy Joel on "Light as a Breeze." He makes this one his own.
"Story of Isaac" is a tough song to do convincingly, but Suzanne Vega approaches it with simplicity and intelligence.
The Bad:
Don Henley put more emotion into "Dirty Laundry" than he did on "Everybody Knows."
Sting and The Chieftains make "Sisters of Mercy" sound like an outtake from BELLS OF DUBLIN (I liked that one) this one, not so much.
"Hallelujah" by Bono is absolutely awful. I really thought Bono would make this a classic; instead he transforms this transcendent song into bad techno.
"I'm Your Man"- Elton John Trying waaay too hard.
Jann Arden's take on "If It Be Your Will" isn't really bad, just forgettable, something a Cohen song really shouldn't be.
Martin Gore makes a mistake with the synths on "Coming Back to You" but his vocals almost push it into the good side...almost.
So more good stuff than bad stuff and the good stuff will make it worth your time if your a Cohen fan.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy it if you're a Cohen fan, skip it otherwise 2006-03-17
Comment: This is a must-have for any Leonard Cohen fan. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of many of the covers on this album. But it's an incredible lineup of artists -- Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bono, Willie Nelson, Suzanne Vega, Elton John, Billy Joel, Tori Amos. You really couldn't assemble a more talented bunch. And as much as I'm not enamored of many of the covers on this album, as a huge fan of Cohen's music, I nonetheless find them interesting.
My favorite track on the album is Suzanne Vega's rendition of Abraham and Isaac. Her voice is simply sublime -- it doesn't have any of the melodramatic affect of Tori Amos's, yet it manages in its subtlety to be incredibly intense and wonderfully conveys the various shades of tone and mood in the song. It's probably the only track on the album that I actually prefer to the Cohen original.
I also like Sting's cover of Sisters of Mercy.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: OK, but the source material is so much better.... 2005-03-14
Comment: I should start off by saying that, personally, I always prefer Cohen singing Cohen over cover versions. However, tempted by the idea of Bono doing "Hallelujah" and Sting doing "Sisters of Mercy" and ignoring the voice in back of head telling me that I should know better, I purchased this Album
Let's face it: a cover version will nearly always entail a shift in meaning from that intended by the artist. At best this will be a mere shift in tone and sentiment (read: Willie Nelson (Bird on a Wire) and Peter Gabriel (Suzanne)) and, at worst, the song is ruined almost beyond repair (read: Elton John (I'm your Man and Don Henley (Everybody Knows)).
The three stars go to Trisha Yearwood (Coming Back to You), Billy Joel (Light as a Breeze) and Peter Gabriel (Suzanne).
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: famous blue raincoat 2005-01-08
Comment: I owe much to this CD because it introduced me to Tori Amos. Her rendition of Famous Blue Raincoat is simply overwhelming. Unlike other reviewers here I found Billy Joel unbearable, Elton John is always lukewarm. The real gems are Peter Gabriel and Bono in addition to Tori. But if you absolutely love the originals then you will not aggree. My comment is only for people who think Cohen is a very interesting but somewhat dull singer/songwriter.
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Tower of Song: The Songs of Leonard Cohen
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