Various Artists' I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (33 1/3 (147))

In 2016, Stereogum labeled the tribute album "possibly the most universally derided format in pop music." However, without a tribute album, you wouldn't know the song "Hallelujah." When I'm Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen hit stores in 1991, Leonard Cohen's career had plummeted from its revered 1960s high. Cohen's record label refused to release his album Various Positions--that's the one with "Hallelujah"--in the United States. Luckily, Velvet Underground founder John Cale was one of the few who did hear "Hallelujah." He covered it for the I'm Your Fan album, a modestly-intended collection produced by a small French fanzine. Jeff Buckley adored the tribute album and covered Cale's cover, having not even heard Cohen's still-obscure original version. Through Buckley through Cale, "Hallelujah" is now one of the most often-performed songs in the world--and it wouldn't be without this tribute album. I'm Your Fan thus offers a particularly notable example of a much broader truth: Despite all the eye-rolling they inspire, tribute albums matter. They can resuscitate legends' fading careers, or expose obscure artists who never had much of a career to begin with.

Author: Ray Padgett

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Publication Date: September 03, 2020

Number of Pages: 168 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1501355066

ISBN-13: 9781501355066