Heck Of A Guy

Nadler Shrouds Famous Blue Raincoat In Velvet

The latest video from Marissa Nadler’s 2007 release, Songs III: Bird On the Water is based on her cover of Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat.

Her rendition of this classic track from Cohen’s 1971 album, Songs of Love and Hate,¹ is …

We interrupt this sentence to bring you the Single-Question, Oversimplified Yet Nonetheless Spot On Marissa Nadler Performance Characterization Quiz:

Question #1. Which single word is most often used to describe a Marissa Nadler performance?

That’s right, Marissa Nadler’s  rendition of Famous Blue Raincoat  (and almost everything else in her repertoire) is …

… haunting.²

Why Do I Like This Video?

This is not a rhetorical question. I do have a couple of guesses about the answer, but I suppose I should first explain why it would be surprising that I would enjoy  this video.

Video Effects and Affectations

This is the sort of overwrought video that has invariably caused me to regret treading the Beloved Physician career track rather than attending film school. Sure, I can diagnose subtle presentations of bipolar disorder, recognize cases in which third generation antipsychotics are indicated,  and deal with the HMO utilization review consultant who implies that the massive overdose taken this morning by my patient in a suicide attempt is hardly justification to keep her in the hospital overnight. And yes, I’ve helped lots of folks improve their mental health, been thanked by a significant number of grateful patients and families,³ earned a nice living, and can still occasionally leverage the “MD” after my name into a hard to get reservation at some of your finer second tier restaurants. Heck, I even appeared on Donahue where Phil designated me an expert.

But, I weep for the suffering of humanity I might have been able to prevent had I sufficient cinematographic vocabulary and knowledge to  catalog and precisely describe the myriad flaws displayed in these overdone, visually bloviated 3-5 minute showcases of excess in such a way that I could warn potential audiences about the the risk to their aesthetic equilibrium from the schlock contamination inflicted by these videos.

Further, the Marissa Nadler Famous Blue Raincoat video, directed by Greg Eggebeen,⁴ certainly seems to offer a target-rich environment. The production is, in fact, intensely, self-consciously, unrelentingly artsy. And as anyone who has watched more than three music videos since MTV popularized the format that YouTube has transformed into a commodity knows, once a music video meets criteria for artsy, fartsy can’t be far behind.

And, indeed, this is a split-screened, 1960s-invoking, image-superimposing, goth-evincing, Polaroid/Super 8 emulating, semi-psychedelic, Santa-infested project replete with carefully positioned signals of the film’s Indie status: jumps, scratches, grainy film, abrupt fades, splices, color blowouts,  and other artifacts, each of them intentionally included (and sometimes highlighted). Selected screenshots follow.

There are some nice touches within the onslaught of detailed scenes, almost all of which flash before the viewer for only an instance  before disappearing. An early shot, for example, displays a spinning LP, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme by Simon and Garfunkel, a single reference point that informs the viewer about the era, the kind of people attending the party, and the mood – if it is recognized.

I may be fond of this shot because I did recognize the album, even before checking the still shots. Of course, that was one of the first albums I owned. And that I liked Simon and Garfunkel then and  still like them now doesn’t hurt.

These heavily packed scenes, even if the specific elements cannot be identified, lend a granularity to the piece.

My Favorite Scene

The bottom panel contains my favorite flashed scene. The screen on the reader’s left shows a board game in progress.  The game is Mystery Date.

OK, I must admit that inserting the Mystery Date game into a video of Famous Blue Raincoat is pretty witty.

The Music, The Story Line, The Influences, … The Summary

The video centers on a group of young adults at a 1960s New York City Christmas party with colored lights, Santa hats, and other seasonal  decorations. Partygoers laugh and sing a little but are more often serous, introspective, and glum. They also talk, select and play LPs, dance, drink liquor, and smoke cigarettes, creating a scene that fits well with the sense of The  Famous Blue Raincoat lyrics although the cast is arguably overpopulated compared to the characters in the song’s lyrics.

Nadler’s music, especially that sung in the higher reaches of her mezzo-soprano, is reminiscent of  Joni Mitchell. More impressive, however, is her more muscular efforts sung within her mid-range voice when  echoes of Nina Simone can be heard.

Nadler’s version of Famous Blue Raincoat is not a landmark status cover. It doesn’t meet the standards set, for example, by Jennifer Warnes or Judy Collins. Nadler’s performance is, however, a strong, uncompromising effort which enriches the song without sacrifcing the stark, unadorned quality of Cohen’s lyrics and his own performance of them, no mean feat.

As for the video, I am always impressed when an author, playwright, composer, architect, interior designer, … can create a product I admire in a genre or style I typically abhor. And such is the case with the video of Marissa Nadler’s Famous Blue Raincoat.

The Famous Blue Raincoat Videos

Marissa Nadler – Famous Blue Raincoat from Greg Eggebeen on Vimeo.

For comparison, this is Marissa Nadler peforming Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat agt Sneaky Dee’s (Toronto, 7 June 2007)

For comparison from another perspective, this is a compendium of several versions of Famous Blues Raincoat by Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Marissa Nadler, Lloyd Cole, Christina Rosenvinge, Angela Mccluskey, Ornella Vanoni, Jennifer Warnes and Tori Amos.

Credit Due Department: The photo of Marissa Nadler atop this post was found on the superb music blog, My Old Kentucky Blog, long a proponent of Ms Nadler’s work.

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1. Judy Collins also included Famous Blue Raincoat on her 1971 album, Living, which was a collection of  performances from her 1970 concert tour. [↩]
2. The judges would also accept wistful, ephemeral, and ethereal, but only because the judges are in a benevolent mood; haunting is clearly the correct and preferred response. [↩]
3. The populations of these two groups, i.e., patients I’ve helped and patients who have expressed their gratitude to me, overlap but are not identical [↩]
4. Ms Nadler, on her blog, describes Mr. Eggebeen only as “an editor living in Brooklyn, NY.” Greg Eggebeen’s own blog is scarcely more forthcoming, noting in a post from January 2008,

   I SHOT A MUSIC VIDEO.

   Still in the editing stages at the moment, but I’m tickled pink from what I’ve seen so far. It’s a video for Marissa Nadler, a wondrous folk angel who allowed me to make a video for her cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat.”

   The video was shot in a mind-bending weekend right before Christmas around Manhattan, Central Park, and in particular my well-meaning but beyond small Bushwick apartment. I shamelessly forced people onto my couch to drink alcohol and pretend to have a good time for four hours while I barked out orders to my cameraman Spence to make the visuals look more cool n’ shit.

   Despite my failed tryout as a future David O. Russell I think the crowd had a decent time mucking it up and playing Apples to Apples. The footage turned out beautifully and has since made it difficult to not do a 90 minute version of the video.

   Not much to go on, is it? [↩]