Nick Cave discovered ‘Famous Blue Raincoat' as a young boy in Wangaratta.

Nick Cave is one of the most high-profile champions of Leonard Cohen's work. The Australian singer, songwriter, poet and author has covered a range of Cohen songs throughout his own long career (this site suggests ten) and been very open about the influence Cohen has had on his career.

In 1994, Cave spoke to Richard Kingsmill about ‘Famous Blue Raincoat', the song that turned him on to Leonard Cohen when he was a young boy in Wangaratta.

In the wake of Leonard Cohen's sad passing, we have unearthed Cave's wonderful words about such a brilliant song.

“I remember listening to this song when I must have been 11 or 12,” he said. “I lived in Wangaratta and I had a friend called Anne Baumgarten, she was quite a morbid kind of creature.

“She used to play Leonard Cohen in her room with burning candles and all that sort of stuff. She'd listen to Songs of Love and Hate over and over again. I started to that myself and became kind of infatuated with the lyric at that point. I saw how powerful that could be.

“This song to me just seemed like a true kind of confessional song. It just seemed to be so open and kind of honest in some way. Whether it is or not, I don't really know.

“It just had that effect on me and it really kinda changed the way I looked at things.

“He had a tendency to air his linen in public in a way. I thought that was all very impressive at the time. I still do, of course.”