Video hit Tom Jones

Tom Jones - Tower Of Song

He may be busy with his judging role on The Voice, but Tom Jones has still found time to release a new single, covering the Leonard Cohen track Tower of Song.

The track, which Cohen originally recorded in 1988, appears on the veteran singer’s new album Spirit In The Room.

And the video sees Jones in a sombre mood, as he makes his way through the rooms of an apparently empty house.

When Leonard Cohen sang: "I was born with the gift of a golden voice" in a racked rumble on Tower of Song, it was self-deprecating. But Jones really was, giving the line quite a different resonance. Angels have tied him to "the stage", not a table. You hope these nuances will continue to develop further down the tracklisting.

The album which also features covers of songs by Paul McCartney, Tom Waits and indie group The Low Anthem, is set for release on May 21, and Jones will also appear at the Hammersmith Apollo on July 1 as part of London’s BluesFest festival.

The lyrics:

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey

I ache in the places where I used to play

And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on

I'm just paying my rent every day

Oh in the Tower of Song

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?

Hank Williams hasn't answered yet

But I hear him coughing all night long

A hundred floors above me

In the Tower of Song

I was born like this, I had no choice

I was born with the gift of a golden voice

And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond

They tied me to this table right here

In the Tower of Song

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll

I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all

I'm standing by the window where the light is strong

Ah they don't let a woman kill you

Not in the Tower of Song

Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure

The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor

And there's a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong

You see, you hear these funny voices

In the Tower of Song

I see you standing on the other side

I don't know how the river got so wide

I loved you baby, way back when

And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed

But I feel so close to everything that we lost

We'll never have to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back

There moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track

But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone

I'll be speaking to you sweetly

From a window in the Tower of Song

Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey

I ache in the places where I used to play

And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on

I'm just paying my rent every day

Oh in the Tower of Song