Monday 1 December 2008

The Hallelujah Factor

I'm still reeling from the news that the X Factor Christmas single is going to be Hallelujah. It seems that Leonard Cohen's strange and beautiful song, which he spent a year wrestling with and was never entirely sure about, has - thanks to over-exposure and endless cover versions - not only entered the mainstream (making Simon Cowell yet more money along the way) but become all-purpose musical shorthand for any kind of vague spiritual yearning. It's the melody that does it - the fourth, the fith, the minor fall. If only Len had stayed within his usual, shall was say, limited melodic horizons, the song would have been safe - but alas it seems he's inadvertently gifed the world with... a new Imagine, to be lazily reached for every time a little effort-free, content-free spiritual uplift seems called for . Well, I suppose there's some consolation in the fact that it's an infinitely better song than Imagine - and presumably, if Len's on any kind of royalties deal, his coffers will be swelling nicely and he need never tour again. Hallelujah!

29 comments:

  1. I Think if that's the case we'll give Christmas a miss this year though to fair to dear old Len, there are far worse songs out there, Chris Rea's I'm Coming Home for Xmas, for instance.
    Any improvements on that ?

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  2. Strangely, at this very moment I'm listening to John Cale who recorded my favourite version of Hallelujah. As much as I'd like to think that this 'rediscovery' has something to do with the song's special quality (Cohen has other equally good songs), I think it's just the Shrek factor. The quality of a song or even personality doesn't matter, so long as they're attached to the right marketing.

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  3. I haven't heard this one yet, but my understanding is that Len was the victim of financial fraud or mismanagement a few years ago and facing penury in old age. He started to tour again out of financial necessity. If this song has filled the pension pot, that's surely great news. Who cares about the muzak.

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  4. Dick - I'm with you on the John Cale version (I think) - it seems 'right', in a way a lot of the other versions just don't...

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  5. I really do think it's the Welsh accent. I'm rediscovering Cale. Always been a more of a Lou Reed fan but whenever I go back to Songs of Drella I'm aways surprised by how much I like Cale's voice. His 'Fragments' live album is excellent and finishes with a good version of Hallelujah.

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  6. I'm glad Simon Cowell makes tons of money as he used lots of it to treat his ex- very well. He didn't want her babies, but he didn't leave her penniless either. Hear, hear, Simon!

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  7. Just checked, ain't got Hallelujah in the vast Amarok database, Bird on the Wire and Suzanne, sung live by Baez in 1996, both the cats whiskers.
    What I did stumble across and one for all of you reggae aficionados out there, the 1977 Yabba You Jesus Dread album, very rare.
    I-a-not-a-dee afraid, my god, he-a-dee lion of Africa.

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  8. From what I gather, Cohen won't be seeing royalties as his manager sold the rights, or something.

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  9. Leonard Cohen receives mechanical royalties each time any of his songs is recorded. The tremendous interest in Hallelujah, and many varied and worthwhile covers of this song, are definitely help him recover the losses suffered some years back.

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  10. Leonard Cohen is an angel, and deserves all the benefits due him for his decades of music given to the world of beatniks to rockers to all of us who enjoy poetry with our music....sterling houston, tx

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  11. The interesting thing about the song is that it's not really about spiritual uplift; it's about the hard work involved in keeping love alive. From the first verse to the last, I have always heard the pain of loss, the awful remembering of what used to be, and the final coming to terms with love as the best worst thing in life (or the worst best thing, I'm not too sure).

    The last verse really hits me hard:
    Maybe there's a God above
    But all I've ever learned from love
    Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
    And it's not a cry that you hear at night
    It's not somebody who's seen the light
    It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.


    Love is a cold and broken Hallelujah. That's where Cohen goes with love.

    And by the way: Jeff Buckley owned that song while he was alive, and no one since or before has ever done a more beautiful or more haunting cover. The bookended vocalizations -- the exhale at the top, the angelic final refrain of "Hallelujah" at the end -- are the whole story right there.

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  12. There has still never been a better version than Buckley's. I think the first sign of this overexposure, actually, was when his was featured on "The O.C." several years ago.

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  13. The best version is Jennifer Terran's live track. It's quite unknown, but it is on Last.fm.

    By the way, Hallelujah is a great song, but I can't ever recall listening to it for spiritual uplift. Just the opposite, if anything.

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  14. Oops - a link to Terran's version.

    http://www.last.fm/music/Jennifer+Terran/_/Halleluja

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  15. The forth, the fifth, the minor fall - that's actually a reference to the harmonic progression, not the melody. It lends itself to a dramatic and engaging melody, but those numbers carry no melodic information in themselves.

    And Cale's version is the best. Too bad about the Shrek thing.

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  16. Come on. Leonard wrote the 20th century version of Greensleeves and you're somehow embarrassed by that.

    What's the problem other than the prospect of Leonard not being properly compensated and if that's your worry, cut him a check.

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  17. I'll agree, attaching a song to something, be it a dramatic production or an ad, can really give it a boost.

    I ran across the Buckley cover in the West Wing episode "Posse Comitatus", as CJ learns of the sudden death of Mark Harmon's character.

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  18. The song's a lot dirtier than Imagine, too:

    There was a time you let me know
    What's really going on below
    But now you never show it to me, do you?
    And remember when I moved in you
    The holy dove was moving too
    And every breath we drew was Hallelujah


    Ahem.

    I think both the Cale and Buckley versions are fantastic. Heck, little Jason Castro's version wasn't that bad, either.

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  20. I don't care for Len's own singing, but Jennifer Warren's Famous Blue Raincoat is the best intro to Cohen.

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  21. I think the best version is kd lang @ the Juno Awards (Canadian Grammy) - it's stunning & she got a 2 minute standing ovation after singing it. It's on itunes and proceeds go to charity. Rufus Wainwright's is my second favorite version (from I'm the Man movie)

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  22. For my money nothing compares with the KD Lang version. The emotion she conveys tears at my very soul. I am a 65 year old grandfather who rarely has been affected by a song so dramatically. jdledell

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  24. What bunk. Nige appears angry that other people have discovered a personal favorite, and they don't "understand" it like he does. As I say at my blog: Just Let Us Enjoy The Damn Song, Will You!

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  25. What's clear is that here is no such thing as a "best" version of Hallelujah.

    In the pre-internet era, it was hard to find any covers besides the Jeff Buckley version. Most people, due to record label marketing (or lack thereof), had not even heard John Cale's version which is what Buckley covered lyrically.

    Now that we have access to dozens of versions of the song everyone has their own favorite(s).

    For each person that considers Jeff Buckley's version brilliant there's another who finds it over-wrought and over-rated. For every one who swoons to crooner kd lang's take, there's someone to whom it represents unlistenable muzak.

    Just as surely, should X Factor contestants perform Hallelujah their versions
    will be loved and hated. Simon Cowell's Il Divo has released a recording of the song in Spanish. Katherine Jenkins has recorded a bowdlerized version.

    It's currently a marketing phenomenon. It's also a cultural phenomenon. These recordings bring attention to a great song and its writer, Leonard Cohen. It doesn't matter what cover you heard...

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  26. The "Best Version" controversy is settled easily: It's the one by Leonard Cohen, on the album "Various Positions."

    There are a lot of other good versions, including the one on Cohen's 1994 live album, where he sings the lyrics people associate with Jeff Buckley's version, but which he wrote his ownself. But really, to favor any version other than the original is to buy in to the idea that Leonard is a weak singer, when in fact he is a nonpareil projector of Leonardness.

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  27. I always preferred the version John Cale but after seeing LC perform it on his current tour I think he has reclaimed it as his own.

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  28. Well I've just read something that might shock you as much as it has shocked me. I've just read that Cowell's company (presumably they meant Sony BMG as opposed to his 'own' co) owns the rights to the other versions of this song.

    I know Lenny was the victim of a fraudulent manager a few years ago but surely he would have kept the rights to some of his songs.

    I love the John Cale version the best - the worst I think is actually Dylan's.

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