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Old 12-22-2008, 09:48 AM   #1
Jim Nasium
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Default Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Over this side of the pond we have just had to endure about 3 months of excruciating television, The X Factor, trying to find the next BIG TALENT. This years winner is Alexandra Burke, Miss Burke has launched an assault on the pop chart with a very poor version of Leonard Cohen's "Halleujah". Over the past 5 years or so the Christmas #1 has been the winner of The X Factor. In an attempt to thwart this situation this year a bunch of us launched a move to get Jeff Buckley's brilliant version of this song to the #1 spot. Sadly we have failed. Alexandra is #1, Jeff is #2 and lo and behold, Leonard's version is #36.

2 winners here, Simon Cowell and Leonard Cohen.

Hear Alexandra's version here.

http://www.alexandraburkeofficial.com
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Old 12-22-2008, 10:24 AM   #2
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

same show that bred leona lewis? seems to sound and look similar to her

maybe simon will pull a few strings and have this open upcoming olympics

kd lang version is pretty smooth...i think she is barefoot here, lol

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Old 12-22-2008, 11:04 AM   #3
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

KD lang in a skirt ????????????????????????????????????????????????
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Old 12-22-2008, 11:05 AM   #4
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

KD Lang in a skirt ?????????????????????????
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Old 12-22-2008, 11:10 AM   #5
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

ooops - double post. Sorry.

Jim, Alexandra B's version is pretty good. Great song!
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Old 12-22-2008, 11:28 AM   #6
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

oops. at the risk of taking this thread off track,

bru, kd started in a skirt


her appearance has changed, but her crooning remains top notch, imo

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Old 12-22-2008, 11:42 AM   #7
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

I saw the BBC stuff on the news the other night and it's in the paper today. It is gawd awful.
KD knocked her own socks off with her awesome version. And probably Leonard's as well.
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Old 12-22-2008, 12:03 PM   #8
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

well, the Burke gal can sing...what happened to Pierce Morgan? (liked that guy, lol)

so can Beyonce, but i just checked out a duet with the two of them and it is absolutely not an arrangement/genre that is friendly to my ears...Simon is probably buying another house
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Old 12-22-2008, 02:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Simon Callow can afford to buy another country!

(Piers Morgan - ex editor of national newspaper - had his own chat show in UK following his stint on XF)
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Old 12-23-2008, 01:22 AM   #10
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

I love Leonard Cohen but like his music the best when someone else sings it.

K. D. Lang...such a wonderful talent. Awesome clip of her singing the Hallelujah song
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Old 12-23-2008, 07:19 AM   #11
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverHeels View Post
Simon Callow can afford to buy another country!

(Piers Morgan - ex editor of national newspaper - had his own chat show in UK following his stint on XF)

Silverheels, you are probably right, Simon Callow could afford to buy another country, from the money he made as the guy who died in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
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Old 12-23-2008, 11:47 AM   #12
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Nasium View Post
Silverheels, you are probably right, Simon Callow could afford to buy another country, from the money he made as the guy who died in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
Ooops! I started on the mulled wine a bit too early. I of course meant Simon COWELL!!!!!
Well spotted, Jim. (blushing in embarressment)
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Old 12-23-2008, 12:41 PM   #13
charlene
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

i think CALLOW is appropriate..
lol
just listening to Leonard's 1984 version..
mesmerizing..


"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

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

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

apparently he had written dozens more verses..
oh my..

I am baffled by the fact that it is taken as a "Christmas" song.. it never struck me as one before and it still doesn't..

Other than the repeat of "Hallelujah" that sounds 'church-like' I don't get it as a XMAS song. And Hallelujah is Hebrew for 'praise the lord'...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/c...tmas-song.html
Hallelujah : the perfect Christmas song
Three versions of the same song are vying for number one, but the original is best.

By Neil McCormick
Last Updated: 9:02PM GMT 17 Dec 2008

Comments 50 | Comment on this article

Hallelujah is the song we will all be singing this Christmas, although not necessarily in praise of the Lord. For all its air of religious devotion, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is a very secular ballad of desire and rejection, failure and transcendence.

It is set to become the most philosophically complex Christmas number one in the history of the pop charts. Three versions are currently competing for that honour, Cohen's stately original (at a lowly number 34), the late Jeff Buckley's towering 1994 recording (currently at three, driven by an internet campaign to save the song from the clutches of Simon Cowell) and the firm favourite from X Factor winner Alexandra Burke.

Leonard Cohen and the X Factor is not an obvious union. For one thing, if the veteran singer-songwriter had ever auditioned, he wouldn't have got past the first round. One can only imagine Cowell's withering contempt for Cohen's bassy, fragile and idiosyncratic vocal style. That he is acknowledged as one of the greatest songwriters of all time would be no defence.

Yet Cowell has probably identified Hallelujah as a perfect Christmas song for godless times. As a nation, we may no longer go to church, but we still celebrate the birth of Christ with a fervour. There remains a tangible yearning for the social unity that Christmas represents, the glue of faith, symbolism and shared stories. Hallelujah is really a kind of secular hymn, giving praise to a non-specific deity, to be interpreted however the listener wants.

Its amorphousness derives from its length and complexity. Cohen's writing process involves exploring every possible lyrical permutation, completely finishing verses before he can discard them. Hallelujah has the protean quality of a folk song, with different verses to pick and choose from, altering the narrative to reflect the needs of the moment. Hallelujah is, at least in part, about song-writing itself. Cohen invokes the Biblical story of King David (in a sense, the original songwriter) and the woman whose beauty overthrew him, Bathsheba. The protagonist offers up his "sacred chord" to a lover whose indifference to either art or faith is expressed in the deadpan put-down, "You don't really care for music, do ya?" (you can imagine Cowell relishing that line). The exchange is played out against a classic chord progression, lent playful delight by Cohen's trick of identifying the musical shifts as he makes them: "Well, it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift, the baffled king composing Hallelujah." Music and lyrics dovetail with perfect simplicity.

The second version appeared on Cohen Live in 1994, retaining only the chorus and concluding lines. It is harsher, the bitter reminiscence of someone who admits "all I've ever seemed to learn from love / Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya." It was this that Buckley covered. With virtuoso guitar playing and a multi-octave voice, Buckley's Hallelujah spirals from a whisper to a scream of erotic exultation.

The X Factor version takes its cue from Buckley, dispensing with Cohen's final redemptive verse. It is an unfortunate omission, because here you find key phrases that bind the song, and suggest its ultimate meaning. "I did my best, it wasn't much / I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch / I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you / And even though it all went wrong / I'll stand before the Lord of Song / With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"

It is a verse that may have been deemed inappropriate for the winner of a TV talent contest, because Cohen suggests that, in music, in love and in life, it is not really the winning, but the taking part that counts. It is a song that tells us failure is human.

Cohen does, however, have a simpler theory for its universal appeal: "It's got a good chorus."
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gotta love Leonard!!

I do wish that Jennifer Warnes had done a version of it back on the Famous Blue Raincoat album..that is one amazing COHEN tribute album..
I'm going to get it on CD-I have the cassette and LP but never gotr around to the CD..
http://www.jenniferwarnes.com/ - click on bottom link "Famous Blue Raincoat" - interview with JW and LC and reviews.
Her version would give KD a run for her money I think..
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Old 12-23-2008, 05:42 PM   #14
RM
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Quote:
Originally Posted by charlene View Post
I am baffled by the fact that it is taken as a "Christmas" song.. it never struck me as one before and it still doesn't..
Ma'am,

That's because it's a 'carol', not a song.

Just kidding.....

I don't get it either. You might as well tell me "Suzanne" is about a dog.
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Old 12-23-2008, 08:10 PM   #15
charlene
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

but it's not a christmas carol NOR christmas song sir..
lol
suzanne's NOT about a dog?!?!
ack!!!!!!!!!
medic!!!
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Old 12-23-2008, 08:25 PM   #16
fezo
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Of course it is!

What dog doesn't like to go down by the river? They LOVE to swim....
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Old 12-27-2008, 11:13 AM   #17
Jim Nasium
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Hallelujah is the song we will all be singing this Christmas, although not necessarily in praise of the Lord.

I have mentioned elsewhere on this site that I and several others, trawl off to a local pub every Tuesday night with our guitars etc. And bang out a bunch of songs. Over the years we have performed Hallelujah many times, with no reponse from the punters whatsoever. Last Tuesday (23rd) we did it and the pub all joined in the chorus, they suddenly thought we were great. Makes you wonder.

Char, I don't think Simon Cowell thinks of this as a Christmas song at all. The whole X Factor thing is designed to grab the Christmas No.1 here in the UK. For him any song will do. The X Factor winner gets the Christmas No.1. Thereafter they sink without trace. With a few exceptions, witness Leona Lewis.
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Old 12-27-2008, 02:01 PM   #18
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Dammit, Jim, I forgot about your Tuesday night gigs! I was in your neck of the woods earlier this year, together with another Lighthead, and we could have surprised you!
That would have been such a fun night!
(sulking now)
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Old 01-02-2009, 10:56 PM   #19
timetraveler
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Quote:
Originally Posted by charlene View Post
i think CALLOW is appropriate..
lol
just listening to Leonard's 1984 version..
mesmerizing..


"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

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

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

apparently he had written dozens more verses..
oh my..

I am baffled by the fact that it is taken as a "Christmas" song.. it never struck me as one before and it still doesn't..

Other than the repeat of "Hallelujah" that sounds 'church-like' I don't get it as a XMAS song. And Hallelujah is Hebrew for 'praise the lord'...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/c...tmas-song.html
Hallelujah : the perfect Christmas song
Three versions of the same song are vying for number one, but the original is best.

By Neil McCormick
Last Updated: 9:02PM GMT 17 Dec 2008

Comments 50 | Comment on this article

Hallelujah is the song we will all be singing this Christmas, although not necessarily in praise of the Lord. For all its air of religious devotion, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is a very secular ballad of desire and rejection, failure and transcendence.

It is set to become the most philosophically complex Christmas number one in the history of the pop charts. Three versions are currently competing for that honour, Cohen's stately original (at a lowly number 34), the late Jeff Buckley's towering 1994 recording (currently at three, driven by an internet campaign to save the song from the clutches of Simon Cowell) and the firm favourite from X Factor winner Alexandra Burke.

Leonard Cohen and the X Factor is not an obvious union. For one thing, if the veteran singer-songwriter had ever auditioned, he wouldn't have got past the first round. One can only imagine Cowell's withering contempt for Cohen's bassy, fragile and idiosyncratic vocal style. That he is acknowledged as one of the greatest songwriters of all time would be no defence.

Yet Cowell has probably identified Hallelujah as a perfect Christmas song for godless times. As a nation, we may no longer go to church, but we still celebrate the birth of Christ with a fervour. There remains a tangible yearning for the social unity that Christmas represents, the glue of faith, symbolism and shared stories. Hallelujah is really a kind of secular hymn, giving praise to a non-specific deity, to be interpreted however the listener wants.

Its amorphousness derives from its length and complexity. Cohen's writing process involves exploring every possible lyrical permutation, completely finishing verses before he can discard them. Hallelujah has the protean quality of a folk song, with different verses to pick and choose from, altering the narrative to reflect the needs of the moment. Hallelujah is, at least in part, about song-writing itself. Cohen invokes the Biblical story of King David (in a sense, the original songwriter) and the woman whose beauty overthrew him, Bathsheba. The protagonist offers up his "sacred chord" to a lover whose indifference to either art or faith is expressed in the deadpan put-down, "You don't really care for music, do ya?" (you can imagine Cowell relishing that line). The exchange is played out against a classic chord progression, lent playful delight by Cohen's trick of identifying the musical shifts as he makes them: "Well, it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift, the baffled king composing Hallelujah." Music and lyrics dovetail with perfect simplicity.

The second version appeared on Cohen Live in 1994, retaining only the chorus and concluding lines. It is harsher, the bitter reminiscence of someone who admits "all I've ever seemed to learn from love / Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya." It was this that Buckley covered. With virtuoso guitar playing and a multi-octave voice, Buckley's Hallelujah spirals from a whisper to a scream of erotic exultation.

The X Factor version takes its cue from Buckley, dispensing with Cohen's final redemptive verse. It is an unfortunate omission, because here you find key phrases that bind the song, and suggest its ultimate meaning. "I did my best, it wasn't much / I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch / I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you / And even though it all went wrong / I'll stand before the Lord of Song / With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah"

It is a verse that may have been deemed inappropriate for the winner of a TV talent contest, because Cohen suggests that, in music, in love and in life, it is not really the winning, but the taking part that counts. It is a song that tells us failure is human.

Cohen does, however, have a simpler theory for its universal appeal: "It's got a good chorus."
__________________________________________________ ________________________

gotta love Leonard!!

I do wish that Jennifer Warnes had done a version of it back on the Famous Blue Raincoat album..that is one amazing COHEN tribute album..
I'm going to get it on CD-I have the cassette and LP but never gotr around to the CD..
http://www.jenniferwarnes.com/ - click on bottom link "Famous Blue Raincoat" - interview with JW and LC and reviews.
Her version would give KD a run for her money I think..
The first time I ever heard the song was in the final minutes of the first Shrek movie.
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Old 01-05-2009, 02:55 PM   #20
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Thought I'd share a tidbit @Leonard Cohen on this thread -my favorite Irish folk/rock singer-songwriter, Luka Bloom went to Cohen's concert in Dublin last June. Wrote on his website, "But the highlight of my year, and the best gig I ever attended in my entire life was Leonard Cohen ...".

http://www.lukabloom.com/news.php
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Old 01-06-2009, 03:34 PM   #21
fezo
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

I could believe that. I saw Leonard Cohen back in 1974 at Symphony Hall in Boston. Absolutely mesmerizing. The audience would not let him leave calling him back again and again for encores like I'd never seen. He finally ended with the song he had opened with - Bird on a Wire. Just a stunning show full of what you'd expect from him and lots of odd things you wouldn't - like genuine humor.

It's right up there for best show I've seen by anyone anywhere.
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Old 01-10-2009, 11:45 PM   #22
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

Macleans magazine -
http://blog.macleans.ca/2009/01/08/w...ujah%e2%80%99/ - picture at link

Arts & Culture, Featured Arts & Culture - Written by Brian D. Johnson on Thursday, January 8, 2009 14:00 - 5 Comments
What’s with that song ‘Hallelujah’?
Leonard Cohen’s masterpiece has become the closest thing pop music has to a sacred

Leonard Cohen spent almost two years writing Hallelujah, blackening two notebooks with some 80 verses before finally settling on a few that pleased him. He once told a British journalist, “I remember being on the floor of the Royalton Hotel [in Manhattan], on the carpet in my underwear, banging my head on the floor saying ‘I can’t finish this song.’ ” He did, eventually, but the song wasn’t finished with him. Since Hallelujah’s first release on his 1984 album Various Positions, it has been recorded by over 100 artists, including Bob Dylan, Bono, Willie Nelson, k.d. lang, Rufus Wainright, and Jeff Buckley. It has graced soundtracks ranging from Shrek to The O.C. And last month, after Cohen had rallied from financial ruin to stage a triumphant world tour, his comeback was heralded with a Hallelujah chorus that went through the roof.

Producers of X-Factor (the U.K. version of American Idol) paid $1.8 million to use the song for their contest finale. And a gospel-fired version performed by the winner, 20-year-old Alexandra Burke, became the fastest-selling download in Internet history, rocketing to No. 1 on the U.K. top 40 chart. Then partisans of Buckley’s version joined the fray and pushed his recording into the No. 2 spot. Even Cohen’s original track found a new life, hitting No. 36.

The song has become pop music’s closest thing to a sacred text. “Hallelujah is a masterful meditation on love, sex, God and music,” says Daniel J. Levitin, professor of psychology at McGill University, and the author of the bestselling book The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. “Lyrically it does what only Leonard Cohen can do, and do so effectively—combine big, universal ancient and spiritual themes with the right-here and right-now.”

The lyrics weave a love story from a deft remix of the Old Testament. The singer slides from evoking divinity—“I’ve heard there was a secret chord / That David played, and it pleased the Lord”—to laying a psalm on an indifferent dame—“you don’t really care for music do ya?” Then as he conjures a moonlit scene of David agape at Bathsheba “bathing on the roof,” they morph into Samson and Delilah: “She tied you to a kitchen chair / She broke your throne, and she cut your hair.” And before it’s over, the sexual and the sacred have merged in a virtual threesome with the Holy Spirit: “remember when I moved in you / the holy dove was moving too.”

Melodically, the song performs a similar balancing act. “The music is timeless and modern at the same time,” says Levitin. “It has elements of 17th-century harmony—big, classical themes—but also an almost ’50s retro ballad arpeggio, combined with modern harmonic moves.” Hallelujah is also a postmodern marvel, a song about music that explains its own melody—“the fourth, the fifth / the minor fall, the major lift.”

Among those who have tackled the song, John Cale prompted its first pop revival with a 1991 piano/vocal cover that was used in Shrek (2001). But to the confusion of fans, Rufus Wainwright sang the version on the Shrek soundtrack album. Then a new generation of fans discovered Buckley’s rendition on The O.C. soundtrack. Buckley, who recorded it in 1994, said the song was about “the hallelujah of the orgasm.” Backed by sparse guitar, and stretched to almost seven minutes, his yearning vocal took on angelic overtones after his death by drowning in 1997.

Partisans of rival versions have sent debate ringing from the Internet to academia. In an exhaustive treatise on Hallelujah, professor Allan Moore, a British musicologist at Surrey University, mixes erudite theory of “appogiatural rises” and “glottal stops” with snatches of Web chat, such as: “Wainwright deserves to be beaten with sticks.”

Despite the song’s delicacy, it can take all kinds of abuse. Its vaulted chorus makes it ideal for the vocal gymnastics of pop singers like X-Factor’s Alexandra Burke, whose bombastic approach appalls the purists. Among the powerhouse interpretions, k.d. lang’s version stands out. When she performed it live at Cohen’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006—stalking the stage in bare feet and building a cathedral of sound as Cohen watched from the front row—it was electrifying. But it was even more inspiring to see Cohen repatriate the ballad on tour at the age of 74. As he scaled its melodic heights with that ancient baritone, taking slingshot aim at a Goliath of a song, Hallelujah had never sounded so heroic.
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Old 01-28-2009, 02:44 PM   #23
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Default Re: Hallelujah, #1,2 oh and #36

another canuck does a lovely version:
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It's Friday...Hallelujah rainydayperson General Discussion 21 05-14-2003 10:20 AM


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