With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

[sabotabby]

Speaking of k.d. lang, read this then this. (I particularly like the sad montage in the first link. Hee.) For the record, I'm 28 and her version of "Hallelujah" is my favourite. I wish I could say that Leonard Cohen's version is, especially since some of the verses that Buckley and everyone else leave out are some of my favourites, but there's that whole synth pop element that he just didn't do well at all. I want to hear covers of all of the songs that he wrote in the 80s and 90s by other artists. The Future has great songwriting ruined by bad instrumentation. It's just Wrong.

What's the tradition of younger generations mining music from the past, anyway? I can't imagine teenagers of my parents' generation obsessing over Frank Sinatra, but half of the kids I teach are obsessed with Led Zeppelin. Is it just that the Boomers dominate our cultural landscape even now?

On that note, the latest Neil Young album is just embarrassing. I finally heard it. It makes me cringe.

Comments

[corvus.livejournal.com]

You hate Leonard Cohen because you're a self-hating Canadian Jew. Admit it!

[sabotabby]

What, no! I fucking love Leonard Cohen. Way more than I should as a feminist. It's whoever produced his albums during that one period that I can't stand.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

My BIL is part of a Nancy Sinatra tribute band; The Fancy Sinatras.

[sfslim.livejournal.com]

Funny that you should mention the Fancys. Not only were they a great band, and tons of fun to see live, but they were local to the San Francisco Bay Area, comprised of a bunch of animators and VFX artists (many from ILM) and all good friends of mine.

Sorry to say they don't play together anymore.

[sabotabby]

It's perfectly fine for my generation to like Sinatra, of course. But I think that all but the quirkiest sorts of your generation rebelled.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

"Hallelujah" is one of my favourite songs and the Buckly version is my fave with the k.d. lang version a very close second.
Allison Crowe has a lovely version, though it's quite poppy.

[sabotabby]

So I'm confused. Is there more than one Buckley version? I heard a new one today.

[thedilettante.livejournal.com]

I've heard a live Bob Dylan version that was utterly, utterly dreadful. The Buckley version was the first I heard, but I think the John Cale version is probably my favourite (though I like K.D Lang's too). And Wainwright, because he sounds so young. Cohen covers are generally good though - the man never fails as a lyricist but sometimes does as a performer.

As for the mining music from the past thing, I've been on college campuses for the past few years and hear endlessly that music Ended in the 70s. Which really just means they're too lazy to look for it.

[sabotabby]

I had that debate with my parents today too. My step-dad is insistent that musicians of my generation just do mash-ups. I disagree—I by and large hate classic rock because it's boring, and I can think of all sorts of young and innovative artists who don't get played on the radio because the times, they are a changin'. Radio is monopolized by, like, three Boomers and the only way to hear new music is through the internets or by knowing DJs.

[/rant]

[queerasmoi.livejournal.com]

I highly doubt Leonard Cohen would have made a career based upon his voice alone ;)

In a way, it's a gift to the world of cover artists that he writes such great songs and doesn't always sing them well.

[sfslim.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I've always found his voice perfect for what he writes. (Although I will admit to a preference for his older singing voice as opposed to his younger one.)

Strange, but this definitely seems to be one of those "love it or hate it" issues with nearly as many folks finding his vocals to be self-evidently unpleasant as there are people who find them to be divine.

[curgoth]

"I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice."

Sweet Neil ...

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

On that note, the latest Neil Young album is just embarrassing. I finally heard it. It makes me cringe.

I remember seeing an interview with Young sometime in the 80s, after he'd been sued by Geffen Records on the grounds that his previous three records (which Geffen had, of course, er, released; they lost the suit) had been too "uncommercial".

Asked whether it bothered him when he released albums which bombed, he just shrugged and grinned and said something like, "If people like them, great; if they don't, I don't care. I make my music for me. I've sold lots of records, I have enough money ..."

I appreciate his artistic integrity, even when I think his artistry sucks. But thanks for the warning; this sounds like one of those times. (Thanks also for the fucking links; I just spent an hour and half on em!)

Re: Sweet Neil ...

[sabotabby]

I respect Neil Young. I do. And I saw him live once and he was incredible. This is why the fact that his new album—despite its admirable politics—sucks donkey balls is worthy of pointing out.

[poncif.livejournal.com]

(tum te tum de tum de tum, lum de dum te dum te tum, now that song's stuck in my heh-yead, biotch....)

[sabotabby]

Oh, I've had it stuck in my head for weeks.

[rrrao.livejournal.com]

I'm Your Fan is that collection of his older songs that came out in the late 80s (generally from I'm Your Man and the ones from the early Best of that everyone has). The covers themselves have a lot of cheesy synth-pop themselves, though. My personal favorite, however, is the Pixies(!) covering 'I Can't Forget'. Frank Black and co. descending upon and rocking out a Cohen song... whoo!

And thanks as well for that first article - it was a well-done piece of pop cultural analysis, the kind of thing that is usually done tongue-in-cheek, as if the writer is embarrassed for putting all that intellectual effort into a serious treatment of a piece of 'mass culture' Or you get the cultural studies academics taking it over the top and bringing in Hegel and Heidegger...

I like covering 'Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye', myself - it's a simple but poignantly beautiful song. Perhaps it'll be the next 'Hallelujah', used at the end of every TV show's significant relationship 'break-up montage'...

[sabotabby]

Whoa, okay, I need to hear that Pixies one. That's a combination that has to either be pure awesome or a really interesting trainwreck.

The original version of "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" is really great, so I'm not sure that it's as tempting to cover. I like Ian McCulloch's version, which I guess is on I'm Your Fan as well.

EDIT: It is good.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

The Future has great songwriting ruined by bad instrumentation. It's just Wrong.

OH oh oh I KNOW but LOOK --



Instrumention is much much less awful! Trust me! Plus, LC sings with his eyes closed which is HOTT and flirts with the backup singers.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I've seen that version. It's much, much better. Basically, any version I've ever seen other than the one that's on the album has been good.

On that note, why does no one ever cover "Anthem"? It has the same problems, easily corrected.

[curgoth]

"give me crack and careless sex"
Hah!
radio/tv edits always weird me out.

[sfslim.livejournal.com]

Since we're posting vids, try this one too:

I much prefer this version to the earlier studio version. Older, slower, far more darkly fatalistic. (BTW, I've an MP3 taken from this vid if anyone wants it. Send the electronical mailings to sfslim courtesy of the Google mechanical post conglomeration.)

[sfslim.livejournal.com]

Funny that you should post this Mz. ST, as I've had the first link (http://www.clapclap.org/2007/04/hallelujah.html) open in a browser window awaiting reading for a few days now, and quite literally just read it minutes before checking up on my LJ feeds and seeing your post.

I'm 37, and spent most of my teens and twenties deeply, avidly listening to music from as many genres, regions and eras as I could discover. Which turned out to be quite a bit. And of course Leonard Cohen was one long stop along that journey, as was Jeff Buckley (and the music of his father as well, but that's another topic entirely).

I came to the song first through the Cohen original, but became most attached to his later live version. Later, I fell in deeply love with the Buckley version, but that in no way diminished my relationship with the Cohen versions. Separate but equal, or something along those lines.

Part of the reason for my enduring attachment to the Cohen versions is, as you mentioned, the verses.

I also share your, er... issues with the synth-jazz instrumentation, most pronounced on The Future. For many years I found it just WRONGBADWRONGNOTHANKYOU.

With patience I found that I could get past it however, hearing instead the music and lyrics underneath. Eventually, as often happens with the passage of time (and most definitely when I wasn't paying attention) things turned, and I actually found myself enjoying the instrumentation as well, perhaps partly out of nostalgia, and perhaps just in recognition of their having been appropriate to a particular artist expressing himself at a particular place and time along the arc of his career.

With music, as with film, writing and many other forms of art, the best works are compelling and complex enough to sustain a long relationship with the listener, changing and shifting as ones experiences and perspectives change. And I've certainly found that to be the case with the work of Leonard Cohen.

[sabotabby]

I grew up listening to Leonard Cohen's early stuff—one of the few tapes my mum owned was The Best Of. I'm Your Man, which was already pretty synthpoppy, was sort of at the edge of my consciousness (I guess I was 9), and The Future came out just around the time where I was independently buying tapes. It only sounded dated to me later on, and I like the songs enough that I can get past that.

[sabotabby]

I should also mention that I have many of the same issues with Warren Zevon. Everyone should cover his songs. They lend themselves very well to sing-a-longs around a campfire but for some reason he has to throw synthesizer into them.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

....omg, Warren. I miss him. //cries

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

I got to know it as a Rufus Wainwright song and didn't even realize it was this widely covered thing until years later. RW's version is...ok, I have developed a little bit of a dislike for him, but I have to say his "hallelujah" is well sung and nicely arranged if you don't mind the mannerisms.

[sabotabby]

I'm pretty sure I've come across his version, but for some reason I don't remember it.