For obscure historical reasons plenty of people have asked me what I thought about Justin Timberlake's cover of the Leonard Cohen standard "Hallelujah" during that Haiti telethon the other night. And, you know, whatever, at this point there's nothing that could be done to that song that would surprise-or, probably, interest-me. What DOES interest me today is an assessment of Leonard Cohen written by "an octogenarian who still considers Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' and Baez's 'Diamonds and Rust' to be two of the greatest folk songs ever written." He appears not to be a fan.
Monday, January 25, 2010
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The intersection of 'people who have never heard of Leonard Cohen' and 'people who write for the Atlantic' must be vanishingly small. I'd call this a miracle.
Also, people just need to stop covering that song! Enough! Assez! Basta!
Write your own damn epic paean to love and salvation.
And stop putting it in tv shows to back "dark night of the soul" sequences. (Even if it kinda worked on West Wing.)
It totally worked in West Wing. Not so much in Shrek.
Oh, golly, and let us not speak of The Watchmen.
God, that was the absolute worst. It was like my entire soul was trying to cringe.
It was in The Watchmen? I must've blacked it out to avoid traumatic memories.
IT WAS. DURING THE SEX SCENE ON THE OWLSHIP. It was like cheese piled on schmaltz piled on corny.
Not being a particular fan of Leonard Cohen or The Watchmen book, I kind of thought that was the most brilliant part of the movie.
I was at a bar with a bunch of friends while the telethon was on. We saw Timberlake and a few cringes were passed around. Then we realized what song he was playing and the cringes turned into looks of abject horror. We were on our way out of the bar when abruptly the audio cut off and was replaced by the standard playlist. Mine was not the only group that suddenly decided to stay, thanks to that fast-acting bar staff!
Now you know how we feel when you go on about how "you don't get" Lady Gaga.
Said octogenarian is not the first to have trod down the "Isle of Wright" path...
"deemed to be poetry by his followers"? I can understand not digging his voice, but Cohen won a poetry prize or two up here in the Knifecrime Mainland.
Last I checked the editors of the Norton Anthology think it's poetry, too.
Oh gosh did you read his latest poetry collection. Because I mean do you get a lifetime pass ...?
The most respectable entry went something like this:
The old are kind,
The young are hot,
Love may be blind:
Desire is not.
Or something equally ... ugh.
Oh dear. Well, he, I think, gets a lifetime pass, anyway.
Don't make love
by the garden gate.
Love may be blind,
but the neighbors ain't.
Did Ed Koch ever actually come out?
I have to say, I do agree with Koch on one point here: latter-day Cohen has a better voice (and stage presence) than young Cohen. And by "better," I mean "sounds more like bourbon-soaked Death."
Too many people covering songs with the same chord structure and form as the originals, essentially saying "I love this song and so does everyone else, and I know there's plenty of recordings out there for anyone who wants to hear it, but you know what it really needs? MY VOICE."
If you like a song, go sing it Karaoke or buy it for Rock Band. For fuck's sake, if you're going to cover it, change a chord or two, alter the tempo 'significantly.' Play it entirely on the harp. Whatever. Do something INTERESTING to it. Don't just play it with emotion, that's lame. You know who does that? Classical musicians, and that shit is usually DIFFICULT TO PLAY and thus impressive.
And no expemtions just because it's for a good cause. Fred Durst's Wish You Were Here for the 9/11 tribute? Barf.
How'd they let that happen, anyways? Were they so overcome with grief that they lost any ability to discern good from THE MOST AWFUL THING EVER?
You're right. One more person may cover this song: William Shatner.
He's also a McGill alumnus so it would be sort of fitting.
Did you use to frequent the Shatner Building, too?
Shatner's delivery certainly counts as altering the song enough...it's almost like he's singing with a percussive instrument. Totally acceptable.
The Durst/Goo Goo Doll cover is probably the worst thing ever, and that includes Brokencyde's entire catalogue. Mainly BECAUSE I know Fred Durst was like "Hey, i totally want to contribute to the 9/11 tribute/bang hot chicks who will see my generous thoughtful side/extend my 15 minutes." And then went out and chose the song EVERYONE LEARNS TO PLAY IN THE 1ST MONTH OF BUYING A GUITAR. Y'know what guitar riff I haven't heard enough off? Yeah, that one.
Man, I was having an alright monday, now I just want to punch that guy.
have you heard heard the fred durst 'reality check mix' of 'what's goin' on'? it also features bono! you might want to wait to do so until you find a pillow to punch.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?! I foolishly decided to have a peek, and I heard that riff and thought "Huh, there's another song called What's Goin' On besides the Marvin Gaye one?" Oh, my ears.
Covering Marvin Gaye is like painting over a Rembrandt with Crayons. The man sang like silk feels...don't fuck with that!
Banjois - yep
Alors, for the record and before anybody calls me on this, I have a very strong suspicion, now that I really think about, that Mr Cohen did not in fact attend McGill but instead went to Concordia or as it was then known George Brown. Shameful that I know more about the Noid than I do about one of Canada's national treasures.
Behind Blue Eyes was a decent cover FWIW.
You mean the same as the original with Fred Durst's voice reverbed to shreds to hide his lack of vocal ability? Objectively speaking, that is the definition of a bad cover.
But subjectively speaking, it's pretty damn awesome.
Anyway, this is like debating which ice cream flavour's the best (Coffee Hazelnut, BTW).
Nope, he went to McGill. I remember watching a film of him giving a reading in the McMillan(?) Auditorium, IN the McMillan(?) Auditorium. Ooooooh.
Too many indents and I lost count, but YOU know where that last one was supposed to go.
In fact, I was going to cite that doc as a key piece of evidence that he did NOT attend McGill. Yes, he's in the Leacock auditorium (which blew my mind since I have so many memories wrapped up with that space) but he says something like "last time I was in corridors like this was when I was visiting a friend at the Verdun mental hospital." Which seems to indicate that unless he was being extremely disingenuous (and everyone in the crowd would have known this) he in fact hadn't been there before. Also, in all my years there I actually never heard it mentioned, even when taking a poetry class where we studied his work (unless it was just taken for granted that of course this titan of the Mtl scen had gone here); and plus that (embarrassing, I thought at the time but my view of him has since warmed) campaign to have the Union building renamed after Shatner and not Cohen.
I remember somebody or other talking about how he used to sit in the back of lectures in Leacock (thanks you, it's been a while!) and play bongos. Plus he won the same McGill poetry award that a friend of mine did.
On a side note, did you ever go above The Alley in Shatner? I can't say I did more than three times in four years.
Wait, is it possible we sat in Leacock at the same TIME and watched Cohen in Leacock, and are now discovering this on the internet? Triple ooooooooh.
And wikipedia says so too. Cool. I guess what he meant was the Leacock auditorium and building was new to him, as it would have been judging by its date of construction. I was there 90-95, and did spend a fair bit of time in the Alley (you mean that kind of jazz cafe on the ground floor, right?), every couple weeks or so.
NO STAIRWAY.
Haiti, I can see your Halo.
Thank you. When Beyonce did that, rather than changing the remote, I just walked out of the room.
That was all I saw of the whole show. I walked into the room about five seconds before that happened, then promptly ran out to buy some cigarettes...
Could the issue also be that the song is such an earworm that the only way to get it out of your head is to record your own cover?
(I haven't been able to get rid of it since hearing the JT version.)
That is why you Karaoke it. No need for everyone else to hear my karaoke songs.
This would have never happened if Kottke hadn't made the song so damn famous in the first place.
So out of curiousity, IS there a good cover out there?
I'm a fan of this.
Schneider TM's cover of the Smiths Lights 3000
Holy crap, you've actually heard of Schneider TM? I saw him/them/whatevs years ago.
I heard of all things good. That, or the Bonnie Billy/Tortoise version of Cavalry Cross may be my favourite covers. THAT is how you arrange someone else's song. Seriously.
Now, I only got half-way through it, so don't judge my judgement too harshly, but if it hadn't already been done to death, that Justin Timberlake wouldn't have been half bad.
Can anybody remember what the original sounds like anymore? I can't.
I'm a little confused. Aren't the Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright versions of "Hallelujah" sort of the defining case of "a good cover" of a song? I'm not even a great Leonard Cohen fan but is this even at all disputed? Isn't that the reason everybody covers this song? (Viz., that Jeff Buckley covered it as if it were the national anthem of passion?)
Not at all...disgusting ice cream is disgusting.
Not that I'm going to change your mind about it or anything, but enlighten me: what about the new version was the original missing? And if the only thing is Fred Durst's voice, then I have to tell you: Autotune and reverb. And not even well, cosidering the technology at the time.
Shoot, that reply was meant for way further up, re: Fred Durst's cover of behind blue eyes.
But while I'm here, the Buckley version is nice-sounding, but it adds a reverence and sacred tone to a song that is MEANT as a disillusionment with god...the words and the way buckley sang it don't blend well at all.
So while the melody is nice and his voice is nice...as a cover, it completely misses the mark in terms of being a new interpretation because it appears that he doesn't 'get' the song. But, of course...it's just music. And at least Buckley had the sense to write a new arrangement and melody.
Disillusionment with god, or a woman actually I suppose. Either way, it's not a sacred song. Listen to how Cohen sings it...he maintains a sardonic tone throughout.
Oh I see.
To be somewhat more precise: OIC=WTF?
Not sacred? The erotic disillusionment is, precisely, religious, and not just in this one song. (Not that that's not sick. But that's our man.)
Also, Leonard Cohen: born to be covered.
Koch wrote this? "Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970, which covers his 1970 concert performance on the Isle of Wight that went on for five days before an audience of 600,000."--
--and doesn't even tell us if he got a potty break?
So Mr. Balk, you're begging the question with the "obscure historical reasons".
Why, at the time, was your blog called 'The Minor Fall, The Major Lift'? I am sincerely interested.
Besides that it makes a great title for a blog.