various versions of hallelujah

wildrose · Post by **wildrose** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 6:14 pm

Hello there,

did jeff buckley write his version of hallelujah or did LC also write this one?

thanks

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 8:39 pm

jeff buckley's version is composition of lyrics from two leonard's versions (album&live), and music of john cale's version.

i'm not, realy, 100% sure if jeff's or john's version was the first. the others (tom for sure) will know and corect me if i'm wrong.

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 8:41 pm

...and, yeah, harmony of leonard's and john's version only differs in one chord: in leonards there's one G right after an F, whilst in john's it is an E.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 2:11 pm

Jeff Buckley performes "Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah via John Cale's version", somebody wrote. I believe Cale's version was first time heard on I'm Your Fan, and on many live gigs.

step · Post by **step** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:42 am

John Cale also has a version of Hallelujah on a live release
"Fragments of a Rainy Season" though I have not heard the I'm your fan version. My Guess is that they are very close to the same.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 6:50 pm

The same. On studio version there's no storm sounds mixed at the end, but I guess on live version that was made because of the name of that live CD

Woodsman · Post by **Woodsman** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 8:54 pm

Another version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is just the spoken line, "You don't really care for music, do ya?"
That is worth breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.
Of course the timing needs to be in there. And good eye contact. A little hunger never hurts. Oop!

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 11:59 pm

The way Leonard does that particular line has always knocked me out, too.

Woodsman · Post by **Woodsman** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 3:40 am

Well, any way it's done is practically marvelous.

Cause I am working on my own version, yeah, me too.

I'm going to sing it at church. I haven't been there in awhile and was thinking it would be a good way to get out there and open the old folks or folkies up a bit. Ahhh, it'll probably go right over their heads. And I'll tell 'em that so they'll pay close attention. Of course, I will credit Leonard with the song, so as to out run the blame and all. Christ sakes, it is a song about God. Or will they... disagree.

songster · Post by **songster** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 2:24 pm

Lovely. Your plan to insult the "old folks" while enlightening them at the same time is masterful. If anybody in the congregation has got a clue, they'll tell you this song is no more about God than it is the Man in the Moon.

Woodsman · Post by **Woodsman** » Sat Sep 13, 2003 6:37 pm

But they're Unitarians.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Sun Sep 14, 2003 7:50 am

Hi songster ~

G~d and s~x don't go together?

~ Lizzytysh

songster · Post by **songster** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:36 pm

Hello Lizzytysh,

It’s not that sex and God don’t go together…It’s that they go together only within certain parameters and only when there is accountability. Leonard’s Cohen’s use of the story of David and Bath-sheba in “Hallelujah” reveals his usual muddle-headed ideas about sex and spirituality. There wasn’t any “Holy Dove moving” in that sexual encounter.

songster · Post by **songster** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 1:53 pm

Lizzy,

I also don't discount the emotive power of this song in the listener. But that is primarily due to the ambiguity of his lyrics (where the lyrics aren't ambiguous he's just plain wrong).

For instance, the lines:

"all I ever seemed to learn from love
was how to shoot at someone
who outdrew you"

to me are about God and St. Augustine couldn't have said it any better. But to someone else they may mean something entirely different. That's both his strength and weakness as a songwriter.

Linda · Post by **Linda** » Tue Sep 16, 2003 4:31 pm

Without God there wouldn't be sex, in any way, shape or form.