Christmas Special: Leonard sings "Silent Night"

[margaret]

to Jurica,

Maybe I'll also be branded a traitor on this board, but I have to agree that I was disappointed with Leonards version of Silent Night which was pleasant but somewhat ordinary, and very short. I much prefer Simon and Garfunkle's version with the grim news broadcast in the background gradually taking over. Much more intense and moving.

[Linda]

I would love to see LC do the entire Silent Night in its original version. It is a beautiful, and a very moving song. Very comforting.

[linmag]

I would have to agree with you, Margaret. Leonard's version was interesting as a Christmas novelty, but Simon & Garfunkel's version has stood the test of time, for me at least. I still find it very moving. I could get very depressed by the fact that the point it is making regarding the disparity between man's aspirations and our day-to-day reality is as relevant now as it was thirty-odd years ago.

[Kush]

I was looking for my copy of the song but it seems it has disappeared.
What a brilliant imagination and creativity !! Sometimes you don't have to write the song....just juxtapose two apparently unrelated things together and see what comes of it......the whole is more than the sum of its parts !!
lightning...i do not see it as a protest song.....they dont make any point at all. Well, perhaps they do. Still, i think of it as they lay the cards on the table. The data is there for all to see - Reality and Aspiration (thanks Linmag). We make what we will of it. Haunting and spine-chilling. The way they do it it is also a song of hope in the midst of utter desolation. A candle in the dark. Linmag...i agree with your last point....just switch a few names and it is Silent Night for 2003.

[Linda]

I wouldn't refer to it as a Christmas novelty, it is a Christmas basic. I think I could say it has with stood the test of time quite well also and probably been song more times than the SG version. I am not saying any thing is wrong with the Simon and Garfunkel version, I barely remember it, but give me the orginal version any day.

[Paula]

You can't compare S&G and LC's version. One was done in a studio with a specific outcome in mind the other was a christmas carol sung at a concert. S&G version was meant to create different emotions in the listener. LC's version was a classic rendition of the carol. Both appeal to different senses.

[Partisan]

Well this certainly has been an interesting thread. I do want to make one small point that seems to have been overlooked by all of you. Whatever Leonard may be doing with this version of Silent Night, he certainly is not singing.

p.

[linmag]

Linda, I didn't mean that the carol itself was a novelty. It's one of my favourites, but Leonard's version was never meant to be preserved for posterity. It was simply a seasonal gesture made at a concert many years ago. It was not much more than a sketch, and I would very much like to hear Leonard perform the finished product one day.

[lightning]

Back to the S&G Silent Night I wondered if that news broadcast was for real or staged for the song. I did some net research and found that Lenny Bruce died on Aug. 3, 1966 which meant that the world was not cocooned in its Christmas illusons listening to Silent Night-- it was summer when the supposed news broadcast occurred. Richard Speck murdered the nurses on July 13, 1966 and was arrested on July 17. The date of his indictment was not available so it may well have been Aug. 3. I'm still not sure the broadcast was real (there was no attribution given-- who was the broadcaster?, what was the station?) but I applaud the leap of the imagination it took to put it with Silent Night and still think of it as social criticism and by implication a '60's war protest song.

[Kush]

The song Seven O'clock News/Silent Night was recorded on 22nd Aug. 1966. The album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was released on 10th Oct. 1966.
As for LC's efforts, it is as good as any traditional version I've heard from a singer-songwriter.

[lizzytysh]

I love "the edge".....Simon and Garfunkel's rendition, as well as one of the many reasons I am so drawn to many of Leonard's songs. I have always believed [still do, always will] that it was a protest song directly related to the VietNam war. Its being "out of season" only adds emphasis.

"Intention" comes to mind in this apples-and-oranges, comparison-and-contrast discussion. I agree that Leonard and Jennifer sang this sans critics/posterity in mind. One of the reasons I like it so much is its simplicity and sincerity....I've likened it to two people sitting at a kitchen table and spontaneously starting to sing it together. As always, Leonard's thought/vocal patterns puts emphasis and cadence to the lyrics apart from the norm, which makes it endearing for me.

Of course he's singing, Partisan. You didn't notice the lifting of his voice out of the spoken range?

[jeremek]

Our Christmas Special is now open - don't miss it: Leonard sings "Silent
Night", Winter Quiz makes you guess at the title of Elizabeth Laishley's
new artwork, and our Season's greeting shows an Ice Flower created by
Eija. The page will be available only for limited time. Link on the front
page at http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com under "Latest Updates". Welcome!

Jarkko
The Leonard Cohen Files

I know that it is strange, that so late I am asking But Jarkko, into which it is possible to get the way "Silent Night" LC? I ask for the message

[jeremek]

Hi dear friends !

if somebody of you has the Silent Night recording , sung by the Leonard. I ask for the message. Perhaps somebody of you can send me the file?
Help
I am greeting all Fans
jeremek

[jarkko]

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/silentnight.mp3

[John Etherington]

Very timely, since it's been snowing all morning in London (and only a couple of months to midsummer)!

All good things, John E