Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

[Music Head]

enters the Billboard Hot 100 Songs chart this week at #59

chills every time
I love it

[video=youtube;ttEMYvpoR-k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttEMYvpoR-k[/video]

[CRAZY-HORSE]

yeh, classic...
I have not heard a dud version of this song ever!

I did read somewhere recently (since his death) that it actually took him almost a decade to write the song from the time he started formulating the idea...
it was re-write after re-write apparently because he felt the song had to be "perfect" before he could record it...I think he succeeded!

[bob_32_116]

I think Cohen wrote a bunch of songs that are much better than Hallelujah. I never understood the appeal of that song,

2016 has been a bad year for people whose names begin with "Leon".

[Music Head]

I think Cohen wrote a bunch of songs that are much better than Hallelujah. I never understood the appeal of that song,

2016 has been a bad year for people whose names begin with "Leon".

I agree with that first sentence as far as lyrics go.
I think for the song itself it's the beauty of the music and delivery
at least for me

as an aside
in most cases you never really know who is responsible for the music
when they say a song is written by someone
is it the lyrics or the music or both
that's just not right
aha, a pet peeve

[CRAZY-HORSE]

i agree with bob_32 partially also....
Cohen did write better songs than that one, but...
Hallelujah had a certain feel and emotion attached to it which makes it great.

as previously stated, I own a double disc compilation plus "songs of love and hate" and "songs of Leonard Cohen", on both those studio albums alone there
are at least ten other tracks the equal to, or better than Hallelujah, but hey, IMO, that is still his so called "signature tune".

as or your comment on who is responsible for the music MH....
a lot of an artist's band members often come up with suggestions for musical changes in a song but are always uncredited for their ideas...

the classic example is the guitar solo in Wings' "my love"...the song was already written by Macca and ready to premiere on UK TV when backstage the guitarist
asked Paul if he could change the solo, Paul reluctantly agreed without hearing it...to me that solo is the standout moment in that song...
there are probably thousands of more examples but none come immediately to mind (but they will)

back to artists writing better songs than the one theyre primarily known for bob_32....
I cant stand Lennon's "imagine", its a whimsical, simplistic piece of crap IMO, more akin to McCarntey's songs than John's,
I could name probably twenty solo songs of Lennon's that are better quality songs, and also probably another thirty from the Beatle era that I rate
higher than Imagine....

as a footnote,
there was a quiz question on CurtinFM the other day about "imagine" (well the answer was imagine anyway), the question was:

"in 1971 Billy J Kramer turned down a song given to him saying it was 'boring, had no melody, and no one would want to hear it', what was that song?"

that question was part of a series of questions relating to artists/actors who turned down songs/roles and later regretted doing so.

[bob_32_116]

I agree about Imagine. I think it's enduringly popularity is largely because of the lyrics; while they are rather simplistic, like the tune, at least Lennon showed his heart was in the right place.

I much prefer Mind Games, #9 Dream, Beautiful Boy, Jealous Guy, You Are Here and quite a few others.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

no arguments from this end of Perth, I agree 100%

[SteveO]

Another attraction for me with respect to Hallelujah are the lyrics! I am also tear jerked when I watch KD Lang's version! Imagine for me is a rock classic! I prefer The Beatles' songs to that of Macca and Lennon, although there are shades of The Fab Four in the solo work of all the four Beatles.