A.B.'s Top Ten List for 2008 - Why People Should Stop Covering Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
1) Because the world doesn’t need any more teary, hushed, faux-profound ‘special moments’ on televised singing contests.
2) Leonard has paid off his debt now, and thanks you.
3) Leonard’s former Buddhist monk instructors are pestered at their local corner store by patrons who burst into spontaneous performances of the song.
4) Okay, maybe Styx or somebody could do a bangin’ version. Or - Dokken!
5) The song is kind of … white, isn’t it? Worse, the suspicion remains that it thinks it’s black.
6) Someone, somewhere, will lower a microphone into the depths and play Hallelujah to the whales.
7) Because unquestionably mighty as the song is, there are one or two infelicities in there, such as rhyming ‘hallelujah’ with ‘do ya’. Len can pull this off - only Len can pull this off.
8) There have been 170 attempts at the song to date, by all sorts of unlikely artists. Where will it end? Who’s next? Cher? Kim Jong Il? Malcolm Gladwell?
9) Because kids will think ‘you don’t need drugs to get high’. Now just a minute there, youngsters.
10) Because Jeff Buckley’s take on this song is everything the others want to be.
what the heck is that top clip from? It's fabulous; kids in 80s sweaters swaying in arches with their hands in their pockets, leaves blowing across the the courtyard, LC lipsynching perfectly with not a hint of irony... - sally mckay 12-21-2008 5:36 pm
As for the infelicitous rhyming of ‘hallelujah’ with 'shut up and screw 'ya'. Tui the parrot can pull this off - only Tui the parrot can pull this off.
- L.M. 12-22-2008 1:58 am
ho, ho, ho and ha, ha-halleluah. this list made me laugh. i agree with point ten despite the six gian gomeshi listeners who go on and on about the kd lang version. - nanmac (guest) 12-22-2008 3:39 pm
L.M. you win with the parrot - Zach (guest) 12-24-2008 6:17 am
also in the top video Leonard Cohen looks very borderline do-able - zach (guest) 12-24-2008 6:20 am
Normally, I believe that parrots belong in a stock-pot, but this one has real talent. - L.M. 12-24-2008 8:58 pm
This Alex the parrot video breaks my heart because he keeps saying plaintively, "Go back? I wanna go back." and I think about how those vivisectioned monkeys would probably like to "go back" too, but apparently even if you can talk, if you're an animal you still have to sit around and do what the scientists tell you to do.
A.B.'s Top Ten List for 2008 - Why People Should Stop Covering Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
1) Because the world doesn’t need any more teary, hushed, faux-profound ‘special moments’ on televised singing contests.
2) Leonard has paid off his debt now, and thanks you.
3) Leonard’s former Buddhist monk instructors are pestered at their local corner store by patrons who burst into spontaneous performances of the song.
4) Okay, maybe Styx or somebody could do a bangin’ version. Or - Dokken!
5) The song is kind of … white, isn’t it? Worse, the suspicion remains that it thinks it’s black.
6) Someone, somewhere, will lower a microphone into the depths and play Hallelujah to the whales.
7) Because unquestionably mighty as the song is, there are one or two infelicities in there, such as rhyming ‘hallelujah’ with ‘do ya’. Len can pull this off - only Len can pull this off.
8) There have been 170 attempts at the song to date, by all sorts of unlikely artists. Where will it end? Who’s next? Cher? Kim Jong Il? Malcolm Gladwell?
9) Because kids will think ‘you don’t need drugs to get high’. Now just a minute there, youngsters.
10) Because Jeff Buckley’s take on this song is everything the others want to be.
[I beg to differ - L.M.]
- L.M. 12-21-2008 6:41 am
what the heck is that top clip from? It's fabulous; kids in 80s sweaters swaying in arches with their hands in their pockets, leaves blowing across the the courtyard, LC lipsynching perfectly with not a hint of irony...
- sally mckay 12-21-2008 5:36 pm
As for the infelicitous rhyming of ‘hallelujah’ with 'shut up and screw 'ya'. Tui the parrot can pull this off - only Tui the parrot can pull this off.
- L.M. 12-22-2008 1:58 am
ho, ho, ho and ha, ha-halleluah. this list made me laugh. i agree with point ten despite the six gian gomeshi listeners who go on and on about the kd lang version.
- nanmac (guest) 12-22-2008 3:39 pm
L.M. you win with the parrot
- Zach (guest) 12-24-2008 6:17 am
also in the top video Leonard Cohen looks very borderline do-able
- zach (guest) 12-24-2008 6:20 am
Normally, I believe that parrots belong in a stock-pot, but this one has real talent.
- L.M. 12-24-2008 8:58 pm
This Alex the parrot video breaks my heart because he keeps saying plaintively, "Go back? I wanna go back." and I think about how those vivisectioned monkeys would probably like to "go back" too, but apparently even if you can talk, if you're an animal you still have to sit around and do what the scientists tell you to do.
(SM posting remote)
- M.Jean 12-24-2008 10:44 pm