A00026 - Hallelujah Revisited

In response to my post last month concerning the documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, one of my Amherst classmates wrote about visiting his ailing sister for the last time and spending the five hour drive home listening to the song Hallelujah. The song seemed to have brought him some solace from his sorrows.  My classmate also attached a link to a Saturday Night Live performance of Hallelujah by Kate McKinnon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG-_ZDrypec

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_McKinnon

In viewing the video, I found it somewhat strange that Ms. McKinnon would have used Hallelujah to express sorrow over the results of the 2016 Presidential election.  I wondered where she might have gotten the inspiration for this stunning performance.  I do not know for certain, but it seems to me that the inspiration was most likely that the author of the song Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, had died the day before the 2016 Presidential election.  Perhaps, the two losses (Hillary Clinton's loss of the election and the passing of Leonard Cohen) are what inspired Kate McKinnon to perform Hallelujah on the Post-Election Saturday Night Live show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen

As I thought about this coincidence, I reflected on the history of the song

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song)

I marveled at the fact that the song was seemingly buried in a little heard independent album until it began to be resurrected by first John Cale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdNdncBTc-Q

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cale

and then most famously by Jeff Buckley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Buckley

It is the Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah which lifted this once buried song onto Rolling Stones magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  However, it is again rather "strange" that Buckley's version of Hallelujah only achieved a chart appearance a decade after Buckley mysteriously died in 1997. 

Perhaps influenced by the use of the song in a animated feature named Shrek in 2001, a whole new generation became aware of the power of Hallelujah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1npZG3edI

With the dawn of the music competition shows such as American Idol, X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, Hallelujah continued to grow in popularity.  Indeed, one contestant, Alexandra Burke, sang a very energized version of Hallelujah to win the 2008 X-Factor competition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiCS0_T1hZM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Burke

As is customary, after winning the competition, Burke's record company released her recorded version of Hallelujah just in time for Christmas in 2008.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aplWTXEcY70

However, maybe because her version of Hallelujah was so theatrical (or so commercial), or maybe because Burke is black, according to the documentary, the Jeff Buckley fans initiated a campaign to publicize Buckley's version of Hallelujah in competition to Burke's version.  This competition led to the highly unusual event of both versions of Hallelujah topping the British charts in December 2008 at No. 1 (Alexandra Burke) and No. 2 (Jeff Buckley) with the additional cherry on top being Leonard Cohen's original version of the same song coming in at No. 36 on the same chart.  Amazing!

https://www.nme.com/news/music/alexandra-burke-6-1325858

By December 2008, Hallelujah was an institution. However, perhaps the ultimate recognition of the song would come a little over a year later when Cohen's fellow Canadian, k. d. lang

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.d._lang

put her name at the top of the list with her stirring rendition of Hallelujah at the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqGU8ESzHw0

I do not know whose rendition Cohen preferred, but I do know that it was k. d. lang who sang Hallelujah at the Leonard Cohen memorial that was held in Quebec in November 2017, one year after Leonard Cohen's death.

This is my history of Leonard Cohen's song.

Hallelujah!

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

-----Original Message-----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Fri, Feb 3, 2023 3:24 am
Subject: Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song

I am watching Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song on Netflix

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah:_Leonard_Cohen,_A_Journey,_A_Song

The documentary is about a man, his spiritual journey and an amazing song that became the creative product of the journey and the man.  For those who are interested in matters of the soul, I recommend that you spend a couple of hours joining Leonard Cohen on his journey.  Perhaps, after two hours you two will begin to understand the meaning of Hallelujah.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

P. S. in the documentary you will notice that Leonard Cohen went on a memorable European concert tour in 1979 and that one of his back up singers was a very young Jennifer Warnes.  It is not shown in the documentary but this concert tour and this collaboration with Jennifer Warnes would produce my second favorite Leonard Cohen song. For the curious, here is what my second favorite Leonard Cohen song is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f96WymmAJAs

Amazing! and Hallelujah!