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Which is your favourite version of Hallelujah?

I think Alexandra Burke’s beats the original. I think she was somewhat iffy at The Royal Albert last week. 

I think it may be a gender thing Phoebe. I have to confess I hadn’t heard it before and gave up after 90 seconds. 
Do you find him easy on the eye? I think it might be the difference in our perceptions. 

Well I managed about half of Cale’s and it’s a cut above Buckley. 

summersails don’t be flippant. 
 

I would like to have heard that Cornishman Jethro sing it. 

Have you heard Jethro sing? It’s surprisingly moody and moving for such a foul mouthed filthy hysterical comedian. 
Have you heard his stand up? It’s surprisingly risqué for such a fine singer. 

i absolutely loved alexandra burke when she was on x factor but i agree that she’s settled into a fairly standard middle of the road singer when she could have been bigger than leona

but then what do I know - maybe she’s happier now with the level of fame she’s achieved (she has name recognition in the uk at least) - at least i hope she is

i don’t think i’d ever want to be super famous no matter how much talent i had

I’ve just listened to Lang and found it just…… pleasant. 
I think Burke’s gospel background infused her version with the ingredient that causes it to stand out with Leonard a close second. 

Publish and be dammed.  

Whatshisface Dylan is music’s version of the Emperors new clothes. And I dont care that I apparently used to Look a bit like him.  

His Lyrics mebbe. 

His politics mebbe 

His voice not. I’d rather listen to Kermit the frog sing his songs. 

All of Cohen's songs should be rearranged by people who are better musicians and singers.

hmm depends pinkus

buble is a better singer than cohen (of course) but he tried to cover i’m your man but didn’t get the weird creepiness of the song and tried to make it a big band anthem

cohen did what he did well is all i’m saying

Buckley’s is good.

There’s a great version by Kathryn Williams (indebted to Buckley for the guitar picking, but she really goes for it on the vocal).

Always felt Cohen’s version was overproduced and ridiculously over-orchestrated, it works a lot better with stripped back instrumentation and foregrounding the vocal because it’s such an intense song, emotionally.

For Linda and those who think Leonard’s songs are better sung by someone who can actually sing, try Barb Jungr. Unbelievably good. 
she has a CD called hard rain (I think) which is a collection of Cohen and Dylan songs. 

Cohen is a fantastic singer.  As is Dylan, actually. In the business of singing songs - tune, words, rhythm - they're both superb.  

The vocal noise may not be conventional, which is what puts some people off.  They don't sing 'in tune'; they're not auto-tuned; you wouldn't want either of them singing Josquin!  But the tuning is a way of expressing meaning in the song.  It's extraordinarily compelling.

If you like Pop Idol or the X-Factor then they're probably not for you.  You might like to try Andrea Bocelli.  

 

 

Jeff Buckley's version is the 'definitive one' surely. It has the right mix of melancholy and punch. Cohen as ever just sounds like he is thinking of topping himself. 

Buckley's version is good, yes, and he is an attractive figure more widely for obvious reasons - his talent, his looks, his premature death (like that of his father).  I can see why it was so successful.  I agree with The Goose about Alexandra Burke's version.

I'll concede that Cohen's performance of this song isn't his best.  

I recommend this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbW3NK52LIQ 

 

Don't even think Cohen was a particularly good song-writer, let alone singer. He's just a lyricist. 

I done an arrangement of If It Be Your Will when I was 19 - mine's better. 

By the way, all the talk of Dylan (or Cohen) as great poets is total bollocks.  They're both very good song lyricists.  Rhyming couplets, traditional strophic forms; clever, heartfelt words.  As poems, teenage stuff.  As lyrics, just wonderful.

For those preferring others' treatment of LC songs, Jennifer Warnes' album Famous Blue Raincoat - The Songs of Leonard Cohen is brilliant.   (it doesn't have Everybody Knows, though Linda)

Pinkus I admire your work but if that's the case why is he an international mega-star and you're posting on RoF?

Difficult to post on RoF if you're dead, tbh. 

 

Not judging by quite a lot of what i see on here.......

By the way, all the talk of Dylan (or Cohen) as great poets is total bollocks.  They're both very good song lyricists.  Rhyming couplets, traditional strophic forms; clever, heartfelt words.  As poems, teenage stuff.  As lyrics, just wonderful.

All talk of Dylan or Cohen not being great poets because they are song lyricists is total bollocks, because it assumes a meaningful distinction between poetry and lyrics  - Homer's poems, for example, were sung....

w**king about with the form of poetry does not make better poetry. 

Yes but modern poetry - in English at least from Chaucer but probably much earlier - is almost always spoken word. 

The Homer thing is irrelevant.  Even Virgil wasn't chanted.

In any case, I'm not saying "they're not great poets because they're lyricists".  I'm just saying they're great lyricists and shit poets.

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