fappage: the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

[TVC15]

http://www.clapclap.org/2007/04/hallelujah.html

Cohen.  He is the number one Canadian I would let spurt repeatedly in my orifices.

Let me take you back to the long-ago time of mid-February, 2007. Popular emo band Fall Out Boy had the number one album in the country and, being a responsible music critic, I of course illegally downloaded it. As my train crossed the Manhattan Bridge, I reached track five on the album. And I heard this:

Fall Out Boy - "Hum Hallelujah" (clip)

What they're singing there, aside from what I believe professionals call "twaddle," is the chorus of a Leonard Cohen song. This is mildly incredible. Twenty-five years ago, a character on the TV show The Young Ones named Neal--the hippie--said, "I'm beginning to feel like a Leonard Cohen record, cause nobody ever listens to me." Today, in contrast, one particular Leonard Cohen song is featured prominently in no less than three separate episodes of teen uberdrama The OC, and can be heard in at least twenty-four separate movies and TV episodes, almost always as the soundtrack to a montage of people being sad.

What I hope to show today is how, exactly, that happened to a song called "Hallelujah."

Purty good read for us people that like things that are awesome

[Phoenix Dark]

I always get him confused with Spock.

[Bloodwake]

Wow, that Fall Out Boy clip is wretched.

[Tauntaun]

Wow, that Fall Out Boy clip is wretched.

"waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"   

[bagofeyes]

Fall Out Boy - "Hum Hallelujah" (clip)

What they're singing there, aside from what I believe professionals call "twaddle," is the chorus of a Leonard Cohen song. This is mildly incredible.

It is?

Also, I hate that song.

[BlueTsunami]

[youtube=425,350]ud-M6YqeOWg[/youtube]

Tina Dico

And I can't stand the Jeff Buckley version

[recursivelyenumerable]

I still like the original version on "Various Positions", because of the sort of luminous keyboard sound that comes in on "...blaze of light in every word..." and goes bleem!  bleem!  bleem!  I always tap my fingers impatiently through the first half of the song, waiting to get to the bleem!  If somebody else recorded a version that also featured the bleem! I could probably listen to that too, but I'm not sure anyone has.   

My other favorite version was the one sung by a cute young woman at a bar, because she dedicated it to me.  She only knew me from my attempt to chat her up half an hour before, and the subject of LC never came up so I think it's pretty cool that she could tell I was probably a Cohenfag just by looking at me.

[Tauntaun]

Just listened to that FOB clip....I think my ears might be bleeding. 

FOB

[Madrun Badrun]

[youtube=425,350]cNvTZCttRco[/youtube]

Full Metal Hallelujah for Tauntaun.

[Tauntaun]

^ TY shnookums, FMA is teh awesome.     I listened to the Jeff Buckley version to clear my ears of all horridness.   

[TVC15]

The Jeff Buckley version fucking blows.  Us Cohen and Cale fans HATES it.  At least that fucker is dead.

[Tauntaun]

ya'll just hatin. 

[Van Cruncheon]

^ TY shnookums, FMA is teh awesome.     I listened to the Jeff Buckley version to clear my ears of all horridness.  

why does the robot armor guy wear a loincloth

[Madrun Badrun]

you've never seen FMA drinky?  what the fuck.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

why would Drinky watch FMA, a fruity anime for little Japanese girls

[Van Cruncheon]

yeah, why the fuck would i do that

[Madrun Badrun]

Good.  He's seen it.  I was let down there for a second. 

[Tauntaun]

yeah, why the fuck would i do that

you know Al-u is your fav.