Hallelujah

Which one for you?

  • COHEN

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • BUCKLEY

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • BURKE

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Total voters
    1
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mondobongo

mondobongo

Über Member
Cohen bit of bite and attitude! Not that contrite sugary sweet pap off the Crap Factor heard it on the radio this morning just how produced does it sound.
 
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
More fuel to the fire from this BBC article about the song.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7787355.stm

The last bit is interesting for this debate...

Angry fans

Fans of Leonard Cohen (and of the late Jeff Buckley, whose 1994 version is treated as sacrosanct) are predictably outraged at the big-arms, eyebrow-raised bombast, with the now traditional online campaigns and rival singles vying for the Christmas Number One.

But maybe they need not worry so much. For one thing, viewings of the other Hallelujahs on the global jukebox YouTube are rising every day, with comments underneath such as "Glad the song won X Factor - even with a rubbish version - otherwise I wouldn't have discovered this".

And for another, Cohen was last in the news when a court ruled that his manager had stolen £5.4m which he was unlikely to recover. So there may be another kind of joyous cry this Christmas - the kind that means "a beautiful woman has sung my song and restored my financial solvency". Hallelujah.
 
Over The Hill

Over The Hill

Guru
Location
Ridden off into the sunset
If undecided - go with which one of the three you would shag.

What is the matter with performers coming from talent shows?

Victoria Wood (and Les Dawson if you like him) came from a talent show (as did many more I cant remember) and dont forget ABBA only came along because of Eurovision
 
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Over The Hill said:
If undecided - go with which one of the three you would shag.

What is the matter with performers coming from talent shows?

Victoria Wood (and Les Dawson if you like him) came from a talent show (as did many more I cant remember) and dont forget ABBA only came along because of Eurovision
Click to expand...
Yeah, pretty girls that can hold a tune... no talent there then :blush:
 
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Chuffy said:
Oh yes, of course, ABBA, those well known purveyors of overblown cover versions...:evil:
Click to expand...

Didn't think you were a cover version purist!
I was just coming back with an example for this.
Quote...
"But if all you want is a pretty face who can hold a tune, then that’s fine".


This is a thread about (amongst other things) cover versions... Jeff Buckley, JJ Cale, Alexandra Burke, Rufus Wainright.
Lots of artists start-out making cover versions.
Lots of artists record original songs written by somebody else.
Lots of artists record their own material.


For example the much lauded (not by me) Marc Almond/Soft cell is held in high esteem but first found fame on a singing an old Gloria Jones Northern Soul Song. Many acts cover obscure old tracks and most people believe that they're new. Covers are a staple part of the industry, if she does well, she may sing some original material, maybe she'll make it maybe she won't.
 
Chuffy

Chuffy

Veteran
Location
On the banks of the Exe
Fab Foodie said:
Didn't think you were a cover version purist!
I was just coming back with an example for this.
Quote...
"But if all you want is a pretty face who can hold a tune, then that’s fine".
Click to expand...
I'm not a purist, but if you think that ABBA were nothing more than talent show sock puppets then there's not much point continuing this conversation...:evil:
 
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Chuffy said:
I'm not a purist, but if you think that ABBA were nothing more than talent show sock puppets then there's not much point continuing this conversation...:evil:
Click to expand...

They were pretty girls who could sing that won a talent contest. That was the only point being made, no big deal. At the time IIRC, they were not exactly cool, they were a cheesy Eurovision pop-band that your mum and dad liked.
 
MajorMantra

MajorMantra

Well-Known Member
Location
Edinburgh
I like Leonard Cohen a lot but I think Buckley's version is just great. By the way, this song has been covered by an awful lot of people. Off the top of my head I can think of KD Lang and Damien Rice and I'm pretty sure there are others.

Matthew
 
Chuffy

Chuffy

Veteran
Location
On the banks of the Exe
Fab Foodie said:
They were pretty girls who could sing that won a talent contest. That was the only point being made, no big deal. At the time IIRC, they were not exactly cool, they were a cheesy Eurovision pop-band that your mum and dad liked.
Click to expand...
Ok, ABBA were a group (all four of them and Benny/Bjorn certainly weren’t pretty faces) that existed before they got their break on Eurovision. They wrote and performed their own material, they weren’t created just for the purpose of the contest and the contest wasn’t the massive marketing vehicle that modern talent shows have become.

There is no equivalence between them and a modern talent show sock puppet. None at all.
 
Fab Foodie

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Chuffy said:
Ok, ABBA were a group (all four of them and Benny/Bjorn certainly weren’t pretty faces) that existed before they got their break on Eurovision. They wrote and performed their own material, they weren’t created just for the purpose of the contest and the contest wasn’t the massive marketing vehicle that modern talent shows have become.

There is no equivalence between them and a modern talent show sock puppet. None at all.
Click to expand...

The Pop industry operates in many ways, Creating and marketing acts is one, it's as old as Pop itself, Motown were very good at this, the names and the styles change, but it's a huge part of the action. Some acts are simply discovered and identified for their uniqueness and rightly do well. Some get there through various forms of Talent Shows and competition. Many disappear a very few remain. ABBA wrote great Pop, but their real break from obscure Swedish band came through a talent Competition. Once won you can bet there was a huge flurry of promo activity occuring, they were good and survived. In fact time has only re-inforced how good they really were. Kylie, a global star was a cynical money-making opportunity that came good. Take fluffy bunny popular TV show stars and screw a few more dollars from them. Even the Sex-Pistols were beautifully manipulated by McClaren to make a fast buck in a short time. So that leaves us with X-Factor. It's just the latest way that goes back as far as Opportunity knocks. I agree that there was a lot of dross, but there were also a few talented singers. One of them won, the right one as it happens and recorded an overblown diva-esque version of a hugely copied song and it might make Christmas No1. If the public thinks she's any good, she'll do well. Leona Lewis has made it pretty big even in the USA and a few of the American Idol stars have done well too. They perform material written for them much like many pop acts. So what? People like it. That's OK, there's an awful lot of music being made out there and people have a lot of choice. BUT, the bottom line is, she CAN sing and she CAN perform. Time will tell if she has a future.
 
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