Take a photo of a barcode or cover
78 reviews for:
The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
Alan Light
3.56 AVERAGE
78 reviews for:
The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
Alan Light
3.56 AVERAGE
I loved learning more about the song, but I got a little bored of it by the end. Also, it would have been cool if the Lost 73 Verses were in the book......
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This was an interesting dive into a song I'll never get tired of hearing (or singing). Filled with great anecdotes and details, but a bit belabored by the end. Also, the author is a music critic so the writing got a little pretentious at times, which was a bit tiresome. But still, a fun one to pick up, even as dated as it is.
"Hallelujah" has been one of my favorite songs for a really, really long time, so I was intrigued by the notion of an entire book tracing its rise to cultural ubiquity. Alan Light does a serviceable job, though the book itself felt like a rather bloated wikipedia article covering each of the main covers done (one artist notes that the song is like a "Rorschach test for people" now, and this book essentially documents what a lot of different artists' responses are to the song - without communicating any of Leonard Cohen's own insights [the only ones I'd actually find relevant]).
I'd have preferred to read this as a (much shorter) piece of longform journalism, or presented as a documentary with SOUND (because effectively, this reads like the transcript to a documentary without any of the actual music that would convey the odyssey of the song MUCH better). Still, if you don't know much about the song's history, it's probably a relatively interesting and relatively quick read.
I'd have preferred to read this as a (much shorter) piece of longform journalism, or presented as a documentary with SOUND (because effectively, this reads like the transcript to a documentary without any of the actual music that would convey the odyssey of the song MUCH better). Still, if you don't know much about the song's history, it's probably a relatively interesting and relatively quick read.
Be prepared to have Hallelujah stuck in your head for the duration of the book. Enlightening and informative.
One of my core rants that causes Charlotte to roll her eyes with a “there he goes again” gets triggered every time I hear a non-Leonard Cohen performance of “Hallelujah” either presented as a Christmas song or credited as an “anyone-but-Leonard-Cohen song.” Last week, a co-worker took to Teams and shared a YouTube performance of it, dedicated it to everyone observing Good Friday and Easter. It took a lot of willpower not to jump in with a pedantic “do you know what that song is about?” or “you know, Passover starts this Friday too, and would be a more appropriate dedication.” Anyway, I thought it was high time to keep my mouth shut and read this book I bought for my dad back when it came out. A biography of a song is an interesting enterprise, and this one brought me down from my high horse to better appreciate the unique malleability of the song - even among versions Cohen recorded and performed - to allow other performers to make it their own. When I saw Cohen in concert back in … 2008, maybe? … I rolled my eyes when he got to “Hallelujah” and it elicited the biggest applause/sing-along. Such snobbery is unbecoming, frankly, so I’m letting it go. Maybe that makes it more appropriate for the death and renewal of Easter weekend than I gave my co-workers credit for. Still not a Christmas song though.
I picked up this book in early 2016 and didn’t get to it until now. It immediately drove home to me that I’m still processing some of my grief for Leonard’s passing in 2016. And maybe for Jeff Buckley too. It was Jeff Buckley who introduced me to Hallelujah and in turn Leonard Cohen. I discovered Jeff when Grace was released through his video on MTV’s 120 Minutes. I was also attending NYU at the time and heard about a magical music cafe in the East Village called Si-ne. I never saw Jeff Buckley there, but did get introduced to David Poe and Daniel Cartier through their performances there. It was David Poe who told me Leonard Cohen had written Hallelujah. I had just seen him perform the song at his set at CB’s 313 Gallery and got to ask him who wrote the song. I then a lot of time searching for a Leonard Cohen album with the song on it. This was the mid-90s, before streaming and while Various Positions was unreleased. I’m always grateful to have gone on the journey to find the origin of this beautiful song. I discovered a love for Leonard Cohen and many more artists who embody the spirit of his music. This book contains descriptions of more versions of the song I never knew of but knew were happening in a general sense. I stopped looking for variations after it was in Shrek but I love how the song still feels like a discovery with each new version. It’s really just the music nerds like me and the journalists who seem to think it’s too ubiquitous.
good, but it did get a bit repetitive. Interesting history of the song and it's many interpretations.
Too long and repetitive. This book should have been the length of a Rolling Stone article and no longer. It almost felt like someone took a 10-page term paper and "added stuff" to make it into a 200+ page thesis. The best interviews were with Amanda Palmer (of course!). After that, it's all downhill.
This book matched my expectations. I have certainly been fascinated with this song for years but really did not know about all of the history and multiple verses, etc. I really appreciated the step by step transformation from an unnoticed song to one of the most well known songs in the world over a period of decades. It's really quite a phenomenon. I listened to the audiobook, and while the narrator was as dry as could be, it didn't take away from this great topic.
3.5 stars
Rufus Wainwright's version is the one I've probably heard the most. K.D. Lang's version is my absolute favorite. I've only heard Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley's versions a few times. I love the song Hallelujah and I enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed hearing the differing interpretations of the meaning of the song. What I didn't know was that after first recording the song, Leonard Cohen continued to tinker with it and added, changed and deleted lyrics on a continual basis. So not only have there been many different arrangements of the music, there have been many different combinations of the lyrics performed.
Because of the fact that so many different verses and combinations of them are out there it makes sense that it's difficult to pin down the meaning of the song. Different combinations emphasize different sets of verses and therefore can make the song tragic, uplifting, sorrowful, sexual, or celebratory.
This book follows Cohen's original writing and recording of the song and then follows the song through many of its most important performers and performances. I will probably be scouring You Tube to hear many of them, but apparently there are a few pretty awful versions out there too. Because it's been covered by so many artists it's been on and off the charts in many countries many different times. In December 2008 there were two versions of the song (Jeff Buckley's and X-Factor Winner Alexandra Burke's) in the top two spots on the UK Singles Chart.
I liked this book. It's essentially a biography of a song and just happens to be about a song I like.
Rufus Wainwright's version is the one I've probably heard the most. K.D. Lang's version is my absolute favorite. I've only heard Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley's versions a few times. I love the song Hallelujah and I enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed hearing the differing interpretations of the meaning of the song. What I didn't know was that after first recording the song, Leonard Cohen continued to tinker with it and added, changed and deleted lyrics on a continual basis. So not only have there been many different arrangements of the music, there have been many different combinations of the lyrics performed.
Because of the fact that so many different verses and combinations of them are out there it makes sense that it's difficult to pin down the meaning of the song. Different combinations emphasize different sets of verses and therefore can make the song tragic, uplifting, sorrowful, sexual, or celebratory.
This book follows Cohen's original writing and recording of the song and then follows the song through many of its most important performers and performances. I will probably be scouring You Tube to hear many of them, but apparently there are a few pretty awful versions out there too. Because it's been covered by so many artists it's been on and off the charts in many countries many different times. In December 2008 there were two versions of the song (Jeff Buckley's and X-Factor Winner Alexandra Burke's) in the top two spots on the UK Singles Chart.
I liked this book. It's essentially a biography of a song and just happens to be about a song I like.