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comptron 's review for:
"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.