Halleluyah! Halleluyah! ...

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[geckzilla]

You're right, he's following the televangelist formula.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[makc]

that's good, geck, but not as good as this one (sorry, embedding disabled) pop culture moves on

[Chris Peterson]

that's good, geck, but not as good as this one (sorry, embedding disabled) pop culture moves on ;)

Boy, I hope you're being sarcastic here! While it's a tribute to the songwriter that any competent singer can make this song a pleasure to listen to, there's no denying that when Cohen sings, it's gut-wrenching, and when k.d. lang sings, chills run up and down your spine. I'll pass on pop culture for this one!

[makc]

sorry, Chris, k.d.lang's version seems a bit boring to me. as I said, pop culture moves on, leaving older generations with their heroes behind for new younger ones.

[geckzilla]

I don't like that three-dudes-singing version either... I do kinda like this one a little better, though.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[makc]

I don't like that three-dudes-singing version either

what a surprise, if any of you liked that, YOU would post it.

I here by declare a Holy War against anyone who doesn't like my version. You all... err... uhm... you know...

[rstevenson]

... as I said, pop culture moves on, leaving older generations with their heroes behind for new younger ones.

I don't think quality has anything to do with generations. Those four young guys made a credible attempt but they need a few more years experience before they'll be able to do a truly excellent job of singing that song. kd herself wouldn't have done a good job of it at their age.

All ages of listeners can enjoy performances by all ages of singers -- no generational conflict required.

Rob

[makc]

saying a singer sucks because he's young is even more insulting... old people go back to your rock chairs!

[rstevenson]

saying a singer sucks because he's young is even more insulting...

No one said that, but you will hear what you wish to hear. What I was trying to say was that age has nothing to do with it -- only experience matters. Young performers can be interesting for their enthusiasm, but not usually for their interpretive abilities. And I could have said the same thing about the singers of 40 years ago -- if only I hadn't been so young then.

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

I don't think quality has anything to do with generations. Those four young guys made a credible attempt but they need a few more years experience before they'll be able to do a truly excellent job of singing that song. kd herself wouldn't have done a good job of it at their age.

That's pretty much how I see it, too. There's nothing wrong with pop culture, or young singers. There is plenty of good to be found in both, and I've done so over the years (and continue to do so). And these guys sounded good singing the song. But this is a complex song with hundreds of lyrics, which a singer can really make their own. And a singer with some real life experience (like Cohen or lang clearly have) can do more with it- something that has little to do with simple talent and everything to do with the complexity of their own experiences- something that just doesn't usually happen without the years being there.

[neufer]

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... asse-tyson

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... l-frontier

[livemind]

Hallelujah is not speeled with a 'Y' you dumbkoffnietz!

[owlice]

livemind, kindly read this; thank you.

[neufer]

Hallelujah is not speeled with a 'Y' you dumbkoffnietz!

I'm starting to really feel intimidated now.

[bystander]

livemind, another sputnick persona, has been dealt with.

Halleluyah! Halleluyah! Amen

[owlice]

Ah, and here I was trying to be reasonable! Thank you, bystander.

And lol, neufer!

Why do people do that? I've never understood the attraction that sock puppetry and spamming has for some; just do not get it at all.

[Moonlady]

Was he talking to Christian people? The TV Preacher style is so strange to me, some years ago US TV preachers startet missionary in Germany but had not much success,
the affectionate style seems too much "acted" to Germans

[Ann]

I didn't listen to the "three young dudes", sorry. I came here for k.d. lang's performance of the song in that particular video. I agree that it was amazing, and more than that: it was so "true" and absolutely gut-wrenching.

I also agree that k.d. lang wouldn't have been able to sing like that when she was young.

But there is one more thing about the video that gets to me, and which makes it even more honest and "true" to me. It is k.d. lang's completely, almost brutally "un-glamorous" appearance on stage. She is almost "naked" about who she is. She appears to wear no makeup, and she definitely wears no jewellery. Her short hair has not been styled in any way. She is barefoot. Her clothes remind me slightly of a bathrobe. She is a bit overweight. She walks around on stage, for no particular reason, except that it is the most natural thing for her.

k.d. lang puts herself on stage and says to her audience: This is me. I won't pretend to look like someone I am not. Now I'll sing to you as the person that I am, and I'll show you what Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah means to me as the person that I am.

There is another youtube version of k.d. lang singing Hallulujah, and that is from the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010. But on that occasion, k.d. lang couldn't walk around barefoot on stage in a bathrobe. She had to look properly stylish for the Olympic Games, and so she is wearing a relatively elegant white jacket, white shirt and pants. Her hair is at least somewhat styled.

k.d. lang is trying to look properly elegant for the Olympics. I think that harms her performance a little bit. She can't concentrate completely on reaching into her heart and into everything that is herself when she is singing that song. She has to put on a performance for the Olympics, and in a way she has to be someone she is not when singing the song that has to come from the depth of her experience.

But here barefoot, bathrobed version of Hallelujah is completely spine-tingling.

Ann

[rstevenson]

Here's a vid of k.d. performing back in 1988, this time fully in costume -- which works for this style of singing. A few years earlier, before she and her band The Reclines had more than a cult following, she performed here in Halifax wearing the same kind of costume. A friend of hers worked with my wife, and we went down to see her perform and coincidentally to celebrate my wife's birthday. My wife was wearing a paper cutout "crown" with flashing LEDs on it. During the intermission our friend asked k.d. if she would sing Happy Birthday to my wife. When they came back out k.d. kindly did so, singing partly the traditional version and partly the Beatles' Birthday.

Rob

[Ann]

I envy you, Rob, because you have heard k.d. lang live.

I take back the disparaging remarks I made about k.d. lang's Olympic performance. I found a better video of her singing there, and it was great.

Ann