By Paulo Camacho
Regarded musician Leonard Cohen passed away November 7th, left the world with a library of music — and one famous tune.
It’s the third season finale of the hit TV show, “The West Wing.” Special Agent Simon Donovan is in a convenience store, finding himself in the middle of stopping an armed robbery. He was only there, in the first place, on happenstance — to pick up flowers for his former charge, and current love interest, White House Press Secretary CJ Cregg. What happens next is possibly one of the most heartbreaking moments in the show’s history:
What makes the scene, and its tragic aftermath, especially gut-wrenching is the song that plays in its backdrop. It gives everything a perfect balance of somber depth and melancholy beauty. It almost makes you want to cry, right along with CJ.
The song in question is Jeff Buckley’s cover to the famed Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah.” For the latter — the renowned, yet commercially unheralded, musician that passed away in early November at the age of 82 — it may be one of his most popular pieces. Oddly enough, it was not his original version that ended up in the annals of popular music history.
That, in and of itself, is kind of its own tragedy, really: all told, he agonized, so much, over the more than 80 verses to the original composition of the song, that he was reduced to sitting in his underwear, banging his head against the carpeted floor of his room at the Royalton Hotel in New York. It took Cohen over two years to create a finalized version of the song, debuting on his 1984 album, Various Positions.
However, it was the cover of a cover of the song that propelled it into modern Americana. As the story goes, Cohen needed to make two different versions of the final song to get a record label to bite — and it wasn’t even his own label, CBS Records. When musician John Cale heard Cohen’s updated song — a longer, darker version of the original — he decided to do a cover for his 1991 tribute album to Cohen, I’m Your Fan.
Cale’s album didn’t sell much, but a copy did end up in the household of a woman who lived in Brooklyn. Soon thereafter, that woman’s housesitter would start listening to I’m Your Fan, and, in particular, Cale’s version of “Hallelujah”. It would eventually inspire him to create his own version. He would go on to perform this version at a bar in the East Village, where an executive from Columbia Records was attending. He loved it so much, he signed the artist to record “Hallelujah” for a 1994 studio album.
The artist’s name? You guessed it: Jeff Buckley.
One of the most unique characteristics of the song, itself, is the ambiguous interpretations that it can take — paired with the over 100 versions in popular music, “Hallelujah” can take on a variety of meanings, therefore, cater to a variety of emotions and occasions. Cohen had said so, himself, to a certain degree: when asked of the song’s meaning, Cohen replied, “It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”
The BBC documentary on Cohen and his titular song, The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall, admitted that “Hallelujah” was a song meant to be interpreted in a variety of ways — namely, “melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous” — depending on the performer.
Whatever the interpretation may be, the emotive power of the song can be like a spiritual punch to the gut.
Take the version performed by American a cappella group Pentatonix. Between the strong bass line, the powerful harmonies, and the overall ambiance, the song builds into an almost triumphant conclusion — enough to where one would want to throw up their hands in praise of something beyond our comprehension, but driven by the utter power of music:
In stark contrast, we go back to Cale’s version of “Hallelujah”, which was used in the hit movie, Shrek. While not as emotionally powerful as other versions, it does not fail to paint a picture of the bleak reality of the characters at that moment: Shrek and Princess Fiona, after a misunderstanding shattered their path to true love, had angrily parted ways. Shrek had also pushed away his only other friend, Donkey, in a fit of rage. With all three separated from one another, and Fiona preparing to marry the evil Lord Farquaad, the song’s ambiance perfectly captures the melancholy of their respective predicaments:
“Hallelujah”, as Cohen and countless others have proved, can be sung in a wide variety of ways, and for a variety of reasons. Take one of the latest covers, for the movie “Sing!”, by recording artist Tori Kelly. Part of what makes the song so versatile is how the melodies and harmonies allow for the singer to go as big or as muted as they want. For Kelly, the song is a beautiful showcase of a wonderfully powerhouse voice:
Then there is Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris’ 2010 version of the song, specifically for a live fundraiser for the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti that year. Morris put the song’s societal influence and importance succinctly: “It has the classic melody. It cuts to the heart.”
That’s likely the reason why musicians love to cover the song so prominently: it has a classic melody that immediately cuts to the heart of many. It makes the listener feel, in one way or another, no matter the interpretation. Its lyrics are just as powerful, whether interpreted as biblical, sexual, or otherwise. It was a gift that Leonard Cohen tortured himself over, and gave to the music world, in both its original form, and in the hundreds of covers that followed.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Cohen. And thank you for your gift of Hallelujah.