[i]MY[/i] "Danny Boy"

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 3:27 am

Somebody posted a clip of "Hallelujah".

Here it is : My Nightmare.

Or if she's not your thang, here's another: Equally Nightmarish.

(Well, no, K.D. Laing was worse.)

I could just about bear it in Shrek. But I have heard this horrible song so many times it is nothing but painful to me. It grates, every time I hear it, and it grates worse when some nitwit of a TV producer decides it will make a great theme for a production because it's significant.
No! It only sounds as though it should be significant. It's irritating and pretentious! I HATE IT!

Sorry about that. Maybe this should be in the rubber room. Anyway, maybe you like this one, maybe not. I really don't mind, as long as I don't have to hear it again.

Post your pet hate!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:13 am

No IB, that is not my nightmare.
I rather like the song, but I must say that the more I hear it, the more diluted my interest in it becomes.

I'll have to give some thought to what might be my personal nightmare.
Wait. It just crawled out of a deep, dank crevice in my subconscious. Thanks.
There is nothing that my station-switching finger reacts more quickly to than Bette Midler starting to croon about how "God is watching us from a distance." Blech.

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:16 am

You don't like the Jeff Buckley version? To me, that's the only cover that's any good.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:18 am

k.d. Lang's version is my favorite.

Maybe you dislike it for the reason that so many people like it: there's so much truth and beauty contained in it.

The crowd gave her a standing ovation for a reason: she is an immeasurably talented vocalist.

If I could sing half as beautifully as she does in that song I would die a happy man.

Hallelujah!!

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:37 am

Hi IB

How about this for murdering the song

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mmbQEQltOwM

On the other hand this blows K D Lang out of the water.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMOdVXAPJ0

David

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:38 am

Thanks, Big Davy, but it's not the singer, in this instance, it's the song.
I really, really, REALLY, REALLY REALLY REALLY do not like this song.

I'm not against Hallelujahs, as such, just Cohen's depressing song, which I have heard so many times, so often, it is now beneath my contempt.

Here's a better Hallelujah!

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:43 am

Dunno how I ever missed this one:

"One Toke Over The Line" as performed on the Lawrence Welk Show, of all things.

They thought it was a "modern spiritual". That's what you get for living in an insulated cultural bubble.

I understand that Brewer and Shipley got busted for copyright violation when they were caught lip-synching their own song. Whatever. What they should have done was lip-synch the Welk version. That would have been hilarious.

BigDavy · Post by **BigDavy** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:52 am

Innocent Bystander wrote:Thanks, Big Davy, but it's not the singer, in this instance, it's the song.
I really, really, REALLY, REALLY REALLY REALLY do not like this song.

I'm not against Hallelujahs, as such, just Cohen's depressing song, which I have heard so many times, so often, it is now beneath my contempt.

Here's a better Hallelujah!

Well IB

My hates are

this song http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UyiLfSHSqds

and this http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=irp8CNj9qBI

and this http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=951z4ym6LIo

David

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:56 am

Nanohedron wrote:Dunno how I ever missed this one:

"One Toke Over The Line" as performed on the Lawrence Welk Show, of all things.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:57 am

I can sympathise with you on all three of those, Big Davy.

I only know "One Toke over the line" from a mention in "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas". Yes. That rendition seemed a little odd, and lacking, somehow. They seemed to lack the substance of the song, so to speak.

chrisoff · Post by **chrisoff** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:07 pm

This topic was covered in The Guardian just the other week:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/ ... ighes.html

Incidentally I love the Jeff Buckley version.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:54 pm

Innocent Bystander wrote:I only know "One Toke over the line" from a mention in "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas". Yes. That rendition seemed a little odd, and lacking, somehow. They seemed to lack the substance of the song, so to speak.

That's the Lawrence Welk Show for you: denatured vanilla as icon and institution, the myth of the Merkin Ozzie-and-Harriet white picket fence as its dogma, champagne its symbolically proffered, but never touched, sacrament, and its de-sexed but silver-throated priests and priestesses in snappy getups, crinoline, and various evening wear. Oh, yes: impossibly perfect hair, too. And all girded 'round with the strains of the piano accordion. Fortunately the show has gone the way of all things. Unfortunately there are still reruns.

Wunnerful, wunnerful.

Performers were held to stringent moral standards: no smoking, no drinking, nothing fishy; they'd probably give you the pink slip for chewing gum. That the song made it past the show's ever-vigilant Guardians of Bland Rectitude is an extraordinarily tasty irony indeed. It's one of those things you would never have expected could happen. Like, ever. But it did. And how can you not love that?

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 1:31 pm

Well here goes..
I have always believed that if Jeff Buckley had not got the family connection and the sudden death to his name, he would never have made it out of the folk club circuit. His version of Cohens great song is dire. Young Wainwright is no better and Alison Crowe..well the least said the most charitable.
Now K.D.Langs version is something I used to listen to an awful lot until I got her most recent album and it contains a bonus disc with four tracks, the last one being a live version of Hallelujah and it is absolutely astonishing in its range, power and passion. I nearly fainted when I heard it never believing that her previous version would be improved on. Unbeatable.
Ould Laughing Lenny makes a grand job of it but K.Ds most recent version is the last word.
Trust me on this

Slan,
D.

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:40 pm

...it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall, the major lift,
the baffled king composing Hallelujah...

Even if that's all there were to the song I would think it was great. I don't actually feel it to be depressing either. It's a "broken" hallelujah, yes, but it's still a hallelujah. I haven't heard all that many versions, but I've never heard a version that could ruin that song.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:23 pm

carrie wrote:...it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall, the major lift,
the baffled king composing Hallelujah...

Even if that's all there were to the song I would think it was great. I don't actually feel it to be depressing either. It's a "broken" hallelujah, yes, but it's still a hallelujah. I haven't heard all that many versions, but I've never heard a version that could ruin that song.

Wonderful thought.

I often wondered, if I had a moment or two to spare, how anybody could find depression in such lyrical and melodic beauty, such intensity.

Being a bit of a Dylan fan..I do know how crappy and pretentious many lyrics look on paper..but give them a melody, a fourth or fifth, and never underestimate the power of the odd argumentive minor against the bare naked lyric and next thing you know you have a song that the whole world is loving.

Anybody..as Carrie as suggested, could sing this song..and probably get away with it. It is one of those rare songs that forces people to take sides..Us and/or Them...

I love it meself,
Slan,
D.