james_nicoll

Jesus H(opping) Christ on his galactic pogo stick, that's bad. I didn't make it through the second verse, myself.

Restored Spanish frescoes of Jesus wept.

*hands you Internet Medal of Honor With Oak Leaf Cluster*

Lyrics bad. Voice...could be worse. At least he has more vocal range than Cohen!

But, really, I couldn't listen to it all...

--Awesome Aud

I absolutely cannot watch that. Unlike akirlu, I couldn't make it through the *first* altered verse in the *written* version.

Now, I'm going to stop listening to Debussy and play the k.d. lang version at the Junos, just to get that religious bilge out of my forebrain.

Why would you want to stop listening to Debussy?

Well, I'll admit I did always wonder where Cohen got that mashup of David and Samson.

ew.... i am deeply disturbed.

I was trying to figure out where he was going with his version of it.. then I remembered, he is xtian, so it must be to hell... really...

Which sense of "fix" was that?

Possibly the "take your pet to the vet" sense of "fix."

People on this thread are winning Internets right and left.

Can't say the same about the "filker."

Wow. That was rather unpleasant.

I've never understood why Leonard Cohen isn't just consigned to the pit of blasphemers by conservative Christians anyway -- what with those lyrics about "I'm the little Jew who wrote the Bible" and all that. But apparently Hallelujah gets performed in all sorts of churches quite regularly, without rewriting. I think maybe they at least take out the kitchen chair verse? dunno.

It seems to me that the least appropriate for singing in church is:
There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Couldn't make it past the first half of the first verse. I cringed in embarrassment for the poor fellow.

Jesus god on a blue surfboard ....

I first heard the music of Hallelujah as walking out music in church, without the lyrics - and got really confused because it brought to mind Jethro Tull's "Wind Up", which I could only decode as a coded act of rebellion by the organist... The only thing I can see Hallelujah brings to Church is the title and some vague ideas about the power of love. I actually think Nathan's rebuke to David is one of the highlights of the bible, but I don't think the video makes the most of that - in fact I'm not sure it even sees that story in the same way as I do, as truth speaking to power rather than one authority talking to another

I saw this yesterday on Slacktivist, and it wasn't until I was thinking about it later that I realised how Leonard Cohen's own Jewishness made this Christian appropriation so much worse. It's not just a bad filk of a powerful song about love and life, it's a Christian appropriation of a song by a Jew about his relationship with God. I mean Leonard Cohen is directly addressing God and talking about faith. That's a hell of a thing to appropriate. Wow.

Though I guess there's a way in which what this moron did to this song is a metaphor for all of Christianity.

Hmm — not "all of Christianity", I think, but certainly a lot of Christian practise.

The appropriation and effacing of the song's Jewish aspects really bothers me as well. It's setting itself up as the "improved" version of the original, and in doing so it blots out the context in which Cohen wrote it. You want to express your feelings about God as a Jew? Well too bad, I'm going to co-opt the bits I like and get rid of the stuff I don't like because it's all about ME ME ME!

Thanks for this. It enabled me to enact an entirely proper revenge on my spouse (for crimes I shall not related here).