Leonard Cohen
― pretty hat machine (crüt), Friday, 26 November 2010 12:33 (thirteen years ago) link
This poll was my idea and I didn't want so many options. Thanks mate.
― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Friday, 26 November 2010 12:43 (thirteen years ago) link
dear..
― Mark G, Friday, 26 November 2010 14:46 (thirteen years ago) link
1.Jeff Buckley2.Leonard Cohen3.John Cale4.KD Lang5.Gord Downie6.Daisy Chapman7.Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen8.Rufus Wainwright9.Nora Foss al Jabri10.Regina Spector11.Bob Dylan12.Willie Nelson (Ryan Adams and the Cardinals)13.Alexandra Burke14.Imogen Heap15.Katherine Jenkins16.Anthony Michael Hall17.Kathryn Williams18.Allison Crowe19.Happy Mondays20.Diana Vickers21.Fall Out Boy22.Bono23.Blake24.Il Divo25.Barrel House Mamas26.Patricia O’Callaghan27.Bon Jovi28.Christina Marie29.Dresden Dolls30.Damien Rice31.Sheryl Crow32.The Junebugs33.Tony Lucca34.Elisa35.Chris Botti36.Clare Bowditch (Australian)37.Eric Beverly38.Erik Flaa39.Euan Morton and Denise Summers40.Arooj Aftab41.Gavin de Graw42.Jack Lukeman43.John Jerome44.Kate Noson45.K’s Choice46.Late Tuesday47.Lucky Jim48.Macbrolan49.Ari Hest50.Tim Minchin
― the 'Friends' experiment (Pillbox), Friday, 26 November 2010 15:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 4 December 2010 00:01 (thirteen years ago) link
36.Clare Bowditch (Australian)
50.Tim Minchin
Which Tim Minchin is it, then?
― i'm assuming that it's tity boi, host of the mixtape (sic), Saturday, 4 December 2010 03:39 (thirteen years ago) link
ha, bon jovi has really covered this song? eep. Cale's is the best version.
― tylerw, Saturday, 4 December 2010 03:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Cale.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 4 December 2010 03:44 (thirteen years ago) link
It is kind of fucked up but this song just makes me think of Shrek now.
― Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Saturday, 4 December 2010 03:45 (thirteen years ago) link
hm, a good reason to never see shrek. i know this song has become overexposed in the last decade or so, but I've fortunately managed to avoid hearing a lot of these versions. it is still a pretty fucking monumental piece of songwriting to me.
― tylerw, Saturday, 4 December 2010 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Rufus Wainwright
― ZOUNDS! (CaptainLorax), Saturday, 4 December 2010 04:06 (thirteen years ago) link
ctrl-f "justin timberlake" = no results
― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 4 December 2010 04:11 (thirteen years ago) link
― i'm assuming that it's tity boi, host of the mixtape (sic), Saturday, December 4, 2010 3:39 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Tim Minchin, presumably the "ginger-haired piano playing comedian"
― Mark G, Saturday, 4 December 2010 10:30 (thirteen years ago) link
1.Jeff Buckley2.Leonard Cohen3.John Cale4.KD Lang8.Rufus Wainwright
These are the only ones I've heard. I think the first one I heard was Buckley's and I really liked it at the time, but I didn't know it was a Cohen song even though I was listening to a lot of Cohen at the time too. Now the only one I really like is Cohen's original.
― Chaka Mo Khanlier (kkvgz), Saturday, 4 December 2010 14:53 (thirteen years ago) link
Cohen's, in part for Jennifer Warnes.
― A Toast to the Horshacks/Dvořáks (Eazy), Saturday, 4 December 2010 16:40 (thirteen years ago) link
somehow have only heard Cohen and Buckley. and I hear Buckleys first, as an emo teen, and didn't know it was a cover until years later. so
― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Saturday, 4 December 2010 16:50 (thirteen years ago) link
can
― a nan, a bal, an anal ― (abanana), Saturday, 4 December 2010 17:03 (thirteen years ago) link
cale
― balls, Saturday, 4 December 2010 17:08 (thirteen years ago) link
cake
― A Toast to the Horshacks/Dvořáks (Eazy), Saturday, 4 December 2010 17:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 5 December 2010 00:01 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guL4KgkheoM
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:09 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJbYWPEaxw
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:16 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dC-Ccb8wxU
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Satanic backwards exorcist version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWGo_aJ2iE&feature=related
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:29 (thirteen years ago) link
He's Australian.
― i'm assuming that it's tity boi, host of the mixtape (sic), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:45 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZYs9vaMlPw
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 07:49 (thirteen years ago) link
This song has turned into Amazing Grace, and I mean that in a very bad way. Abbott is right about Shrek being the culprit.
― Chaka Mo Khanlier (kkvgz), Sunday, 5 December 2010 12:03 (thirteen years ago) link
My most hated song.
― abcfsk, Sunday, 5 December 2010 13:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Maybe you can blame Shrek for (re)popularizing this tune, but the actual scene in Shrek where it's used is very well done and touching.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 5 December 2010 13:40 (thirteen years ago) link
When the scene started, at first I was like "omg, they're using that old Leonard Cohen song in a scene where a green ogre is heartbroken because of a princess", but in the end I was basically in tears.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 5 December 2010 13:44 (thirteen years ago) link
I heard there was a secret pollThat Mark G made to please a troll
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:34 (thirteen years ago) link
i like Cale's voice but not singing this song, just doesn't work for me. don't hate Bono but his version may be the worst. Fall Out Boy don't really cover this song, they have a song called "Hum Hallelujah" that references it and interpolates the chorus for a few bars is all.
― some dude, Sunday, 5 December 2010 15:43 (thirteen years ago) link
lol lol eazy
― The Dumbest Jews on the Planet (and Maureen Dowd) (symsymsym), Monday, 6 December 2010 08:31 (thirteen years ago) link
4.KD Lang 1
Seriously underrated imo
― Lightning Is For Babies (Johnny Fever), Monday, 6 December 2010 08:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Yet bees can sometimes look like they won't sting you
― Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 09:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Shit happens like this and when you seeyet even more versions, the fourth the fifthit baffles you and you scream "NO MORE HALLELUJAH!!!!"
― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, 6 December 2010 13:02 (thirteen years ago) link
fall out boy
― purblind snowcock splattered (a hoy hoy), Monday, 6 December 2010 13:21 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost doesn't rhyme and the syllables are all wrong. Still, it works as a rap.
― Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 14:22 (thirteen years ago) link
The syllables work if you approach them like a Bob Dylan, a Bruce Springsteen, a Paul Simon or a Joni Mitchell. :)
― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, 6 December 2010 14:51 (thirteen years ago) link
OK, still doesn't rhyme.
― Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 14:53 (thirteen years ago) link
and there's something going on herebut you don't really care for music, do you, Mr Geir?
― Mark G, Monday, 6 December 2010 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link
― Chaka Mo Khanlier (kkvgz), Sunday, December 5, 2010 7:03 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Or maybe even "I Got You Babe".
― kkvgz, Monday, 13 December 2010 20:24 (thirteen years ago) link
― Mark G, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 09:29 (twelve years ago) link
― would like a calmer set (Eazy), Sunday, December 5, 2010 10:34 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark
lol
― Black_vegeta (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, 17 July 2012 02:54 (eleven years ago) link
Do any of the cover versions use the lyrics of the original Cohen studio version? The last verse about standing before the lord of song has always been the most powerful of the verses for me, but it seems like every cover version I've heard springs from Cale's cover which used alternate lyrics that Cohen provided him.
― Fetchboy, Monday, 8 July 2013 08:31 (ten years ago) link
OH: "That's not a love song, it's a song they play on telethons when lots of people have died..."
!!!!!
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 18 September 2013 04:59 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItXygU9SJCA
― everybody loves lana del raymond (s.clover), Tuesday, 11 November 2014 16:52 (nine years ago) link
I wish Cohen recorded a simple guitar or piano arrangement of this, with him singing. His phrasing is better than the cover artists (because he wrote it) but the production feels dated.
― treeship., Thursday, 1 July 2021 12:19 (two years ago) link
There is no perfect recording of this song, is what I’m saying. It remains pure potential, a shadow on a wall, an Orphic ceremony on the side of an urn.
― treeship., Thursday, 1 July 2021 12:20 (two years ago) link
This song has turned into Amazing Grace, and I mean that in a very bad way. Abbott is right about Shrek being the culprit.― Chaka Mo Khanlier (kkvgz), Sunday, December 5, 2010 7:03 AM (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Chaka Mo Khanlier (kkvgz), Sunday, December 5, 2010 7:03 AM (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink
This is sort of true but I think the greatness of the song allows it to transcend the people who misunderstand the nuances of it. The real sentiment of the song has nothing to do with the shlocky uses it’s put to.
― treeship., Thursday, 1 July 2021 12:23 (two years ago) link
Cohen's live versions get around the production of the original.
I think it's become a ceremonial standard in part because, unlike Amazing Grace et. al., it sounds religious but isn't religious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3XRVJDfjnQ
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Thursday, 1 July 2021 13:44 (two years ago) link