Merry XXX-Mas + Song.

I’m going off to Phoenix for the holidays, after work today. So I won’t be around. Just wanna wish everyone a merry XXX-Mas. If you celebrate Kwanza.. well, go get a real holiday. If you’re jewish - I hope your hanukkah went well and now you can laugh at us silly 1-day-holiday fuckers :)

I gotta keep up w/my song of the week stuff here. This one’s a bit older, from the early 90s. Oddly enough, however, not a lot of people know of it. Those who do know of it have heard Rufus Wainwright’s version of it in Shrek. I don’t think that’s a bad cover per se, but there’s a much better one.

I’m talking about "Hallelujah" from Jeff Buckley. Now, the original song was written by Leonard Cohen and I can’t for the life of me figure out the whole story behind this track - as Cohen himself has done at least 2-3 versions with alternate lyrics, riffs, backing vocals, etc. In trying to find the lyrics for the song, you’ll almost never be able to match up what you’re hearing with what you’re reading because of these different versions. Best I can tell, Buckley did a mix of his favorite variations on the lyrics for this cover. Rufus Wainwright just out-and-out copied Buckley’s version (which was a pretty severe deviation from the original, lyrically and in tonality).

Okay then - download the damn thing.
And cry. I almost did a few times.

If time, money, talent, and… whatever else… allows me to work on and finish my solo album (which may or may not happnen) I’m strongly considering covering this track as well. Though, I’d be doing it the Buckley way with a slight deviation, and I don’t wanna be no Wainwright. Still.. my runner-up choice for a cover song would be Tom Waits - Ol’ 55 but I think ed_dirt would get on a plane to California just to beat me senseless for desecrating perfection like that.

I’m out kids. Have a good’n.

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