I hate Leonard Cohen now.

[kaylasdad99]

@EinsteinsHund

Surely a religious song, if not a hymn. Was there ever a hymn without a whistle?

Do slide whistles count?

[kaylasdad99]

@dropzone

And the goal of that is to get the singer laid. . “Ooh! He’s deep! I must sleep.with him.”

@elucidator

Wait. That works?

As the undisputed karaoke champ of Beeman Center Enlisted Club for two years running (1988-89), I’m here to tell you: No.

[kaylasdad99]

@RTFirefly

The New Yorker piece that was linked to upthread seems to say he didn’t have that much formal music training:
And even if he did have more musical training and knowledge of music theory than the article suggests:

If it was that easy, if a knowledge of music theory could teach people to write powerful (if emotionally manipulative) melodies - as someone who happens to think this is a great song, how come there aren’t a lot more songs that are good in the way this one is??

I think it’s bullshit. It’s not that easy to compose a ‘sure-fire hit,’ and incidentally, this song wasn’t. Cohen released the song in 1984 to little acclaim; nobody covered it until 1991. And it didn’t really become the big deal it’s become until its use in the Shrek soundtrack in 2001.

Waitaminute.

You mean SHREK is a Christmas movie now?

[foolsguinea]

@JRDelirious

I have yet to hear a Spanish-language version of Cohen’s Hallellujah that is not overtly Religious. And there’s millions of Latin American Catholics who for a generation now have grown up hearing the Lord’s Prayer part of Mass sung to the tune of S&G’s* The Sound of Silence*, which as far as I’m concerned is just wrong in both directions.

Since I don’t go to Spanish-language masses (or any masses) I didn’t know this was being done to the Lord’s Prayer.

Yes, that is terrible in both directions.

[Guest-starring_Id]

I’m pretty sure Homeward Bound would’ve been way more lord’s prayer-y.

Hence:

I’m sittin’ in the railway station
Got a ticket to my destination

is only a couple more syllables more than:

Our Father, who/which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy bame.

So you can totally mash the two together, and then do accordingly for the remainder. Makes the prayer more folksy, warmer.

[Atamasama]

Hallelujah would have been a Christmas song if it was in the sound track to Die Hard.

ducks and runs away from the thread

[foolsguinea]

No, that’s a good point.

[Baker]

@JRDelirious

I have yet to hear a Spanish-language version of Cohen’s Hallellujah that is not overtly Religious. And there’s millions of Latin American Catholics who for a generation now have grown up hearing the Lord’s Prayer part of Mass sung to the tune of S&G’s* The Sound of Silence*, which as far as I’m concerned is just wrong in both directions.

This is going off on a tangent but have you read anything from Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series? In it a large piece of ground in West Virginia is transported back to the Germanies of 1631. In one story from the series a German priest who has become acquainted with the Americans is borrowing music for new hymns. One song for children goes to the tune of “Moon River” He also remarks that translating English to German for songs is easier that with other languages.

*I’m sorry,
Sorry for my sins…
*

I did hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “Come, Come, Ye Saints” in Spanish.

[Alessan]

@foolsguinea

Since I don’t go to Spanish-language masses (or any masses) I didn’t know this was being done to the Lord’s Prayer.

Yes, that is terrible in both directions.

You think that’s the first time a piece of popular music was adapted as a religious hymn? Back in college, my wife took a class on Jewish religious music, and she would come home and tell me how many well-known *zemirot *were actually based on popular 13th-Century German or Spanish non-religious (and non-Jewish) folk ballads. It’s perfectly normal - a pop song can become a religious song, a religious song can become a protest song, a drinking song can become a national anthem. It’s all good.

[Junior_Spaceman]

@Alessan

… a religious song can become a protest song …

A great example of this is Uncle Tupelo’s version of ‘Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down’, which in the context of their record becomes a song damning capitalism and imperialism.