Hallelujah
Ten years ago today, Jeff Buckley drowned. He was aged only 30 and he'd released only one CD, 1994's Grace. On that CD was the track Hallelujah, which you can hear today at the NPR website.
Recognise it? You should - it's been on an incredible amount of soundtracks - while it felt particularly at home in The Edukators, to me at least, I'm afraid it was already by then a bit of a soundtrack cliche and I had to wonder if Hans Weingartner had any idea how heavily used the song is.
Rufus Wainwright's cover even plays in Shrek. Shrek. I ask you.
So, even though I've been exposed to this song in countless movies and TV shows - I saw it in epsiodes of Prison Break and House within hours of one another and it's in at least two episodes of The OC - and many of these movies and shows were just plain awful, I still see moving pictures of my own when I hear the song outside of the cinema.
And for me, I'm afraid, that's the mark of song I truly love.
5 comments:
Rufus's version is on the SHREK soundtrack album, but I'm pretty sure during the actual movie, it's John Cale's (definitive, sorry Lenny) version playing.
'Grace' es un gran, gran disco. Aunque el tema 'Hallelujah' es realmente de Leonard Cohen. Buckley hizo una versión tan buena que prácticamente se apropió del tema.
Jeff Buckley's version is also a cover - the song was, of course, written by Leonard Cohen. Buckley's version is the best though - he made the song his own much like Johnny Cash did with Hurt.
I experience the same lucidity when listening to Dream Brother.
Although nothing coaxes untapped visions like Mr. Bungle!
I was quite remiss in not mentioning that Cohen wrote the song. Thanks for adding that here.
As for the Shrek version... I really thought I heard Wainwright in the film. Hmmm. I have been trying to erase the film from my mind, however...
And I agree with the Cash/Hurt comment too.
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