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Comment by dylan604 | Hacker News Reader

Leonard Cohen is one of those artists where I tend to much prefer someone else's version of his songs than I do his songs.

I wonder how many people were introduced to him in the late 90s from The Soprano's opening theme?

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> Leonard Cohen is one of those artists where I tend to much prefer someone else's version of his songs than I do his songs.

I disagree. I’m with whoever it was who said “No one can sing a Leonard Cohen song like Leonard Cohen can’t.” Especially the older and more gravelly he got.

I did enjoy his duet with Sharon Robinson on “Boogie Street”, though.

It’s a common mistake, but this wasn’t him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke_Up_This_Morning

His song ‘Nevermind’ was used as the opening theme for season 2 of True Detective. It has a similar mood imo.

We don't know this True Detective Season 2 that you speak of. It went from the first season to the third season. We've all agreed that season 2 never happened. You must have missed the memo. It should be pinned at the top of your Slack channel. It should definitely be listed in HN's policies.

I always thought the Alabama3 track was just a remix of Cohen's

For me it was Rufus Wainright’s cover of Hallelujah from Shrek. I agree though, that his songwriting is often most-elevated in someone else’s hands.

Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah is one of if not the best cover song ever period.

At least in terms of emotive distance between original and cover, I'd say Joe Cocker's version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" beats it.

Cocker's version was so compelling they didn't even bother doing the little flat-VI coda from the original. That's the musical equivalent of going out for a coffee during Final Jeopardy because you're so far ahead.

Check out Jason Isabel and the 400 Unit’s cover of Metallica’s Sad But True.

Even if you’re not a Metallica fan, it’s a fannnnntastic song.

I’m pretty sure it’s John Cale singing in the movie.

A quick search tells me Wainright’s version is on the soundtrack.

I’m down with some nasty bug now and on antibiotics so I may be completely off, but I stand by it being Cale on the movie.

From Wikipedia,

>Cale's version is used in the film Shrek (2001), but Rufus Wainwright's version appears on the soundtrack album.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song...

I like the Wainright cover, but I think there's a direct line from there to Hallelujah becoming a Christmas song. Not that it isn't beautiful, but the song as written is also tinged with irony and without Cohen's winking mixup of the sacred and the profane, it sounds kind of schmaltzy.

Is that pretentious? Hell yeah. Cohen brings out the pretentious side of me because he was such a brilliant writer and it bums me out when his work gets mistaken for platitudes.

Anyone who uses Hallelujah as a Christmas song should be filed with the folks who think Springsteen’s Born in the USA is positively patriotic.

Here’s a cover of his I like, kind of turned on its head.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8eYJwydTxYA

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