FARK.com: (4503086) If you're thinking of covering a song, Leonard Cohen would appreciate it if you'd leave "Hallelujah" alone. "The Final Countdown," on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable

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		If you're thinking of covering a song, Leonard Cohen would appreciate it if you'd leave "Hallelujah" alone. "The Final Countdown," on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable (contactmusic.com)		64
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3100 clicks; posted to PSA on 11 Jul 2009 at 5:33 AM | Favorite | share:

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Bathia_Mapes

2009-07-11 12:32:44 AM

The most brilliant cover of Final Countdown EVAR.

dodecahedron

2009-07-11 12:32:59 AM

I heard there was a sacred chord that David used, and it pleased the Lord,
But Leonard Cohen don't want you to use it.

GAT_00

2009-07-11 01:01:08 AM

Bathia_Mapes: The most brilliant cover of Final Countdown EVAR.

No, this is the most brilliant cover of The Final Countdown ever.

/with apologies to TMLO

Richard Saunders

2009-07-11 01:42:42 AM

In before GOB reference.

the_be_sharps

2009-07-11 02:12:06 AM

submitter: Leonard Cohen would appreciate it if you'd leave "Hallelujah" alone.

Simon Cowell disagrees (^).

bobbette

2009-07-11 03:45:08 AM

I hate every self-important attention whore who covers Hallelujah.

GreenAdder

2009-07-11 05:02:56 AM

I thought Everybody Knows that.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener

2009-07-11 05:11:57 AM

Bathia_Mapes: The most brilliant cover of Final Countdown EVAR.

GAT_00: No, this is the most brilliant cover of The Final Countdown ever.

With all due respect, good people, THIS is the most brilliant cover of "The Final Countdown" ever! (pops)

Hollerin Charlie

2009-07-11 05:46:15 AM

H2RV2Y, HARVEY, h4rv4y
DENT, Arthur Dent.
God save the queen
Need decoders on 4chan, goog, yahoo, twat, and koobface

Myfriendster bookenstien was careless and was fingered.

You know who else got fingered? Freddy, Kenny, and Heath

I'm following McCain's patriotic example and letting FARK scab over.

My password is obvious to my followers, who are all red and tell frequent lies, and cant spell gud.

This is a chemical burn - it causes premature enlightenment.

Ash cut his hand off - which one? Ask Michael Weston - he knows how to follow the breadcrumbs

Do NOT follow the Whyte Rabbit or #skyn3t - the freeways on I95 are a bowling @LANE

Find SARAH before Cyberdyne does - none of us are unbreakable

/remember that thous art mortal
//sick men of asia unite
///Get in Here, everyone!
////Colbert likes tube socks from walmart, like the teasbagger he @IS uh.

-time's up, lovers of metal

LonMead

2009-07-11 05:50:59 AM

"The Final Countdown," on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable

No, no it isn't.

gwowen

2009-07-11 05:54:22 AM

Why are all these ContactMusic things greenlit, when all they are is a bad precis of a better article? Here's the Guardian interview referenced, which is itself just a cut down version of a CBC interview.

Limbofark

2009-07-11 07:02:31 AM

Apart from Buckley's version, I haven't heard a cover of Hallelujah, which added anything significant to the original version. They're all nice though, but that's really only because the song itself is brilliant. The cover by U2 is at least very different, but unfortunately it sucks terribly.

notmtwain

2009-07-11 07:26:20 AM

gwowen: Why are all these ContactMusic things greenlit, when all they are is a bad precis of a better article? Here's the Guardian interview referenced, which is itself just a cut down version of a CBC interview.

What you said. Precis-ly. A moratorium on these articles which just provide an inadequate and often inaccurate summary of another is required. For copyright purposes, if for no other.

If only this site had some sort of editorial function.

GonzoNihilist

2009-07-11 07:47:28 AM

I agree subby and besides Rufus Wainright totally owns that song now.

gunsmack

2009-07-11 07:48:42 AM

John Cale, Rufus Wainwright, k.d. lang, Jeff Buckley and Alexandra Burke

Who?

incircles

2009-07-11 08:08:11 AM

The only two versions that matter are his recent live take on it and John Cale's cover. Jeff Buckley's is too melodramatic (don't even get me started with k.d. lang, as good as she is) and the original buried the sincerity under too many layers of irony.

RoyBatty

2009-07-11 08:25:47 AM

I am partial to the Mike Myers version he sang in Shrek.

/runs away

Goonie_Goo_Goo

2009-07-11 08:45:58 AM

Once Jeff Buckley sang it, he claimed it for his own, both now and forevermore.

incircles

2009-07-11 08:54:38 AM

Goonie_Goo_Goo: Once Jeff Buckley sang it, he claimed it for his own, both now and forevermore.

I refute you thus:

Hallelujah live in 2009

heavythumb

2009-07-11 10:08:21 AM

This version of TFC doesn't get enough credit around here:

Link

(wait for it, wait for it...)

MrLint

2009-07-11 10:11:44 AM

Final Countdown cello and orchestra (new window)

FriarReb98

2009-07-11 10:20:32 AM

John Cale. I didn't even get past "was" in Cohen's version linked above.

Of course, when a song has dozens of versions of it out there, it's hard to say that it belongs to anyone.

\sings "Hallelujah" on a regular basis with my group
\\even as a singer, I've never got the fascination with Buckley

kellecaster

2009-07-11 10:22:05 AM

Hallelujah Leonard... Make it stop.

Pentaxian

2009-07-11 10:44:55 AM

Great cover of "First We take Manhattan" with Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar (new window)

PinocchioDeBergerac

2009-07-11 11:29:06 AM

dodecahedron: I heard there was a sacred chord that David used, and it pleased the Lord,
But Leonard Cohen don't want you to use it.

That was a better headline.

CMBuckeye08

2009-07-11 11:33:51 AM

Came for the flame-thrower sex references leaving disappointed.

dothemath

2009-07-11 12:02:25 PM

"What about Use Your Illusion? Some band already used it? Fine, Ill go with Use Your Illusion II."

"Does anyone smell lighter fluid?"

AufDerFlucht76

2009-07-11 12:19:14 PM

Well, I was actually thinking about covering "Suzanne". Strangely enough, it also happens to be the name of my boyfriend's mother.

theorellior

2009-07-11 12:49:44 PM

Sorry. This is the best version.

Silovik

2009-07-11 01:14:20 PM

FriarReb98: John Cale. I didn't even get past "was" in Cohen's version linked above.

Of course, when a song has dozens of versions of it out there, it's hard to say that it belongs to anyone.

\sings "Hallelujah" on a regular basis with my group
\\even as a singer, I've never got the fascination with Buckley

Buckley owns it, but the only horrible take on the song is Cohen anyhow

RemyDuron

2009-07-11 01:41:22 PM

Wainwright's version is like head and shoulders above the rest. That may make me a tasteless heathen, but it's just better. Leonard's is good, but his voice just isn't suited to the song IMO. Leonard is a much better singer/songwriter overall than Wainwright, but Wainwright is absolutely perfect for that song.

Buckley's is just meh, never gotten why people like it so much.

JDIAH GDizzleCKY

2009-07-11 01:59:03 PM

Hollerin Charlie: H2RV2Y, HARVEY, h4rv4y
DENT, Arthur Dent.
God save the queen
Need decoders on 4chan, goog, yahoo, twat, and koobface

Myfriendster bookenstien was careless and was fingered.

You know who else got fingered? Freddy, Kenny, and Heath

I'm following McCain's patriotic example and letting FARK scab over.

My password is obvious to my followers, who are all red and tell frequent lies, and cant spell gud.

This is a chemical burn - it causes premature enlightenment.

Ash cut his hand off - which one? Ask Michael Weston - he knows how to follow the breadcrumbs

Do NOT follow the Whyte Rabbit or #skyn3t - the freeways on I95 are a bowling @LANE

Find SARAH before Cyberdyne does - none of us are unbreakable

/remember that thous art mortal
//sick men of asia unite
///Get in Here, everyone!
////Colbert likes tube socks from walmart, like the teasbagger he @IS uh.

-time's up, lovers of metal

msp153.photobucket.com

00ghost27

2009-07-11 02:21:39 PM

redsquid

2009-07-11 02:37:09 PM

While we're on the subject- can we get a ban on covering 'Brown Eyed Girl'?

Rev. Skarekroe

2009-07-11 03:12:45 PM

I think it's a boring song that goes nowhere anyway.

Walkens Syndrome

2009-07-11 03:40:53 PM

Cale. Cale Cale Cale!
Buckley is quite good, though.

nitroglycerine

2009-07-11 04:28:43 PM

Rockabilly Final Countdown (new window, The only Final Countdown that matters.

Quotizmo

2009-07-11 05:26:06 PM

RemyDuron: Wainwright's version is like head and shoulders above the rest. That may make me a tasteless heathen, but it's just better. Leonard's is good, but his voice just isn't suited to the song IMO. Leonard is a much better singer/songwriter overall than Wainwright, but Wainwright is absolutely perfect for that song.

Buckley's is just meh, never gotten why people like it so much.

Absolutely correct. Even Tim Minchin's version with some broad on Youtube resonates more than Leonard's original (his part, not hers).
How-the-fark-ever. I'll agree that no one needs to remake 'Everybody Knows'. Cohen's voice is perfect for that piece and it says all it needs to say.

If it is good enough for Happy Harry Hard-on, it is good enough for me.

SockMonkeyHolocaust

2009-07-11 06:19:59 PM

because he fears music fans will grow tired of the song if they keep hearing it.

Too late. That song is a litmus result for bad taste in music like the Harry Potter series is to books.

00ghost27

2009-07-11 06:35:37 PM

steamingpile

2009-07-11 07:31:14 PM

00ghost27: RemyDuron: Wainwright's version is like head and shoulders above the rest. That may make me a tasteless heathen, but it's just better. Leonard's is good, but his voice just isn't suited to the song IMO. Leonard is a much better singer/songwriter overall than Wainwright, but Wainwright is absolutely perfect for that song.

Buckley's is just meh, never gotten why people like it so much.

your shiat's all retarded

His shiat is beyond retarded, wainwritghts version is for kids who like music with zero soul, in a work is sucks.

SockMonkeyHolocaust: Too late. That song is a litmus result for bad taste in music like the Harry Potter series is to books.

Only to those that only can reference it from the versions on talent or wainwright, I dont understand why hes popular, he can barely sing, I guess hes a spears type singer, not talent just a rabid following that have no taste in music.

AgentOrangeDrink

2009-07-11 07:35:28 PM

Silovik: FriarReb98: John Cale. I didn't even get past "was" in Cohen's version linked above.

Of course, when a song has dozens of versions of it out there, it's hard to say that it belongs to anyone.

\sings "Hallelujah" on a regular basis with my group
\\even as a singer, I've never got the fascination with Buckley

Buckley owns it, but the only horrible take on the song is Cohen anyhow

Cohen? Horrible? What?

/For a different Cohen cover, I recommend The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Tower of Song" to all of you.

steamingpile

2009-07-11 07:37:29 PM

Also its placement in watchmen was one of the most misplaced songs ever.

austerity101

2009-07-11 08:35:25 PM

He's still alive? Wow, I had no idea.

Cohen falls into the same category for me as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and also Dresden Dolls and Magnetic Fields, which is "Wrote good songs, but get someone else to sing them."

/Tori's cover of Famous Blue Raincoat is great.
//just because you can write good music doesn't mean you should be the one to perform it.
///unless you're Carole King.

wildcatfan82

2009-07-11 09:06:20 PM

steamingpile: Also its placement in watchmen was one of the most misplaced songs ever.

This.

That's the exact moment several people in our showing walked out.

Skullduggery

2009-07-11 09:26:40 PM

SockMonkeyHolocaust: because he fears music fans will grow tired of the song if they keep hearing it.

Too late. That song is a litmus result for bad taste in music like the Harry Potter series is to books.

Oh... Darn. I love Cohen and Harry Potter. I'm glad to know I have no taste though.

/I have an excuse, been reading HP since age 8. I still love it.

susansto-helit

2009-07-11 09:42:48 PM

Skullduggery: SockMonkeyHolocaust: because he fears music fans will grow tired of the song if they keep hearing it.

Too late. That song is a litmus result for bad taste in music like the Harry Potter series is to books.

Oh... Darn. I love Cohen and Harry Potter. I'm glad to know I have no taste though.

/I have an excuse, been reading HP since age 8. I still love it.

Lawn...off...you know the drill.

/still likes Cohen and Harry
//Buckley has the best cover of "Hallelujah"

NeuroticRocker

2009-07-11 11:26:43 PM

im actually writing a short story now that may come out to be around 30 pages. its untitled right now but the epitaph at the beginning is from that song.

"All I ever learned from love was how to shoot someone who outdrew you."-Leonard Cohen

(copied from file)

Skullduggery

2009-07-11 11:39:55 PM

susansto-helit: Skullduggery: SockMonkeyHolocaust: because he fears music fans will grow tired of the song if they keep hearing it.

Too late. That song is a litmus result for bad taste in music like the Harry Potter series is to books.

Oh... Darn. I love Cohen and Harry Potter. I'm glad to know I have no taste though.

/I have an excuse, been reading HP since age 8. I still love it.

Lawn...off...you know the drill.

/still likes Cohen and Harry
//Buckley has the best cover of "Hallelujah"

But but but I made my parents take me to see Lou Reed, The Who (well, the two surviving members...), Jethro Tull, and Leonard Cohen. Your lawn, if I'm quiet and well behaved may I please stay on it?

marius2

2009-07-12 12:00:26 AM

Best (and only listenable version?)

Liebling, ich war hier schon mal
Der Raum ist noch genauso kahl
Ich lebte hier bevor ich dich kannte
Deine Flagge weht, das ist nicht genug
Liebe ist kein Triumphzug
Sie ist nur ein schwaches
Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja
Halleluja, Halleluja

Es gab eine Zeit, da wußte ich
All die Dinge über dich
Aber du zeigst mir davon nichts mehr
Ich erinnere mich, daß ich in dir war
Dein heißer Atem war ganz nah
Und jeder deiner Seufzer ein
Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja
Halleluja, Halleluja

Vielleicht gibt es einen Gott
Vielleicht lebt er in demselben Trott
Und hat längst vergessen, daß wir ihn brauchen
Von mir wird er keine Klage hören
Ich werde dich und ihn nicht stören
Das hier ist nur ein leises
Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja
Halleluja, Halleluja

Ich tat mein Bestes, das war nicht viel
Ich weiß, so kommen wir nie ans Ziel
Doch ich bin nicht hier, um dich zu täuschen
Erwarte jetzt nicht mehr von mir
Ich stehe noch einmal vor dir
Mit nichts als einem letzten
Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja
Halleluja, Halleluja

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