Leonard Cohen has always been an artist I’ve appreciated over the years. His voice is like no other. Here’s “I’m Your Man” to give you an idea of what he sounds like if you’ve never heard this man sing before:
I remember studying quite a bit of his poetry and other writings when studying literature in high school and also at university in College Militaire Royale de Sainte Jean just outside of Montreal, Quebec. Leonard Cohen is a well-respected Canadian artist, songwriter, poet, singer and novelist. Click here to read more about this fascinating Jewish Canadian from Montreal, Canada, at Wikipedia. One of his best known pieces, Halleluja, has been covered by many artists. (“Hallelujah” is Greek (the Latin form being “Alleluia”) and comes from the Hebrew express “הללו יה” meaning “Praise God” or “Praise Jah”, with “Jah/Yah” being a shortened form of the name of God, Yahweh, or YHWH as revealed in the Jewish and Christian scriptures). It seems that at least one person sings it each season on American Idol. Here is one version that someone shared with me on facebook today which is rather good, performed by Jodi Irvine, Alana Lincoln and Morgan Keesler:
I prefer hearing the original artist myself and feel that his version still outdoes them all. Here he is on his VEVO youtube page singing “Hallelujah” like only he can:
I love those lyrics…”And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand right here before the LORD of Song with nothing, nothing on my tongue but “Hallelujah”.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this segment of “Andy’s Musical Appreciation Post”. You can probably get a good sense of how old I’m getting from my musical tastes, huh?! 😉 Any other Leonard Cohen fans out there?!
Andy in Oman 