There’s a light at the end of the digestive tunnel. (Sorry, can’t resist.) Four bowls of broth, two teas, a bit of jello, four glasses of water and an Italian ice have all made it past my pancreas, now once again the cooperative beast it was for close to 61 years before it revolted a week ago, dropping me into a trough of pain and inconvenience.
In the morning I get my first solid food, then start careful eating habits for the duration. If my pancreas agrees, I’m outa here by noon.
Which brings me to this comment by my buddy Chip, pointing to Leonard Cohen performing his song Hallelujah on German television, I’d guess in the mid-80s. (He wrote the song in ’84.) It blew my mind. Leonard is a first-rank poet and songwriter, but also a performer of such unusual calm and grace that I’m stunned by how well his schtick works, even in a hokey TV stage setting.
And these lyrics just give me chills:
There’s a blaze of light in every word. It doesn’t matter which you heard. The holy or the broken Hallelujah. |
I did my best, it wasn’t much. I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch. I told the truth. I didn’t come to fool ya. And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah. |
“Hallelujah” is the Pachelbel Canon of poetic ballads. On YouTube alone, you’ll find outstanding covers by the quartet of Kurt Nilsen, Espen Lind, Askil Holm and Alejandro Fuentes, the Shrek soundtrack, Allison Crowe, Sheryl Crowe, Damien Lieth, Rufus Wainwright, Bon Jovi, Amanda Jenssen, k.d. lang, k.d. lang (again), The OC, Jeff Buckley (many from him) John Cale…
I’ve listened to all of them, some several times, and still I like Leonard’s the best, maybe because his is the only one with the lines I quoted above.
Among my resolutions for life after Liberation is to sustain my love of music, rekindled here in the hospital. It’s not hard, that love. We all have it. Maybe that’s why I like the opening stanza of “Hallelujah”, as everybody sings it. Dig.
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Leonard Cohen is one of my favorite singer/songwriters, and I only recently learned that he is Canadian and Buddhist. ‘Chelsea Hotel” is one of my all time favorites. And I like it when he sings them himself because 1) he can’t sing, and 2) he sounds terminally depressed.
“If music be the food of love, play on.” (That would be Shakespeare. Twelfth Night. I. i) -
It’s hard to beat Jeff Buckley’s version, I think. I also like Wainwright’s. I haven’t seen/heard Cohen’s performance. Unfortunately, the song has been popular on American Idol so it’s a little overdone than, say, 3 years ago. It has such powerful lyrics, I’d hate to see it sung in a hammy or oversentimental way.
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For the curious, a YouTube video of Cohen’s performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI
Get well soon!
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If you feel like more Hallelujah obsession:
http://www.clapclap.org/2007/04/hallelujah.html
Brandi Carlile does a very nice cover. You can buy the live KCRW track at the iTunes Music Store, though I suppose that’s out of the question. :^)
I’m fortunate that I have a young friend at work who keeps me up to date on new music. We both tend to prefer introspective romantics.
In an odd sort of everything’s connected vein, I bought Neil Diamond’s Stones on Thursday night out of some nostalgic impetus. Listening to Suzanne late Friday night led to a search for Leonard Cohen at the iTMS, and I ended up buying Ten New Songs, I’m Your Man, and Dear Heather. Then I pop in to check on your progress and find you riffing on Hallelujah. (I’m in the Buckley camp on this one. Sorry. First heard the song on The West Wing, when Mark Harmon’s Secret Service character was killed.)
A few other recommendations: Emmylou Harris has a new release out – All I Intended to Be. I’ll commend to your attention the track, All You Have is Your Soul, seems appropriate for a Sunday.
Lucinda Williams came to mind a couple of times in following your ordeal, with Are You Alright from West.
If you haven’t heard of Lizz Wright, you need to.
The problem is, the music draws you in, the lyrics make you think and the more you think the less you write. But maybe that’s not really a bad thing either. Something to think about anyway. I’ve got a number of longish meditations that continue to revise themselves in my mind as events alter my perspective. Then I recall Heraclitus: “Silence, healing.” http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/heraclitus.html
Glad you’re feeling better.
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So glad to hear the ordeal is at an end. And thanks for the blogging along the way, it’s good to be able to check in and follow your progress.
Because I seem to find myself linking everyone to this thing, let me pass along “It Doesn’t Matter Which You Heard”: the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, a great study of the song in all of its forms and iterations.
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In another odd bit of semi-synchronicity, I was looking for some Mary Chapin Carpenter lyrics for another thing I’m working on, and I happened to read that she had suffered a pulmonary embolism last year. She recorded a This I Believe segment for NPR about that event. You can listen to it here (if you have the time, I know): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11182405
And the unabridged essay is at Chapin’s site: http://www.marychapincarpenter.com/stories-and-essays/stories/this-i-believe.html
The learning curve of gratitude, indeed.
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Remarkable thread..and favorite is from the CD “Lifted..Songs of the Spirit” http://rufus.jt.org/album.php?i=LiftedSongsoftheSpirit
The Wainwright version is sensational, and there are a number of other cuts, including one Alison Krauss that is equally memorable.
Just glad that you are feeling better, Hallelujah…
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Pingback from links for 2008-06-22 « that dismal science on June 22, 2008 at 12:30 pm
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Hi Doc, you have been in my thoughts over the last week or so, and I am really happy to read you are leaving hostpital today
I just wanted to backtrack to one of your music posts to recommend to you the lovely long live rambly Van Morrison version of ‘Caravan’ on his ‘Too Late to Stop Now’ album. And his song ‘In the days before rock n roll’, a kind of enigmatic homage to the part wireless and pirate radio stations played in his childhood, and in delivering the music of the early rockers to that generation.
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One of my favorites is Bono’s version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA048pcITlAYou gotta appreciate Tower of Song right now too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtMFdBsWICs&feature=relatedClosing time is great too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrPEM2qc-j8&feature=relatedTrivia – Leonard was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame this year – his acceptance is out there on Youtube somewhere too….
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Glad you like it. His poetry is pretty good too – first picked it up as a kid in rural Canadian high school.
There is a pretty good recent movie called “I’m your man” that you may want to see….
A new one to hum – Anthem. Methinks you’ll like it. About as inspirational – and political – as Leonard gets…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjtE2-dLjSs
“Ring the bells that still can ring”
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