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The Holy or the Broken:Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Asce

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A venerated creator. An adored, tragic interpreter. An uncomplicated, memorable melody. Ambiguous, evocative words. Faith and uncertainty. Pain and pleasure.”

Today, “Hallelujah” is one of the most-performed rock songs in history. It has become a staple of movies and television shows as diverse as Shrek and The West Wing, of tribute videos and telethons. It has been covered by hundreds of artists, including Bob Dylan, U2, Justin Timberlake, and k.d. lang, and it is played every year at countless events—both sacred and secular—around the world.

Yet when music legend Leonard Cohen first wrote and recorded “Hallelujah,” it was for an album rejected by his longtime record label. Ten years later, charismatic newcomer Jeff Buckley reimagined the song for his much-anticipated debut album, Grace. Three years after that, Buckley would be dead, his album largely unknown, and “Hallelujah” still unreleased as a single. After two such commercially disappointing outings, how did one obscure song become an international anthem for human triumph and tragedy, a song each successive generation seems to feel they have discovered and claimed as uniquely their own?

Through in-depth interviews with its interpreters and the key figures who were actually there for its original recordings, acclaimed music journalist Alan Light follows the improbable journey of “Hallelujah” straight to the heart of popular culture. The Holy or the Broken gives insight into how great songs come to be, how they come to be listened to, and how they can be forever reinterpreted.

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来自:Bookreporter.com - Jane Krebs

Review: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"

In THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN, Alan Light almost insists that the reader know more than one version of Leonard Cohen's song, “Hallelujah.” He conducts a wideranging study of first the song itself, including many, many verses and their Biblical and secular origins, and then the story of Jeff Buckley, whose recording was hugely instrumental in the eventual megasuccess of the song. The accounts of the ...


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TungGoodreads

Review: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"

I don't pretend to have an ounce of good taste in music. I'm certain a quick look at the songs on my iPod would confirm that. All that to say my lack of good musical taste may or may not have biased ...


PamelaGoodreads

Review: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"

A quick, informative read about the strange fortunes of a song that has become one of today's most covered and most popular: Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." It was nearly ignored when first released int ...


Jacob StutzmanGoodreads

Review: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"

A microhistory of a single song. I've heard the iconic Buckley version and the Wainwright version, but I like the John Cale version the best. That said, the story of how a single, otherwise forgotten ...


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作者简介

Alan Light was a senior editor at Rolling Stone, founding music editor and editor-in-chief of Vibe, and editor-in-chief of Spin Magazine. He has been a contributor for The New Yorker, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Elle, Mother Jones, and the Oxford American. He is also author of The Skills to Pay the Bills, an oral history of the Beastie Boys.