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American Idol hopeful Jason Castro performed his take on the Jeff Buckley interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that won huzzahs from the judges tonight, thus continuing the long, strange journey of Cohen’s song from hyperserious-to-an-almost-satirical-point track to something that everyone, even Simon Cowell, can be moved by. Frequent Idolator guestblogger Mike Barthel wrote a paper on the trajectory of the song–complete with graph!–for last year’s EMP Pop Music Conference, and it’s pretty key reading for anyone who wants to know more about this track that, judging by our Google hits over the past 30 minutes, has been “hidden in plain sight” since its first release some 20-or-so years ago. [clapclap.org]
Jason Castro Drags Leonard Cohen Into The “American Idol” Spotlight
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@ScruffMcGruff: i’ve actually been off learning how to spell ’shrek.’
@ScruffMcGruff: I don’t know which article you’re talking about, but if you mean the clapclap one, I explain that statement pretty well there, I think:
“And this particular–and particularly amazing–trick is a big part of why, no matter how it comes to you, “Hallelujah” always manages to seem like a discovery. It can pass through a thousand corporate paws and be marked by them all, arriving at its destination in the form of a TV show or a mass-market major-label CD or a bunch of pop idols. The song is just so strange–so alien, so smart, so densely packed with signifiers–that it doesn’t seem possible that it’s actually part of mainstream culture, no matter how much mainstream culture embraces it. Clive Davis himself could hand it to you, but this would just seem like evidence of Clive’s human side rather than another slime-dripping part of the corrupt music industry. Its strange incursion of Biblical poetry (as well as, to be honest, Buckley’s unusual guitar work, curse him) seems like nothing more than an anomaly. It’s the Teflon song.”
Also, Grace did sell a few copies.
My god, was that horrific. This show just keeps killing good music. Death by bloated kareoke.
Next week, David Archuleta sings VU’s “I’m Waiting for the Man.”
He was no Jeff Buckley, but I’m willing to bet he was better than Anthony Michael Hall.
i worked with this dumb whore last year, but i was trying to get along with her… and i thought we found something to “bond” over in hallelujah and jeff buckley, until she insisted that it was an ‘old religious song’ and wouldn’t hear of any of my leonard cohen/no, really, it’s about sex nonsense. !!!
@metalkate: But what about the line “And remember when I moved in you and the Holy Ghost was moving too”?
Explain that, heathen.
Great, great article.
I was blown away when Castro sang Hallelujah last night. But that’s because I come to it through Cohen, and almost forget about Buckley most of the time.
Then, when the judges went on, I remembered that the song has a whole new life and meaning for the “kids.”
Still, kudos for actually singing a real song, and actually sounding like the words meant something to him.
That performance was awesome! Jason Castro is the cutest and most talented contestant. Check out this cool site I just found: [www.jasoncastroweb.com] cute photos!!!!
@riospace: I thought the Paultards were finally done. Oh well.
@Adairdevil: I second that. His version is the one that made me fall in love with the song.
Anybody else have nights at the bar consistently plagued by the Buckley version?
@Dick Malone: Besides DMB? There’s a reason Jack Johnson is headlining everything. (I’d also say the Shins and Elliott Smith fit into the “college kid” music mold. And there’s also Kanye and Common, when pasty-white kids want to try hip-hop.)
kd lang did a pretty nifty version, too…
@Adairdevil: You are totes not alone. I actually prefer that version to Cohen’s AND Buckley’s.
@scarletvirtue: @rina: I agree with all of you.
You know, I focused on the song’s status as a sadness signifier because that was what I was interested in, but it’s also true that when not paired with a montage, it tends to denote some combination of sensitivity and technical prowess, like a male Mariah Carey. One thread of “Hallelujah” runs through TV and movies, but the other runs through dorm rooms, and that’s probably the thread that Castro’s picking up. (Judging by the judges’ reaction, successfully.)
I know this Buckley’s a freshman year evergreen, but I’m curious what else college kids listen to these days (besides DMB).
@sicksteanein: Yeah, that lyric is both sexual and religious. The old comparison between earthly and heavenly ecstasy.
Anyhoo, I think it would be even worse if one of these Idol fools attempted a song that’s still more associated with Cohen, like “Suzanne” or “So Long, Maryanne.”
OK, whoever wrote this article needs to be fired, quite obviously. How can you say the song has been “hidden in plain sight” when the one and only thing that made it popular was the cover being on the Shreck soundtrack. For whatever reason, everyone came over it, but how many do you think even know it’s a cover or who it’s by or would know or even like the original? It’s been popular because of and since that movie; where on earth have you been?
I know I stand alone and all, but I still think John Cale’s version (on which Buckley based his) smokes all others.
@riospace: Nope. I’m not going to do that. Sorry.
I don’t think Poubelle was slagging off Kanye and Common; it doesn’t necessarily reflect on an artist if you (correctly) identify some of their fans as poseurs.
Everybody owns a copy of Kind Of Blue; it’s everybody’s first jazz record, and often their last. Does that mean that Kind Of Blue is a crappy record, or that Miles Davis was a hack?
@Poubelle: See, slagging off Common and Kanye as white-kid hip hop is the kind of unexcusably ignorant bullshit that, fortunately, serves as a universal signifier of “douchebag.”