BATTLE OF THE BANDS ~ HALLELUJAH

Time is flying.

If you are looking at the date and thinking "today is not the 15th," you are correct. The next Battle of the Bands post is SUPPOSED to fall on the 15th. However, that backs right up to Thursday and my HERE'S TO YOU post. Of course, that post might (emphasis on might) be delayed until Friday if I don't find that YouTube inspiration to correspond to your posts.

I am pretty psyched about my song for this battle. Sometimes I am excited before I start looking and then I deflate a bit. This time, the more I worked on this battle, the better I liked it. I am going to share some information that I found on Wikipedia, simply because I found it *fascinating.* And, I like to think, that if I find something Fascinating, one or two ore more of you will, too.

The song for this battle is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Here are some of the juicy bits from Wikipedia:

"Hallelujah", in its original version, is a song in "6/8 feel", which evokes both waltz and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression "goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift": C, F, G, A minor, F.^[7]

Cohen wrote around 80 draft verses for "Hallelujah", with one writing session at the Royalton Hotel in New York where he was reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, banging his head on the floor.^[8] His original version, as recorded on his Various Positions album, contains several biblical references, most notably evoking the stories of Samson and traitorous Delilah from the Book of Judges as well as the adulterous King David and Bathsheba:^[9] "she cut your hair" and "you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you".^[7]

Following his original 1984 studio-album version, Cohen performed the past original song on his world tour in 1985, but live performances during his 1988 and 1993 tours almost invariably contained a quite different set of lyrics with only the last verse being common to the two versions.

Wowza. 80 draft verses that resulted in him sitting on the floor (in his underwear) banging his head on the floor. People, that is commitment. Leonard Cohen knew that there was magic in this song and was determined to find it. If you look up Cohen's version of this song on YouTube, you will find him singing it differently nearly every time. For the sake of this battle, we are going to go with the ORIGINAL RECORDING.

The song was originally released on his album Various Positions (1984)  The studio didn't really want to record it. It was never released as a single. And it was fairly obscure until John Cale covered it on his album,  I'm Your Fan (1991), a Leonard Cohen tribute album, and later on his live album Fragments of a Rainy Season (1992).

Let's listen to the original Leonard Cohen recording:



If you are more familiar with the covers off of Cale's cover, you are aware that Cohen's Original Recording includes verses others chose to leave out (and puts in verses this one leaves out). So, the essence of the song really changes with the change in lyrics.Well, that isn't the only thing that changes.  But, let me get there....

Back to Wikipedia...
Jeff Buckley, inspired by Cale's earlier cover, recorded one of the best-known^[22] versions of "Hallelujah" for his only complete album, Grace, in 1994. Later, in 2007 it was released as single.

Buckley's version was not an instant hit, nor did Buckley live to see the full measure of the reception his recording would ultimately have; he died in 1997. The album on which it appeared did not go Gold in the U.S. until 2002, nine years after its release. In fact, like Cohen's original, the Buckley version was never released as a single, and it first charted posthumously in 2006.

In 2004, Buckley's version was ranked number 259 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".^[3] The same year Time called Buckley's version "exquisitely sung," observing "Cohen murmured the original like a dirge, but ... Buckley treated the ... song like a tiny capsule of humanity, using his voice to careen between glory and sadness, beauty and pain... It's one of the great songs."[23

In March of 2006, Buckley had his first national Top 10 bestseller when "Hallelujah" was number seven in Norway. In 2007 it made the top 3 on the Swedish charts. In March 2008 it topped Billboard's Hot Digital Songs in the U.S. after a performance of the song by Jason Castro in the seventh season of American Idol.^[26][27][28] The sudden resurgence of interest provided both Gold and Platinum status, the RIAA certifying the digital track on 22 April 2008.^[29] It has sold 1,144,000 digital copies in the US as of May 2010.^[30] It also hit number one in France in March 2008.

Notice that Buckley never lived to see the success of this song. He never read any of the positive reviews.

Here is his version of the song:



Aside from the lyric changes - which completely change the feel of the song - Buckley also changed the arrangement significantly. His interpretation of the vocals is vastly different from Cohen's, evoking a different feeling entirely.

In the end, I think music is all about feeling. Which one of these versions did you feel the most keenly in your soul?  Why? Please share with me in the comments and vote for your favorite.

There are other Battles going on, so be sure to check them out (on Wednesday, that is). Remember... I am a day early here.  To participate in those...

Far Away Series

FERRET-FACED FASCIST FRIENDS

Tossing It Out

DiscConnected

The Creative Outlet of Strat Player
Donna Hole

Thank you for voting and sharing your thoughts!!!

I IS FOR INSURANCE

Honestly, I have been so focused in my creative visualization process on the Phase II aspect of my Big Idea that I just have expected everything else to fall into place. In other words, since I feel like this whole thing is bigger than me, I more or less handed it off to the universe, and let it all go. That meant that I didn't worry about being approved for SSDI. I was led to an organization that made the process easy, has a 98% success rate, did all of the paperwork, and while I feel frustrated, and stalled out, about not making any progress about getting better in the now, I really don't focus on the "if" of SSDI approval. In fact, this organization has a 50% success rate on the first submission, so I was really able to rally my visualization down other paths. In my mind, I rubber stamped that a "yes" and moved on. I was thinking constantly about new and better ways to make the most of any funds raised. How can we do more with what we have? What needs am I overlooking, etc.? How can I make this whole system better for OTHER people? How can I make it easier for OTHER people to get well?

Of course, all of this hinges on my getting well. And my getting well hinges on Social Security recognizing that I have debilitating migraines. I forget crap. I lose words. I get lost in familiar places. I have serious neurological issues that my doctors don't even understand. I have muscle and joint pain that I am just living with right now, because my body continues to have bad reactions to all medications that are prescribed. All movement is very painful. In other words, everything hurts, and my mind is like a computer with wires that keep getting pulled out arbitrarily, and plugged back in. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. So, I can spell just fine right now, but in a few hours maybe not so much. And I might be able to grasp the word for "telephone" easily right now, but later, when I am in the midst of conversation it might be... "You know the thing that rings and someone is on the other end and they are calling from somewhere. We have four or five of them." And someone will say, "Telephone?" And I will respond, "Yes. I lost the word for a minute. Telephone. Don't ask me to spell it. Ha ha ha." But it really isn't funny, because I know my brain is shorting out all over the place, and the roulette wheel is only just starting to spin.

Where is all of this coming from? I got my letter today. Social Security denied me. They have declared me fit to work. Even though I have no car. Cannot drive. Get lost. Lose words. Have migraines that keep me in bed for days and weeks at a time, and have lost 20 pounds in 6 months. Bringing me down to the unhealthy weight of 104 where I am currently sitting. Even though my mother would have to go to work with me every day. I am fit to work according to them. I know that this is a game for them and all part of our totally screwed up system. I tell myself that. They know I will appeal. They just want the process to go on. And on. And on. And I suppose that would be okay if anything were happening on this end to make my life even reasonably better. But it isn't. I go to see two doctors every month to the tune of $400. And I pay $200 for health insurance. And for this huge amount of money I get NOTHING. No relief whatsoever. No help. No assistance. No benefit. All it shows is that I need medical care. I have to continue to go to show that I need medical care. Even though if I actually got any medical care it would cost so much that it would break my parents. We are teetering on the edge of the cliff now.

So, we shall appeal and wait another six months. Although, I understand from my representation that we are most likely to get denied on the second appeal. So, that means that our only real shot is on the third appeal. So, we are really looking at a year out before getting any sort of help here. I wonder how much I will weigh then? Or if I will still be alive then? The one thing I do know is that my parents should not pay my medical bills if I should die. Social Security will pay your medical bills in the event of your death, should your condition kill you before you make it through the process. I talked to the father of someone whose son died during the process. He and his wife paid the bills. Social Security apologized, and said that they were sorry for his loss, and then asked about the bills. When they found out that the bills were paid they said that there was nothing that they could do. He said that they could reimburse his family. Social Security said that they would have paid any outstanding bills, but since they had taken care of the bills, there was nothing they could do. Which was total bs. Of course, there was something they could do. This family had just buried their child. They could have reimbursed them on the medical costs since they had dragged their heels on getting him the help that might have saved his life (bastards). Instead, they went with an insincere apology. Terrible system. Like I said, spread the word about those bills. Leave them outstanding if you are in middle of a claim. Social Security will pick up that tab if you die.

My parents are having a New Year's Eve party tonight and have invited a bunch of their church friends, camping friends, and other friends, too probably. I wasn't not looking forward to it, but I wasn't dreading it. Now, I am seriously not happy about it. A party is the last place I want to be. I feel seriously Grinchy. I was psyched about 2011. It was the year of possibility. I really thought I was going to get my SSDI and be on my way to wellness. Now, I see it as another year of debilitating migraines and agonizing pain. Now, swallowing a bottle of pain pills is looking appetizing. I am tired of the unending pain. I am tired of being tired. I am tired of being the financial drain in this family.

I was going to delete that because it sounded really depressing. The thing is this: it is true. I have suicidal moments. I think those things. I haven't thought them in a while. I have been in a much better place ever since I filed for SSDI because I was doing something proactive. It got better yet when I started becoming really visual with my Big Idea. And bought my domain name. I felt like I was moving forward. Chronic pain is a bitch, people. I apologize to that follower who I just lost because of that curse word. I try not to curse much, but that is the truth of it. Chronic pain wears on your body, mind, your spirit, your soul. It wears on you. To think you see a light at the end of the tunnel, only to turn a corner and see another year of more pitch black tunnel, is freaking discouraging. However, I won't be swallowing a bottle of pills anytime soon. I probably will be a total pain in the rear end to live with, so I totally pity my parents.

I played this yesterday for Yvonne. Today I play it for me. Hallelujah.





image found at www.weheartit.com