Man, I wish they hadn't used the Leonard Cohen "Hallelujah" song in the tribute to Flip Saunders last night. Does anybody ever listen to the lyrics of that song before they think about using it as some sort of a semi-religious hymn? Not to mention that the dude they had singing it wasn't very good and screwed up the lyrics. For me, it screwed up an otherwise memorable tribute to one of the NBA's good guys.
Apparently there are possibly hundreds of verses of the song. There are at least two major version of it, one secular and one more religious, and the person who popularized it, John Cale, mixed together his fave verses from each version. Even Laughin' Len himself is sick of it. As he says, "I have other songs". It's funny that nobody recognized its greatness on the original album (Various Positions) - the record company refused to release it. Bird on a Wire would probably have been better.
The thing about this song is Jeff Buckleys version is flat out spine tingling. Most newer covers of it are based off of Buckleys version, and fall far short by comparison. But with Jeffs version the context of the song is lost to the astounding performance and beauty of it, like how can such a beautiful song have such a messed up story to it.
