For the Cohenites (both Leonard and Seth) out there, I give you Michael Barthel’s smart and entertaining research paper on the weird history of one Leonard Cohen song with many incarnations. His motivation for undertaking this research of what exactly happened to that song began after hearing the Fallout Boy song, "Hum Hallelujah."
What they’re singing there, aside from what I believe professionals call "twaddle," is the chorus of a Leonard Cohen song. This is mildly incredible. Twenty-five years ago, a character on the TV show The Young Ones named Neal—the hippie—said, "I’m beginning to feel like a Leonard Cohen record, cause nobody ever listens to me." Today, in contrast, one particular Leonard Cohen song is featured prominently in no less than three separate episodes of teen uberdrama The OC, and can be heard in at least twenty-four separate movies and TV episodes, almost always as the soundtrack to a montage of people being sad.
Graphs and charts are whipped out all over the place and sound samples are included for all points being made. So, when he says the following about Leonard Cohen’s original version of the song, he has the sound clip to prove his point admirably:
This is more like your uncle’s band playing in a warehouse, assuming your uncle was weird and labored under the impression that he was a crooner.
Read the whole thing here.
