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

About this book

A fascinating account of the making remaking and unlikely popularizing of one of the most played and recorded rock songs in historyLeonard Cohens beautiful and heartrending Hallelujah. 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 eventsboth sacred and seculararound 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.