Powerful, essential, cliche: The complex life of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
TORONTO — There was a time when Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” wasn’t even a footnote in the Montreal performer’s music career.
The 1984 synth track fumbled its way into release and practically fizzled out, never being promoted as a single.
But it was gradually discovered by performers who eagerly dove into Cohen’s lyrical masterpiece and eventually the covers began multiplying.
Velvet Underground founding member John Cale was one of the first to reinterpret the song and a cover by the late Jeff Buckley accelerated “Hallelujah”‘s meteoric rise from obscurity.