The Hallelujah Episode

Shine Light Podcasts

I’m your host Jeff Haley and this is a special episode of Everyone Has A Jeff Buckley Story. Today we will be looking at Hallelujah, a Leonard Cohen composition, crafted by John Cale, and perfected by Jeff Buckley

I asked some friends to tell me where they heard Hallelujah and what the song meant to them. And why it has become so famous

Grammy nominated keyboardist, singer and songwriter Rachel Eckroth talked to me about the first time she heard Hallelujah

Django Haskins is a North Carolina native who cut his teeth writing songs in New York City during the 90s and aughts. He delivers cutting observations into Hallelujah's power

Kristina Vallejo has been a fan of Jeff Buckley as long as I can remember . I’ve always looked to her for answers to all things Buckley

Internationally Acclaimed Soprano, Arts Activist and Co-Founder of Sing For Hope Camille Zamora has insights into what made Buckley's voice so vulnerable and soaring
When I spoke with Johnny Goudie on episode 2, he also mentioned the differences between Jeff’s version, and Leonard Cohen’s
He returns…

As authors Alan Light and Malcolm Gladwell have already demonstrated, the song has a twisted, if not miraculous lineage.

Buckley got his reduced amount of song stanzas from John Cale, who had lowered it from 50. Cale was doing his friend Leonard Cohen a big favor by pruning his expansive Canadian ballad into a trim masterpiece.

It has been sung by:

Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake, Kate McKinnon,

Rufus Wainwright, KD Lang and countless other Canadians

But Buckley surpasses them all. He is like David with his Lyre singing at Sin-E on the lower east side, using Hallelujah as his closing number. Right from the beginning it must have been his most popular number

And that voice!

Rachel Eckroth has toured with Rufus Wainwright, who’s 2001 Shrek movie rendition pushed Hallelujah further into the stratosphere of classic songs

At what point did Hallelujah become the go-to number for large social gatherings? Kristina thinks it was Justin Timberlake

Hallelujah, a word the whole world knows

Kristina brings up an important point. Is the song about love or is it about God?

Could it be about both? Look how it ties Jeff Buckley’s whole album together .

It is called Grace and Hallelujah with its slow heartbeat and holy cry correlates with the spiritual, religious side of the album. It even sounds like it was recorded in a cathedral.

Yet it’s also a song about love, which would align it with the album’s relationship songs like Last Goodbye and Lover, You Should’ve Come Over, which often have that “maximalist” sound.

Simone Weil says there are two things that pierce the heart: beauty ….and affliction.

Grace the album has both and this Hallelujah definitely does

To me Hallelujah is really a song about how the pain of love is the thing that will bring you closest to God

Theme music "Hallelujah" Live at Sin-E
Thanks to editors Vanessa Haley and Catherine Cuellar

Johnny Goudie, Miles Zuniga and Tony Scalzo on Definitive Songs:
https://howdidigethere.podbean.com/e/tony-scalzo-and-miles-zuniga-from-fastball-discuss-definitive-versions-of-songs/

“Everyone Has A Jeff Buckley Story” is created, recorded, edited and produced by Jeff Haley. Co-Produced by Konrad

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