October 12th, 2006
What if Diamanda Galas had played the Leonard Cohen gig?
Once again I’ve turned into a typing monkey robot and keep starting posts that I never get a chance to finish. Worse, I’ve taken to writing them in my head and become convinced I have said post stuck somewhere in my drafts folder. Last week after catching the Leonard Cohen tribute show Came So Far For Beauty a similar word limbo occured, half written in my head, another handful of words crammed in to a post, that actually did exist when looking for it today.
Originally I had planned to talk about the gig - to say that the inimitable Nick Cave was well, Nick Cave; that The Handsome Family sang country harmonies worthy of Carter and Cash; Laurie Anderson had her voice digitally processed so that she could sing ‘Dear Heather’ two octaves lower in an eerie baritone; that Lou Reed still rocks for an old geezer and a pregnant Beth Orton was plaintive and resilient on ‘So Long Marianne’ before teaming up with Jarvis Cocker on ‘Death of a Ladies Man’. The highlight, without doubt, was Antony (without The Johnsons). There’s no point in describing his heart-stopping voice and even when he sang backing vocals, he stole the song. A friend who manages a record shop told me that the day after the gig he was inundated with people asking for an album by “that Antony guy” from the Leonard Cohen show.
Cohen was a published poet before he was a musician and there is a sparsity to his writing. A sparsity, that makes his work perfect for other artists to tackle. On the night each act brought something to the songs, especially those that veered away from Cohen’s take on things… which brings me to the nuts and bolts of this post.
Gavin Friday and Mary Margaret O’Hara took on the behemoth ‘Hallelujah’ and judging from the prudish response from some of the crowd, you don’t mess around with Cohen songs - and certainly not what’s possibly his most iconic track. When they began to sing, people around me fidgeted. I actually took pleasure in the fact that an irrititating couple (him constantly talking loudly to her, her clung to his shoulder for the gig and yapping back) in front of me were aghast and exchanged embarrassed looks throughout. It was without doubt, the bravest track of the night and the one that stood out most in terms of reinterpretation. Gavin whispered his sub-Bono vocals while Mary Margaret resurrected the vocals she provided on Morrissey’s ‘November Spawned a Monster’. Unlike some of the fare on offer, Cohen karoke it wasn’t.
Each to their own, of course, and I know that some bloggers didn’t like what they heard. Auds respectfully admitted it wasn’t for her, but I was surprised to read Damien’s assessment of O’Hara as a “fucking screeching zombie”. Perhaps, like the couple in front of me and countless others (including the guy who heckled her mid-song) you simply don’t feck with ‘Hallelujah’. Fair enough, but then her version of ‘The Window’ in part two of the show had the hairs on my neck starched and upright. Jim felt the same way and Gerry is also a fan of Ms. O’Hara’s. To anyone at the gig who judged her on one track, I’d urge you to toddle off in search of a copy of her wonderful 1988 album Miss America.
O’Hara reminds me of another musical favourite of mine - Diamanda Galas. She’s also a gifted, unusual singer that isn’t to everyone’s taste, but has a rare vocal talent. Galas has an eight octave range, is a classically trained singer and has recorded albums that deal mainly with religious themes (Malediction and Prayer, Plague Mass, You Should Be Certain of the Devil). She often gets accused of being a satanist, possibly due to album titles like Litanies of Satan and the video for ‘Double Barrel Prayer in which (around the four minute mark) she starts throwing buckets of blood over herself. Her brother died of AIDS and she has a tattoo across the fingers of one hand that reads “We are all HIV Positive”. I could only imagine the response of the Cohen crowd if she had arrived to tackle any of his songs.
Galas has never played here but a friend has seen her several times in London and New York and says it’s an unbelievable experience. Once at The Royal Festival Hall (she tends to play classical venues, opera houses or churces) she performed naked from the waist up covered in silver paint.
The few people who have heard of her in Ireland probably came across her dark, bluesy version of ‘I Put A Spell On You’ (Youtube vid here) on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.
We’re all entitled to our opinions (and Diamanda will scare the bejaysus out of most people), and thankfully everyone’s taste differs, but we need artists as unique as Mary Margaret and Diamanda - lest we drown under a sea of bland singers, auto-tuned pop and unremarkable voices.
October 12th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Phantom blogging
Once again Ive turned into a typing monkey robot and keep starting posts that I never get a chance to finish. Worse, Ive taken to writing them in my head and become convinced I have said post stuck somewhere in my drafts folder
October 12th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Not familiar with Diamanda, but will seek her out.
Mary Margaret was one of my highlights of the concert. She brought something ethereal (much like Antony) to the affair. While Nick and Lou did their thang, Laurie twisted things Laurie-style, and Beth brought some warmth, and the Handsome Family took Famous Blue Raincoat up on high, Teddy Thomson was for me the real find. A ska Waiting for the Miracle and his soaring Anthem brought something really special to the core of the night, I reckon Leonard would have approved.
Without wanting to gripe, I was puzzled with Gavin Friday’s inclusion. Who by Fire was passable, but Everybody Knows was barely a pub karaoke version.
October 12th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Haven’t heard the performance of Hallelujah you’re referring to, but is it not ironic that people would object to a radical interpretation of that particular song, given that it is Jeff Buckley’s radical interpretation of it with which most people are familiar these days, and which may well be responsible for giving the song its now hallowed status? Apparently Buckley’s version bases itself on John Cale’s interpretation, recorded for the ‘91 tribute album, I’m Your Fan.
Apart from the fact that if you go to youtube and search “Hallelujah”, most of the returns will link you to some teenager’s bedroom performance of, in their own words, “Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah”, the ill-fated singer/songwriter’s version would also seem to be the reference for kd lang’s rendering, as well as Allison Crowe’s.
Go to the link on youtube, pasted below, to watch Jane Birkin performing it with a French (maybe half Polish??) singer/songwriter called Nosfell. Birkin isn’t that familiar with the lyrics and has to read them from a sheet. The lyrics she uses are the ones from Cohen’s 1984 album, Various Positions. Most cover versions follow Buckley’s use of verses from both the 1984 album and the 1988 live version which Cohen released in 1994 on Cohen Live. It seems there are more than 15 composed verses for the song. The way Birkin spits out the 2nd and 3rd lines of the 3rd verse is amazing, and, in my view, is the sign of a consummate artist’s ability to make an old song sound new - like what Johnny Cash did with U2’s One (and countless other songs).
Call me a blasphemer, but personally I’ll take Buckley’s, kd’s and Nosfell and Birkin’s renditions over the original Cohen/Rondstad Various Positions studio recording any day.
Yes, the Cohen Live version of 1988 is closer to all of those, but really, I think this is a good example of when good artists help to make a great song even better, and God forbid that anyone should be dissuaded from continuing to try to offer their own interpretation of it.
Reminds me of Bjork and PJ Harvey’s live performance of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction at the Mercury Music Awards (or the Smash Hits Awards??). Why do we need to show disdain for other people’s interpretaions of songs. It’s not as if these artists are, in Noel Coward’s words, “going into Saint Paul’s and offering to rewrite the bible!”
Birkin & Nosfell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFewmgaZtZI
answer.com’s entry on “Hallelujah” and its many versions:
http://www.answers.com/topic/hallelujah-song
October 13th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
A lot of people have heard her voice, but they might not know it. She did some of the voice / vocal work on the Keanu Reeves / Gary Oldman movie, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” in the early 1990’s. One of her pieces, “Exeloume” was used and she did the voices / screaming for the Brides of Dracula also.
Her voice is unique, and can be quite terrifying.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:52 am
Awesome recommendation, much appreciated. Thanks to the undoubtedly reprehensible copyright violations (sic) of gootube, I’ve just enjoyed ’scream of love’ and ‘judgement day’ and will probably buy an album. Cheers, keep it up.
October 20th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
A long way ’round the barn to your site, but I found it and you do well. Although I must point out:
Non-musicians constantly attribute impossible vocal ranges to singers. I’ve read that Mariah Carey possesses a 7-octave range more times than I can count. That claim is ridiculous, but the idea that anyone has an 8-octave range is simply beyond the realm of physics.
The entire range of a grand piano is slightly over 7 octaves. You are saying that a human being can sing lower than the lowest note and higher than the highest note on a piano. It simply can’t be done. No human being has an 8-octave range. Really great singers typical span 2 octaves. 4 octaves would be something like science fiction: 8 doesn’t exist.
Other than that, I like your blog. Thanks.
October 27th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Missed the gigs but saw the movie… Anthony was amazing but the two ‘backing’ singers stole the show - Lisa Christiansen and (the other women’s name escapes me) - they were the only ones who really seemed to know what they were doing, perhaps because they were consistently with the show on tour?