Leonard Cohen: "Fans Have Asked For 'Hallelujah' Moratorium Multiple Times"
Friday, 20 January 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has spoken out about his fan’s calls to impose a moratorium on his super-famous hit ‘Hallelujah’, which would stop the song being covered and used in television and films.
The song is one of the most recognisable vocal tracks of all time, but achieved just minor success upon its release in 1984. It wasn’t until it was covered by Welsh musician John Cale and then American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley that it was catapulted further into international fame.
In modern film and television, it won’t be uncommon to hear a rendition of the track – it even appears in Disney hit Shrek and has been covered multiple times by X-Factor stars such as Alexandra Burke. But Cohen fans are now getting sick of hearing he track everywhere, and asked their favourite Cohen if he could look into imposing of a moratorium.
“There’s been a couple of times when other people have said can we have a moratorium please on 'Hallelujah'? Must we have it at the end of every single drama and every single (Pop) Idol? And once or twice I've felt maybe I should lend my voice to silencing it but on second thought no, I'm very happy that it's being sung.”
Cohen went on to talk about the material he has been writing recently, saying: “I don't really like songs with ideas. They tend to become slogans. They tend to be on the right side of things: ecology or vegetarianism or anti-war. All these are wonderful ideas but I like to work on a song until these slogans… dissolve into deeper convictions of the heart.”
Cohen’s latest album ‘Old Ideas’ will be hitting shelves in 10 days, on January 30th. He’s talked about the idea of touring and playing more shows in the future, but currently, he only has a long string of Danish dates for the autumn months of this year.
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