Christmas Under the Hipster Covers, pt 1
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You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
Hipster Claus is coming to town
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to deck the halls pour out the gingerbread latte and count down the days to Xmas. So as we enter the last week of Advent, let me dose you up with holiday cheer and play you the hippest of Christmas cuts.
With a new, vapid version ascending the charts courtesy of the latest talent show wannabe, I thought there is no better way to kick of the holiday season than Jeff Buckley's delicate (and some would say definitive) cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. As an interesting aside, in the last 24 years this song has been covered more than 50 times - to find out more and take a special Hallelujah quiz, check out the BBC.
This Hipstermas post is brought to you in association with American Apparel, as nothing captures the true meaning of Christmas like hot girls in impossibly tight clothes...
Locating MOG account...
Comments (6)
Someone has adjusted well to the fact that he is a hipster... ;)
How did the interview go?
Are you going home for Christmas?
How are you?
"......pour out the gingerbread latte and count down the days to Xmas..."
I'll take a cup o' joe, please. How you doin', kiddo? How're the studies coming along?
That Alexandra Burke version really is mince, as we say up here in Scotland. There are some truly breathtaking "missing the point" comments under the video on Youtube - "listen to the lyrics.. they should have changed them as it is such a depressing song".
Mind you, I still find myself immune to the charms of Jeff Buckley - good singer, aye, but to me it just sounds like he's showing off. He can carry the tune, but to my ears he simply doesn't have the maturity or breadth of life experience to carry the lyric. Curiously, although he was probably younger at the time, Rufus Wainwright did seem to get inside the song.
Leonard has commented on the fact that people want this tune played at their wedding. As for that American Apparel ad, it's not saying "Christmas" nearly tight enough.
Here's a vote for the Rufus version, but any way you slice it, it's a beaut - and not quite my idea of the quintessential Christmas carol. As for girls in tights, I believe that they're the perfect stocking stuffers!
Having recently posted on the recent tsusami of Hallelujah covers at Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - The Fun Facts, I offer two amplifications that seem pertinent:
1. Hallelujah has been covered considerably more than 50 times. On 17 Dec 08, A Thousand Covers Deep, the database of covers of Leonard Cohen songs at LeonardCohenFiles.com, contained 181 versions of Hallelujah. (For the record, Suzanne is still (barely) the most covered Leonard Cohen song, with 185 versions.)
2. Rolling Stone had this to say about Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah:
During his famed early gigs at the New York club Sin-e, Buckley … called it [Hallelujah] an homage to “the hallelujah of the orgasm” and had misgivings about his sensuous rendition: “I hope Leonard doesn’t hear it.”
Finally, I question the reference to the X-Factor version only to wonder if "vapid" sufficiently conveys the how ill-suited the performance was to the lyrics of the song.