Leonard Cohen together with his Guitar able to exit on Tour. Circa late-2000s. Photographer unknown.
credit score: Courtesy of the Cohen Property
The story behind Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” is arguably essentially the most distinctive and unconventional in fashionable music historical past. The observe first appeared on the singer-songwriter’s 1984 album, Numerous Positions, which was rejected by his longtime label Columbia Information and pale into obscurity. Since then, the tune had undergone a variety of revisions by Cohen himself after which constructed a gradual consciousness due to cowl variations by John Cale and, most notably, Jeff Buckley. Then the tune’s use within the 2001 film Shrek additional expanded its recognition amongst a wider viewers. To today, quite a few renditions of “Hallelujah” have been carried out by established artists in addition to aspiring ones on TV singing competitions—and it continues to be a go-to non secular tune for quite a lot of events, particularly throughout occasions of nationwide disaster and mourning.
The origins of “Hallelujah,” and the way it turned a illustration of Cohen’s life and music, are explored in a brand new documentary, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, which lately premiered in New York and Los Angeles. Directed by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, the movie options archival footage of Cohen and performances from his remaining excursions previous to his demise in 2016—in addition to interviews with those that knew the artist (amongst them file producer John Lissauer, singers Judy Collins and Sharon Robinson, photographer Dominique Issermann, and journalist Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman) and musicians who had lined the tune (together with Brandi Carlile, Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor and Eric Church).
“From the start,” says Geller, “we actually knew that the tune was the prism by way of which to take a look at Leonard’s life—extra his non secular life, his preoccupations, the questions that he had. So it gave us loads of freedom when it comes to sketching his life. However the true focus is Leonard the person asking the deep questions concerning the function of life, the challenges of life, the holiness of life, and the brokenness of life.”
Provides Goldfine: “The query I believe that we posed to ourselves after which to the viewers for this movie is: why is it that Leonard Cohen was the one human being within the universe who we expect may have probably give you the tune “Hallelujah”? And to grasp that query, one wants to grasp one thing concerning the man himself and the non secular journey that he went by way of, and likewise his different physique of labor—which he says in the midst of the movie, ‘Everybody’s work is all of a bit.’ And if you concentrate on that, then that is why now we have 22 different Leonard Cohen songs [in the documentary], as a result of it is all of this stuff that add as much as Leonard Cohen, the person who may create this common hymn.”
The concept behind Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Music started when a good friend, the author David Thomson, advised throughout a dinner that they do a movie primarily based on a single tune. “Actually inside 10 minutes on the dinner desk,” recollects Goldfine, “I turned to Dan and I stated, ‘, that query that David posed a couple of minutes in the past—I believe we may do a movie about Leonard Cohen and “Hallelujah.”’ That is the one tune that I may see occupying our consideration for the years that we all know it could take to make a documentary, and that is the one artist that I believe it could be gratifying to plumb for that size of time.”
“We did not know the loopy trajectory of that tune when Dayna and I first began speaking about it later that evening after dinner,” says Geller. “We did not know that the unbelievable story a part of the tune. We all know the unbelievable energy of the tune. In order that’s a part of what kicked us into excessive gear—to find there was a cinema plot simply sitting there ready for us.”
Each Geller and Goldfine had seen Leonard Cohen carry out “Hallelujah” in Oakland, California, in the course of the interval when the singer made his return to the stage whereas in his mid-70s after a hiatus. “It was such a heartfelt, non secular rendition of that tune,” Goldfine recollects. “It was unforgettable.”
“I’ve by no means seen Leonard Cohen carry out and I did not know a lot concerning the catalog of songs that he had written and recorded, which is astounding,” Geller says. “To then watch that breadth of profession on stage proper up by way of when he was nonetheless writing and recording throughout these excursions principally, that was an introduction to a grasp artist. If we may use the tune because the excuse in a solution to get aware of his preoccupations, his non secular journey, his character—and likewise 22 different songs which are within the film—then we have got folks on the hook in a solution to actually admire Leonard Cohen.”
Poster for ‘Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Music.
credit score: Picture supplied by Sony Footage Classics
Quickly after the thought, the filmmakers got here throughout music journalist Alan Mild’s 2012 guide The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah.” “We began studying the guide and inside per week we have been like, ‘Oh wow, there’s undoubtedly one thing there,’” recollects Goldfine. “After approaching Alan simply briefly with a fast little be aware, it rapidly turned clear that we had some simpatico occurring and that it could be enjoyable to work on a venture collectively.”
Like its subject material, the brand new documentary initially had a considerably sophisticated street to fruition. Earlier than Geller and Goldfine entered the image, Mild, who additionally served as a consulting producer on the brand new movie, was beforehand approached by different filmmakers about doing a “Hallelujah” documentary primarily based on his guide. “I actually had three questions for [Dayna and Dan] that they needed to deal with if we have been going to make any critical motion ahead,” Mild remembers. “The primary was—and this was when Leonard was nonetheless alive—‘You perceive Leonard just isn’t going to be [interviewed] on this movie. What you are asking for are his blessing and his help. However something that you simply’re doing that is contingent on, it will be Leonard Cohen telling the story of “Hallelujah.”’
“Quantity two was: ‘You possibly can’t simply do like a VH1 High 10 “Hallelujah” countdown.’ And quantity three was: ‘Bear in mind that the licensing, the publishing, the enterprise finish of that is going tp be essentially the most sophisticated factor you ever cope with in your profession.’ As a result of this is a tune that any time anyone goes close to it, there is a massive examine for the publishing firm. You are going to should go to them and say, ‘We wish to use it 25 occasions in a film.’ That is going to be actually powerful.”
Sarcastically, approval from Cohen’s lawyer/supervisor Robert Kory got here comparatively rapidly in comparison with the filmmakers’ negotiations with Sony Music, which managed the rights to the singer’s publishing—a difficulty that took about two years to resolve. “They [Sony] initially got here out with an extremely costly license,” recollects Geller. “However in the end we educated one another concerning the tune—Sony Publishing, Robert, Leonard, Dayna and I—and got here to an affordable settlement for an impartial documentary.”
Afterward, the door opened for Geller and Goldfine in not solely interviewing those that knew Cohen and/or had an affiliation with the tune, but additionally having access to the archival materials from the singer’s property, together with his notebooks and journals. “We met with Hal Willner [the film’s music producer] and Ratso Sloman, and our universe started to develop,” says Geller, “individuals who have been related with Leonard as creators and mates. And it was very clear from Robert and Leonard in these first two years that we have been to not ask for something. Slowly however absolutely, as we started to indicate Robert materials—Leonard had handed by then—we started to construct up a standard understanding of belief in one another. Over time, that yielded extremely privileged entry to Leonard’s journals and notebooks, images, the live performance recordings themselves. However that took a very long time.”
“It is a testomony to them how a lot they have been capable of win over Robert and the property that he made the notebooks accessible to them,” Mild says of Geller and Goldfine’s diligence. “For the primary time, we are able to see inside letters notebooks and the precise hands-on drafting of the tune, and clearly the efficiency footage that we have by no means seen earlier than. Once more, what do you do to make this work as a movie, it is not simply stringing collectively a bunch of variations of the tune. It is comprehensible that they spend much less time on all the opposite covers and variations. They cannot spend the time doing that in a film. That will simply flip into, once more, a protracted spotlight reel.”
The discharge of the movie, which is able to develop on its present theatrical run, coincides with a brand new Cohen compilation, Hallelujah and Songs From His Albums, in addition to an up to date model of Mild’s guide. As demonstrated by the movie, the recognition of “Hallelujah” stays unabated six years after Cohen’s demise. Most notably, singer Yolanda Adams carried out the tune on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool final 12 months in remembrance of the many lives lost to COVID-19.
“The factor that was so gratifying to me once I was engaged on the guide,” says Mild, “is speaking to common folks about how this tune has been there of their lives. It’s so simple for us to get jaded and cynical and to suppose, ‘Yeah, music is not vital prefer it was once. It is only a commodity.’ However anyone that I discussed the tune to had some story: ‘We performed it at my uncle’s funeral.’ ‘We performed it when my daughter was born.’ ‘It was the primary dance at our wedding ceremony.’ It was so extraordinary to listen to the persevering with energy {that a} tune may have. That was actually the factor that I took away from spending all of this time on it.
“It is one factor to listen to from the artists, from the individuals who cowl it. That is one piece of the story. Every little thing Leonard put into the tune, the label rejecting it, its disappearance, its resurgence—all of that may be a fascinating story by itself, However on the coronary heart of that’s what is it of this tune that connects so powerfully with common people who they flip to it 12 months after 12 months, now decade after decade for these moments of their life. That is what that is all about.”
On what viewers ought to take away from their movie and its subject material, Goldfine says: “It is the story of this man’s non secular journey, and Leonard was a person who by no means stopped engaged on himself. That I believe is actually related at the moment. Judy Collins says one thing in the direction of the tip of the film: ‘You are getting a lot from being with Leonard.’ On the time it was together with his live shows. However I might say, hopefully being with Leonard for the interval it takes to look at this movie, listening to him on one in every of his albums—that it is feeding into your personal non secular journey. If watching this movie might help somebody’s non secular journey wherever they’re on the earth, that may be extremely gratifying.”
“To see how “Hallelujah” itself evolve by Leonard himself from 1984 when he first began singing [the song],” says Geller, “we get two or three different occasions within the film the place we see him age and sing it and sing it with completely different emotions and completely different verses. That is a revelation, however there are 22 different songs within the film. So it is an actual solution to start understanding the unbelievable scope of Leonard’s work as a recording artist and revel in hopefully a pathway into getting his different albums. So I hope additionally that individuals achieve an appreciation for the breadth of Leonard’s stunning music.”
Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller’s Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is at present enjoying in choose cities. The brand new up to date version of Alan Mild’s The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah” is out there now by way of booksellers.
