{"id":16793,"date":"2020-08-29T07:13:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T14:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=16793"},"modified":"2020-08-29T13:22:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T20:22:47","slug":"unchained-melody-sisters-of-mercy-because-leonard-cohen-deserves-better-than-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16793\/unchained-melody-sisters-of-mercy-because-leonard-cohen-deserves-better-than-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Unchained Melody: \u201cSisters of Mercy\u201d \u2013 because Leonard Cohen deserves better than\u00a0this."},"content":{"rendered":"

So: Leonard Cohen wrote a song called \u201cHallelujah.\u201d People hear what they want to hear, so they think it’s a religious song, when in fact it is a distant and self-absolving lamentation of a broken relationship. Cohen later rewrote the song as a much sexier despairing of what would seem to be an ongoing divorce. Arousing gonad references in the second act, but no religion. The version of the song you are probably familiar with is a mashup of the two, associated with Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and many others: A more mature fatalism about all sexual relationships, but still no religion.<\/p>\n

So you hear it everywhere<\/em> as if it were a hymn: Church and funerals, of course, but anywhere people want to be solemn together. (Heads-up, y’all: \u201cIf It Be Your Will.\u201d) Just this week, we heard it as a part of the opera performances bookending Donald Trump’s acceptance of the GOP nomination Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Opera!<\/p>\n

I love Leonard Cohen, and I love every version of that song \u2013 especially the juicy ones. But: No religion. And literally for heaven’s sake, please: No opera.<\/p>\n

It gets worse.<\/p>\n

While Leonard Cohen was an unfailingly kind man \u2013 wry and fatalistic but gentle and loving with everyone \u2013 the crypt-keepers who presume to speak for him from beyond the grave are made of different stuff.<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail:<\/a><\/p>\n

The estate of Leonard Cohen said on Friday it was considering legal action over the use of the Canadian singer\u2019s ‘Hallelujah’ at the Republican National Convention, calling it a brazen attempt to politicize the song. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, I’m sure the Trump campaign is on sound legal footing. All of these commercialized artists bitch about the generic-whore contracts they sign with ASCAP\/BMI, but they are nevertheless generic whores, open-for-business to all paying customers. If you don’t want your content licensed, don’t license it.<\/p>\n

Second, there is no advantage to Leonard Cohen’s cashiers to pissing off half his audience. I see zero upside to these futile displays.<\/p>\n

The laid back Tom Petty turns out to be pretty bitchy in death, too, and Neil Young didn’t even have to die to manifest his inner harridan. But it Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So: Leonard Cohen wrote a song called \u201cHallelujah.\u201d People hear what they want to hear, so they think it’s a religious song, when in fact it is a distant and self-absolving lamentation of a broken relationship. Cohen later rewrote the song as a much sexier despairing of what would seem to be an ongoing divorce. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-group-therapy","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15919,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15919\/unchained-melody-anthem-by-leonard-cohen\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":0},"title":"Unchained melody: “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I made a video discussing some of the ideas in Man Alive!. At one point, I mention Leonard Cohen's line, \"They're gonna hear from me,\" so I thought I would salute the song it comes from, Anthem.","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/223\/working-hard-to-get-the-listing-on-the-tower-of-song\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":1},"title":"Working hard to get the listing on the Tower of Song . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm really not the off-topic type, but it's Friday and I'm toast and I feel like sharing a little of the background here at Bloodhound HQ. For weeks now we've been listening to the soundtrack albumfrom the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. If the movie is still around in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=gregswann-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000G73UEU","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16964,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16964\/unchained-melody-falling-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":2},"title":"Unchained Melody: \u201cFalling\u00a0Down\u201d","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You might think Leonard Cohen is my secret vice, but it's actually Tom Waits. I don't like it that I like this song. It's not about 9\/11 \u2013 nor the decay of Western Civilization. Not at all.","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/y9YQsfh03No\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2358,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2358\/unchained-melodies-disorder-in-the-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":3},"title":"Unchained melodies: Disorder in the house","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Warren Zevon again, this time with the Boss on vocals and banging on a blistering Telecaster. I forget who suggested this, but I'm playing it tonight for the Hatfields and McCoys at Point2 Agent. The song is Disorder in the house: Zevon was in the process of dying when that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1748,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1748\/a-different-take-on-the-art-of-real-estate-weblogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":4},"title":"A different take on the art of real estate weblogging","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my secret vices, Leonard Cohen: Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2415,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2415\/unchained-melodies-voices-carry\/","url_meta":{"origin":16793,"position":5},"title":"Unchained melodies: Voices carry","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Elaborating on You don't own me, Aimee Mann and 'Til Tuesday with Voices carry: Suzanne Vega, Blood makes noise: Concrete Blonde covering Leonard Cohen, Everybody knows: Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16793"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16814,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions\/16814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}