This is marvellous

Well, yes, it is beautiful in a saccharine sort of way, but...

To take Leonard Cohen's haunting, bittersweet song, and change the lyrics and sugarcoat it like this...

Sigh...

It makes me more than a little sad. I wonder what they were thinking.

Ah, well...
 
It's really over the top.

I'll never think of the song in the same way again

One of my (recent) favourite Albums is Ten New Songs, (of course Hallelujah is not on it)

Brave "Father" to change the service like this - he has a good voice - I like the idea and his version ......... at first I said to my wife ... "this could only happen in America" but I think that it is a wedding in Eire, (Southern Ireland)
 
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Oh, it doesn't spoil the original for me. That still stands on its own, fortunately. But sort of like like seeing Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico done up in festive pastel colors, or a Disney-on-Ice version of The Godfather, it does sort of leave me shaking my head at their cluelessness.
 
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There was a period of time (which I think has finally, mercifully, passed) in which people were having "Every Breath You Take" by the Police performed or played at their weddings, apparently without realizing that it's a song about stalking. In both that case and this one...

1. The title is something that fits the occasion
2. The melody is pretty
3. Nobody actually appears to understand the content of the song, which is in No Way appropriate for a wedding

So for people who DO understand what the song's about, seeing it trotted out at a wedding (and in this case, sugared up a good bit), it's a little off-putting. Don't want to sound like a grumpy old crank or a kill-joy, but this is really odd to behold for fans of Leonard. It's like someone reading a selection from The Cask Of Amontillado right after they say their vows.
 
Gosh there seem to be an awful lot of rules about what one mustn't do in order to avoid offending the Taste Police ...
 
Taste Police? Really? I've read your blog entry on Inspired Eye, and I couldn't help but notice that you spent a lot of time talking about the emotional meaning of the photos you take. So I find it curious that you seem unwilling to understand that a song might also have emotional meaning. And doing what was done to the song in that ceremony defiles the meaning of that song no less than if someone took one of your most heartfelt photos and plastered happy face stickers all over it.
 
Taste Police? Really? I've read your blog entry on Inspired Eye, and I couldn't help but notice that you spent a lot of time talking about the emotional meaning of the photos you take. So I find it curious that you seem unwilling to understand that a song might also have emotional meaning.

Well, lets get something clear ... If you care to read the interview with me (it's not my blog entry, by the way, it's Olivier's)more carefully, you'll find that I didn't "spend a lot of time" talking about the emotional content of my photos.
Furthermore, something which is again clear if you read it and pay attention to what I say, I also say that the creator of a photograph has no or little control over the response of the viewer.
This goes equally for any art form.
To talk about "defiling" a pop song is to rather miss that basic truth.
If someone does not hold something in awe the way you do, that fact does not make them fools or deserving as subjects of contempt.
Enjoy your photographs or paintings or pop songs as you wish, but please don't presume to dictate to other people how they must enjoy them.
 
It's all American Pie anyway

Everybody Knows that most things are personal and up to personal interpretation - if you don't see that Here it is ...

Good luck to the "Father" and couple who got married ... music is for enjoyment and they all seemed to appreciate that ..... and the "Father" has a good voice and in his Secret Life enjoys belting it out ..... well done him

Intellectualise it and you'll be back on Boogie Street

A Bird on a Wire, from this morning ........ belting out a song all day

Blue_Tit_Sc.jpg
 
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There was a period of time (which I think has finally, mercifully, passed) in which people were having "Every Breath You Take" by the Police performed or played at their weddings, apparently without realizing that it's a song about stalking. In both that case and this one...

1. The title is something that fits the occasion
2. The melody is pretty
3. Nobody actually appears to understand the content of the song, which is in No Way appropriate for a wedding

So for people who DO understand what the song's about, seeing it trotted out at a wedding (and in this case, sugared up a good bit), it's a little off-putting. Don't want to sound like a grumpy old crank or a kill-joy, but this is really odd to behold for fans of Leonard. It's like someone reading a selection from The Cask Of Amontillado right after they say their vows.

The film Cat's Eye contained a segment "Quitter's Incorporated" - a truly dark-humored bit of film that's delicious fun, and the song was perfectly matched to that film. I might use that at my own wedding, as long as my bride doesn't get wind of it beforehand. After all, who could think badly of Sting - one of the darlings of the music industry.
 
This got all twisted. It's so much simpler than this, and not deserving of even the slightest hurt feelings.

It's a pretty melody, and the chorus is "Hallelujah"... That explains exactly what happened. But the content of the rest of the lyrics is neither pretty nor pious. So when you sing it at a wedding, you're either not understanding what the guy is singing (singer included), or it is one DARK wedding.

Make sense? It's not a judgement on anyone who hears this and says "that's a lovely version of that song." He did indeed sing it well. It's just amazingly out of place, and to understand why, you just need to hear the original and digest the lyrics.
 
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