HOW many candles does it take to produce the light of a star? Judging by Alexandra Burke's Hallelujah video, ten thousand (approx.) for Jeff Buckley, he was the star and the light and his enduring influence and appeal continue to burn bright.
I'm not happy with Alexandra Burke's cover of Leonard Cohen's song, Hallelujah. The recent chart battle for Xmas no.1 between the X-factor version and Jeff Buckley's has already been well covered but I feel I have to say something on the subject.
The people will always want to have their cake and, no doubt, to eat it. That's fair enough, everyone likes different things. But I can't stand to let Alexandra Burke's version get to the top of the charts, here are my reasons.
Many people have credited Alexandra Burke's version with turning people onto the Jeff Buckley's cover, which is great but if you hear Jeff Buckley's version and immediately prefer it to Alexandra Burke's then surely that means that his is the superior cover.
Not many people know this, except for Michael Pane, but Jeff's version is actually a cover of a cover. Jeff himself stated that he preferred John Cale's (ex-Velvet Underground) cover of Cohen's original, with the alternative set of lyrics. But when he set out to record his version he was beset by the usual problems of his freewheelin' style as Jeff was prone to playing a song differently each time from his Sin-E days playing solo in New York cafes. He played Hallelujah in different keys and with different guitar passages, so his versions are much more than just "stripped down" as many people refer to them.
Buckley's overflowing invention, his inability to be complacent with his music is very noble sounding, but it was no doubt a bitch to record properly. In the end Buckley's producer at the Grace sessions, Andy Wallace, put together several takes of Hallelujah, creating a unique hybrid of performances.
Alexandra Burke's Hallelujah, by comparison, is more an achievement of volume and style without substance. Where Buckley reached for beauty, Burke drowns us in shallow bombast. Loudness and candles does not equal a powerful cover of an emotive song. I'm not a huge fan but at least some of Mark Ronson's version album had some interesting covers on it, different takes on the same pop songs, but Alexandra Burke plays it so straight as to be square.
My point is simple: Jeff made Hallelujah his own, Leona Lewis just sang it back to us.
After Jeff Buckley's death in 1997, Bono in his infinite self-righteousness, described him as "a pure drop in an ocean of noise". This could be interpreted in many ways, such as a comment upon Jeff's full and clean sound against the tidal slur of grunge or the insincerity of the Mock-ney chirp in Britpop. I've always seen it as a comment on Jeff's place in the musical world, especially around the time Grace was released.
When Grace came out people were stunned at Jeff Buckley's voice and musical style, particularly as a different reincarnation of his father, Tim Buckley. Jeff sounded Happy/Sad but also was his own musical man, not entirely riding the coattails of his father's shadow. The important thing about Jeff's cover of Hallelujah is that it proved him to be something else as an artist, full of potential for changing music. And that's why he's so sorely missed today because everyone is reminded how poorer the world of music, and our conception of talent, is without him. In the age of the cover, the remake, the sequel, the re-issue and the manufactured plastic star, we need some of that purity again.
