Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah"

Last week, Jason Castro performed the song "Hallelujah", which was originally done by Leonard Cohen. I got to hear it online early Wednesday, even before I got to watch the show on Starworld later that night, so I didn't hear the judges comments about it. The song sounded very familiar though (I later on figured out that I had heard the John Cale version in "Shrek") so I searched in youtube and in my search I ran into the Jeff Buckley version.

Now the only song of Jeff I knew prior to that day was "The Last Goodbye" which is an amazing song. And I knew from that song that he was an absolutely incredible vocal artist with an unparalleled mix of intensity, expression, texture, dynamics, and control. So I immediately listened to his version and I was immediately blown away! Have a listen and see/hear for yourself.



video uploaded in youtube by EmersonBlues.

You know how some people only sound good when they belt and some people only sound good when they are singing softer notes? Well, Jeff sounds amazing doing both. And dig this - he holds a note for twenty-four seconds at 6:09. You can't do that unless you have perfect vocal control and excellent breath control. And the guitar work on it, which I believe Buckley does as well, perfectly captures the emotion being conveyed by the lyrics.

After discovering this song, I kept playing it over and over and over again. I then started doing more research on Jeff Buckley to figure out which album or albums of his I want to get. This guy is truly magnificent and it's too bad he passed away before he could create more music and share it to the rest of the world.