The song that took Leonard Cohen 180 attempts to perfect
Since his rise to fame, there has never been another artist remotely like Leonard Cohen, both in his writing ability, song structure and vocal tone. Cohen was entirely unique, so his music was no stranger to being divisive in nature. This divisiveness wasn’t limited to music lovers but applied to people he worked with and those within his record label.
There are some songs that Cohen pondered over for days, weeks, and months, pieces that he knew would be received as classics but that he struggled to get off the ground due to pushback from his label. One of these tracks arguably became his biggest hit ever, ‘Hallelujah’.
The intricacy of this song and the poetic nature of the lyrics aren’t something that happened overnight. Cohen revealed in a film released after his passing that the final version wasn’t arrived at until 180 different versions had been written. It was a creative journey that lasted over a decade, and even then, when it was completed, it was rejected by his label.
Cohen pitched the album Various Positions to Columbia, on which ‘Hallelujah’ would have been one of the main songs, but the label president, Walter Yetnikoff, turned down the whole project. He didn’t provide much helpful feedback, instead offering vague trademark comments about simply “not liking the mix”.
Arranger and producer of the piece, John Lissauer, recalls his surprise when the track was turned down. “Leonard asked if I wanted to make a record as he had some new songs, including one called Hallelujah,” he said, “I never asked about the lyrics or for him to explain them as that would have been insulting. I simply wanted to be the audience. I really thought Columbia would like it. Boy, was I wrong. Yetnikoff hated it.”
The rejection cursed Cohen. While he never spoke about it much in public, one criticism that stayed with him was when Columbia Records said, “We know you are great, but don’t know if you are any good.”
When the song was eventually released, it was performed live by both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, both to very little acclaim. When it looked like the track might be lost in time, it became a hit after being featured in the animated movie Shrek. The movie used John Cale’s revamped version of the track, but the use of a song which depicts such complex feelings in a family movie was enough to turn heads and enter the mainstream.
The fact that one of Cohen’s now most popular songs had such a mixed reception at the time shows just how elusive the sound he managed to achieve was. It’s one that still divides opinion today but continues to cement Cohen as one of the most unique and creative voices in music.
