Argh: Modern Pet Peeve: Use of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at memorial services.

[Coventina]

Totally inappropriate but popular for some dumb reason.

It's about a doomed and tragic love affair.

It's not about death, it's not about heaven, it's not about anything remotely appropriate to a memorial service.

Why oh why is it so popular?

Do people not pay attention to what songs are actually about?!?!??!

It's like people playing "Every Breath You Take" at weddings. Totally inaprops.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

1. Or when Hannity used to play let freedom ring

Wonder if he knew what the song was about?

[Coventina]

2. Another good example of a misused song.

But the thing that drives me crazy is that idiots using "Hallelujah" at these "celebrations of life" probably have no idea who Leonard Cohen is, or anything about the song, just that it's the "cool" song to play nowadays.

[appal_jack]

28. Eh, every memorial needs a bit of mild BDSM

Tie me to a kitchen chair, indeed!



-app

[TlalocW]

20. Wait, wait, wait...

The Martina McBride song with, "Let Freedom Ring," as a lyric? He played that ( "Independence Day" ) and didn't listen to the lyrics?

TlalocW

[underpants]

52. Oh yeah. It lead off his show for years.

I'm not sure what he uses now.

[Shrike47]

3. I really wonder why people don't understand it's NOT a religious song.

Don't they listen to the lyrics? Drives me crazy.

[Volaris]

30. Me as well.

One of the best covers of it I've heard is (no really) Bon Jovi. He and his seem to GET that it's about a long-term relationship, and that after a while, you do the WORK of it, because you love the work as a gift to your Other.

Who the fuck is dumb enough to play that at a funeral??
If you need a spiritual/religious-sounding thing, Eagles Wings, call it a damn day and go get some food...

[smirkymonkey]

65. I like Bon Jovi's version, but I think the best is K.D. Lang.

[question everything]

4. Replaced in the arms of an angel?

Sarah McLachlan's

[Coventina]

6. Was that a thing? I never heard that before.

While I have heard "Hallelujah" several times.

All I do is roll my eyes.

I would roll my eyes at "Angel" as well, but that I haven't heard.

[question everything]

33. Oh, it is a nice sad song

and the lyrics

Angel
Sarah McLachlan

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There's always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it's hard, at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh, beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
And maybe empty
Oh, and weightless, and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here
So tired of the straight line
And everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting
Keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference
Escape…
In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

Songwriters: Sarah Mclachlan / Sarah Ann Mclachlan
Angel lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

And, what I did not know until I searched,

"Angel" is a song by American singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan about the heroin overdose death of Jonathan Melvoin (1961-1996), the Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player.[1] as McLachlan explained on VH1 Storytellers. The song first appeared on Surfacing, the Canadian singer's 1997 album. It is sometimes mistitled as "In the Arms of an Angel"[2] or "Arms of the Angel".

In general, I like Sarah McLachlan so..

[Coventina]

44. I agree, it's a lovely song. She's a great artist.

Of course, now if I ever hear it at a memorial service, I'll assume they died of a heroin overdose....

[rusty fender]

71. I see why it's played at funerals

The reference to flying away from the endlessness you fear, i.e., eternity, on the wings of an angel to heaven; or the endlessness you fear could refer to endless pain, where death releases you from the pain.

This song is poignant, beautiful, sad. It would make me cry if played at a funeral.

[SeattleVet]

5. Sort of like playing 'Tennessee Waltz' at a wedding.

Lyrics are not appropriate for the occasion.

[irisblue]

25. My best friend & I won a t-shirt singing Tennessee Waltz

@ karaoke night @ an LGBT bar in the 80s.
We were the only ones to sing.😳
Now I will tell her 20 yr old daughter this next visit....😈. old friends with memories & no kids

[jehop61]

7. Granted the lyrics are inappropriate

but it has a beautiful melody. Perhaps that's the draw?

[Coventina]

9. I agree that it's a deeply moving song. However, there are literally dozens (if not hundreds)

of beautiful melodies that have been composed over the centuries that ARE appropriate for memorials.

Why choose one that isn't?

[Not Ruth]

8. It was performed at a memorial for America (Trump related) that I attended

Heard a few people mention that song from Shrek!!!!!

[Coventina]

10. Oh good gravy! I hope you punched them!

(just kidding, of course!!)

The ignorance is astonishing!!!

[cyclonefence]

11. I have a problem with "Amazing Grace" being played every time a religious song is required

It's a beautiful song, but it's about a conversion experience and the joy that brought/brings, celebrating the singer's salvation. IMO it's not appropriate for random religious occasions, including funerals, and I'm sick to death of it.

I understand that this is not a popular opinion.

I blame it all on Judy Collins.

[Coventina]

12. Agreed. It is overused and I'm rather sick of it myself.

In some defense of its use at funerals, the final verse is about heaven, at least.

But yeah, please don't play it at my funeral!

[TlalocW]

14. Yeah it's pretty bad

And can't hold a candle to what will be played at my funeral... the MST3K end theme! W00T!

TlalocW

[cyclonefence]

16. Here's mine

?list=PLyEWj-W3zs1XpQWxKOuRtKAJ2kwAVmRa8

[TexasBushwhacker]

15. The conversion experience of a former slave owner at that

That's why he was a "wretch".

[cyclonefence]

17. You're right

and that makes it all the more inappropriate for miscellaneous celebrations/funerals--unless the bride just freed her slaves.

[WinkyDink]

24. My husband had just that type of found-again (NOT "born-again") experience, and the words to "AG"

were MOST APPROPRIATE FOR HIS FUNERAL.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

He had been a Preacher's Kid (and brother, eventually), studied philosophy, and became agnostic. We married in the county courthouse.

[hurl]

48. Amazing fun

The fun thing about Amazing Grace is that the lyrics also happen to fit the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme.

[Aristus]

49. It's called Common Meter.

Many of Emily Dickenson's poems were composed in this meter, which makes it easy to sing her poems to the tune of 'Gilligan's Island'.

Try it!:

Because I could not stop for death
He kindly stopped for me
There was but room for just ourselves
And immortaliteeeeeeee...

[hurl]

53. Awesome!

Thanks! I probably should have known that...

[lapucelle]

56. This is the best thing I've learned in months!

Thanks.

[Grammy23]

64. It also can be sun to the tune of The House of the Rising Sun.

My husband's cousin sang it at her mother's funeral.

[Orrex]

68. It's in the public domain

And it's one of perhaps two songs that most Americans can recognize on the bagpipes.

I likewise dislike its overuse, but it ain't going anywhere.

[TlalocW]

13. Also that group Pentatonix and my local radio stations

Seem to believe it's a Christmas song.

TlalocW

[Coventina]

18. Oh brother!

[The River]

19. The Music Itself is

a structural masterpiece. It will be a timeless classic long after we're gone and long forgotten. Music is always subjective and every reaction is personal. Deconstructing art or taste is pointless.

[Coventina]

35. Believe me, I'm not criticizing the song at all. It's a great song.

But it's a great song about having one's heart broken over a love affair.

Appreciating great art does not mean throwing critical thinking out the window.

[CanSocDem]

21. Just got back from a memorial...

...that had the featured and quite adequate organist and soloist belt out her version of this song. It seems to sound spiritual so all that is required to sing it is enthusiasm.

At the end of it, my friend next to me said the song should be left to Leonard Cohen. I'm sure she'd be happy not to hear it at all.


.

[csziggy]

22. The only memorial I ever attended that had significant music played this

Since the location was a lakeside - not as well landscaped as in the video - it was very appropriate.

[Fla Dem]

23. I guess it's in the interpretation.

The lines referring to the immaculate conception can also be interpreted as having a sexual connotation: "And every breath we drew was hallelujah." Leonard Cohen explained: "Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means 'Glory to the Lord.' The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist.

"Hallelujah" as it exists on Various Positions is both opaque and direct. Each verse ends with the word that gives the song its title, which is then repeated four times, giving the song its signature prayer-like incantation. The word hallelujah has slightly different implications in the Old and New Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible, it is a compound word, from hallelu, meaning "to praise joyously," and yah, a shortened form of the unspoken name of God. So this "hallelujah" is an active imperative, an instruction to the listener or congregation to sing tribute to the Lord.

In the Christian tradition, "hallelujah" is a word of praise rather than a direction to offer praise – which became the more common colloquial use of the word as an expression of joy or relief, a synonym for "Praise the Lord," rather than a prompting to action. The most dramatic use of "hallelujah" in the New Testament is as the keynote of the song sung by the great multitude in heaven in Revelation, celebrating God's triumph over the Whore of Babylon.

more....

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-book-excerpt-leonard-cohen-writes-hallelujah-in-the-holy-or-the-broken-20121203

[LisaM]

26. They sang it at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony I went to last year.

Normally in this little town (the day after Thanksgiving), they gather in the town's little park and plug in all the town's holiday decorations to loud, local applause, then all the businesses plug in their lights. The locals gather, there's a Santa, cookies, hot chocolate, and people sing holiday songs and carols. There's also a parade of sorts, with people swinging lighted lanterns and carrying fire batons, etc., all of them dressed in long white gowns.

Well, last year, I guess in response to the election (it's very liberal there), things took a very dark turn. The druid-like light swingers took over everything. There was no caroling to be heard. Instead, they all gathered in a large circle (just them, the rest of the town residents were in a sort of stupor looking at them) and eventually a thin, ghostly sound arose - they were singing a really morose version of "Hallelujah". For the holidays! A song that - to me - is somewhat erotic, on top of everything else (I don't mind that about it, it just doesn't spring to mind as a Christmas song).

All the little kids who'd come to sing Christmas carols and their parents were looking around as if to say, "what just happened?" Then they started gathering in small groups and singing carols in retaliation (I joined them; I love singing carols and Christmas songs).

Strange and inappropriate, though I laughed for weeks thinking about it. I was as upset about the election as anyone, but I wouldn't take it out on little kids.

[Coventina]

37. That is just all kinds of wrong.

Wow!

[Worktodo]

27. Every breath you take

Is often played at weddings. Sting has said that "people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite."

[Coventina]

39. I guess a lot of people are stupid.

[Aristus]

51. It's a song about a stalker. If Sting's original doesn't make that clear, this will:

[Dave Starsky]

63. Sting later did "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"

He said he did it as an "antidote" to Every Breath You Take.

[Danascot]

29. One of the most misused songs in politics is

Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen, almost always by the GOP

Born down in a dead mans town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said "Son, if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "Son, don't you understand"

I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A., I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.

[Coventina]

40. I've noticed that as well.

But then, Republicans are generally clueless.

[lapucelle]

55. When Christie wanted "Born to Run" as the New Jersey State song,

Bruce said no.

However, the lyrics did fit poor New Jersey under Christie's rule:

"...Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young...

...The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
But there's no place left to hide....

...Someday girl I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
And we'll walk in the sun..."

[Initech]

31. Any time "God Bless The USA" is used anywhere.

God I hate that song. Also the use of God Bless America in the 7th inning stretch. How is this still a thing?

[thecrow]

32. My ex used to tell a story of a wedding he attended

where the couple's first dance was to the Beatle's "Yesterday".

[Coventina]

41. That's hilarious!!

[LisaM]

46. Ha ha ha ha...

I know of a case where they had to dissuade a bride from using "Every Breath You Take". 'It's a stalker song! You can't use it!'

[classykaren]

34. This reminds me of a funny family party were very religious people were dancing to the

Rolling stones prelude to the devil. lol They never listened to the words.

[left-of-center2012]

36. Maybe it was the deceased favorite song

At my funeral (which I will not attend)
I want this song played:

[Coventina]

42. In the cases of memorials I have attended, I can assure you

that is not the case.

They were not Leonard Cohen fans, and in fact, probably never even knew who he was.

Having personal favorites picked out to play is fine, in fact, I think that is a really good thing that is meaningful to the mourners.

My aunt, who just passed away before Thanksgiving last year, had her music all picked out, and it resulted in a very nice way for us to say goodbye to her.

[lapucelle]

58. The recessional for Peter Seller's funeral was

"In the Mood."

[left-of-center2012]

59. Great tune n/t

[onethatcares]

38. i want

"Long ride home" by Patti Griffin played at my memorial whatever.

[Coventina]

43. See my reply #42.

[left-of-center2012]

45. How about "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC?

But seriously,
what song is played at a funeral or memorial isn't that big of a deal.

We go to say our goodbyes and support the family and loved ones.

Not to critique the service.

[Coventina]

47. LOL!!!!

Maybe I have a different perspective than most people, as I have been to a LOT of funerals, memorial services, graveside services, "celebrations of life", etc.

My father was a pastor, and I have very large extended families on both my mother's and father's side, and, my husband and I have a very large circle of social contacts. All of that equals a lot of deaths and a lot of services.

Because of that, I have developed a sense of when the observances are meaningful, and when they are more "faddish" (yes, there are fads in funerals, just like everything else).

This latest fad is one I think is really misguided and doesn't show true thoughtfulness behind it.

JMHO.

[Jakes Progress]

50. Reminds me of reagan using "Born in USA"

as a campaign song. They never listen to the words past the first bars of the chorus there either.

In "Hallelujah" the fist verse has "lord" in it, so it must be religious, right? Never mind the rest of the song.

[yellowcanine]

54. Meh. Life is too short to get upset about popular culture.

I don't care unless they do it at my funeral.

[ramblin_dave]

57. This priest used the melody at a wedding...

[rusty fender]

72. That was excellent!

[left-of-center2012]

60. In the end ...

If the deceased didn't complain,
leave it alone.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

70. And if the deceased does complain, shoot him again.

We don't want to waste a perfectly good funeral, eh?

[Lifelong Protester]

61. How about "When a Man Loves a Woman" at a wedding?

A song about mistreatment.

[Homer Wells]

62. Regarding the playing of Cohen songs

At a funeral, rather than Hallelujah, I think a better selection would be either 'Closing Time', or for a drearier song, perhaps 'You Want it Darker'.

[The River]

66. A Late Reply & Reference

Here is a link to the best review of Hallelujah I have ever seen. It's about way more than a "doomed and tragic love affair".
Well worth the read.

[3catwoman3]

67. Slightly OT, but fun and funny.

One of my favorite examples of innapropriate/inattentiv use of a song was the final night of the Republican National Convention the year of the Bush-Quayle ticket. As they were standing on the stage with the confetti pouring down, the music playing was from La Cage Aux Folles. I think it was "The Best of Times," but can't remember for sure from that long ago.

Anyway, I really go a laugh out of that, and wondered if there had been a Democratic mole somewhere on the planning committee.

[Coventina]

69. That is funny!!!