There's a few times in your music-listening life that you find that one cover song that just trumps the original in terms of enjoyment. I found one of my favorite covers a couple years back when I heard Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" while rummaging through my brother's music collection, and I still listen to it when I feel the time is right (which is all the time). True, this choice might seem a bit over used, but I feel that's for a good reason. But if I'm going to look at both of these versions, I should probably start at the beginning, so let's look at the original.
Leonard Cohen: "Hallelujah"
As you may notice, Leonard Cohen's voice has a very low pitch, giving the rest of the song a certain amount of depth, almost like a narrator telling a story. Also, notice how the bass is very prominent in this version of the song, which lets the rest of the song come to life around it. Now let's take a look at Jeff Buckley's cover of this song.
Jeff Buckley: "Hallelujah"
Right off the bat, we notice that the song is much more somber, softer, emotionally intense, but it goes against the original by going for a softer sonic intensity and going more for emotional intensity. Using a higher pitch for his voice, Jeff Buckley changes the way that the listener interprets the song, which switches Leonard Cohen's narrator style of interpretation to a more personal, heartfelt approach, almost like it's a close friend telling you about their troubles.
Jeff's cover actually provides a great deal of tension to the listener, as there is a certain amount of emotional output that builds throughout the song as it builds up to what should be a logical conclusion. What Jeff did was create tension throughout the verses by gradually raising the intensity until it felt like it was going to break, and then released it in a subdued delivery so that the song could continue to ebb and flow with it's dynamics. Leonard did a similar amount of tension when he builds up to the chorus, but he lets out that tension with a louder, more pronounced release.
Another really notable shift between the two songs is the rhythm at which they are played. Leonard Cohen's original was played at a constant 4/4 throughout the song, whereas Jeff Buckley's cover begins with a sort of staggered introduction on the guitar, slowly moving in and out of each part without any real, true rhythm until Jeff starts playing the chords to the song. Jeff also changes the rhythm at the end, when he holds his voice at the quiet volume and when he plays his guitar a little bit faster. This really adds to the emotional output that Jeff Buckley is putting into the song.
Lyrically, there are some moments where the two diverge. For the first two stanzas, the songs share the same lyrics, but at the third stanza is when the two split. The lyrics that Jeff Buckley used in his cover are much more relationship based, dealing more with lost love, and they rely more on the vocal delivery in order to effectively create the mood of the song. Leonard Cohen's lyrics tend to be more world-weary and resigned, which lend themselves more to Cohen's vocal delivery rather than Buckley's delivery.
One last thing to note about the two songs is that lyrically, they both use a lot of subconscious lyrical themes. Most readers can consciously figure out what the meaning behind the songs are, but most of the lyrics themselves contain a large amount of symbolism and metaphor, which helps to enhance the delivery of each of the songs.
In regards to what I think is the better version, I feel that the Jeff Buckley cover of "Hallelujah" is better than the original, although I think anyone could have figured that out from how much I gushed on and on about it. Leonard Cohen's original is great as well, but I feel that the song works much better in a stripped down format rather than a grand, choral format. What I do love is that both of these songs manage to provide something unique, one has a strong air of wisdom about it (Cohen) whereas the other is delivered in a way that shows the signs of a younger individual, who's still learning about life, a style that hits closer to home for me (Buckley).
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