Minor gripe -- identifying a "Hallelujah" snippet

[MixingBliss]

If I'm wrong on this, someone please set me straight.

It seems like in a lot of inventories, setlist scribes will note that Bono did a lyrical snippet from "Hallelujah" at the end of, say, "Walk On" or "Running to Stand Still."

I think this is terribly misleading. The live versions I've heard of these songs simply have Bono repeating the word "hallelujah." In RTSS, it's "Hal-le-hal-le . . . hal-le-LUH-yah, halle-halle-leh-eh-eh"; in Walk On, simply "Halle-le-lu-u-u-u-yah (see you when I get home...)"

There is an actual song called "Hallelujah," which was written by Leonard Cohen and which spawned many beautiful covers, most notably by Jeff Buckley, on his "Grace" album, and by Bono, on the Cohen tribute album "Tower of Song."

That song goes like this:

I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played to please the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composed Hallelujah

etc.

The chorus for the song is a simple ascension and descension of the scales with "Hallelujah . . . hallelujah." The melody is simple but surprisingly distinct.

I don't think that simply uttering a few "hallelujahs" in a random melody at the end of a song qualifies as a nod to the Leonard Cohen tune and a mention as a setlist snippet. I think Bono is just using the spiritual word to accent a song.
However, if he was to ever sing a few lines from the actual "Hallelujah," I think that would be very noteworthy and something worth seeking out in a recording (which is really what I'm getting at here).

So my request to setlist scribes out there is to please make sure what you're hearing is the Leonard Cohen song before noting a "Hallelujah" on your setlist submission.

Deepest gratitudes for all who undertake this noble task...

 

[Popmartijn]

Good point.

And BTW, Bono did sing some snippets from that Leonard Cohen song at the end of One at some Popmart gigs (especially those in May 1997 when Jeff Buckley had just died).

 

[typhoon]

Yeah, that always bothered me too. The only time they did the Cohen song was at the end of "One" a few times (and "Please" once) for Jeff Buckley in 1997. The rest of the time, he's just singing "hallelujah," which Cohen didn't invent.

 

[learn2kneel]

Too add to this i saw someone say Bono was singing "King of Pain" at the end of Vertigo... not even close.

 

[MixingBliss]

Good point.

And BTW, Bono did sing some snippets from that Leonard Cohen song at the end of One at some Popmart gigs (especially those in May 1997 when Jeff Buckley had just died).

I thought maybe that was the case. I'll have to find out which ones--looks like it was Popmart shows in Canada, Califronia, and Chicago.

And this is my point--without careful transcription, a collector would never know based on a setlist whether to seek a show that has "Hallelujah" listed as a snippet. Is it the real thing, or not? I think in the case of the Elevation tour, we can assume none of those were the Cohen song.