Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/17/k-d-lang-stuns-the-crowd-at.html
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That was excellent. I feel that some of the praise ought to go to her excellent (regular?) and unflappable pianist, though. Couldn’t find his name with a quick Google search.
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No one should be surprised by this.
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Enormous talent; she makes it seem so easy. Years ago I compiled my top three favorite female vocalists and k.d. lang was the first name that came to mind. The others are Tracey Thorn and Patsy Cline.
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Hot Damn! That was awesomeness.
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We call them bushfires here. The concert apparently raised $10 million but there’s still uncertainty about how the money will be distributed and precisely to where it will go.
Her bell-like tones have only gotten richer with age.
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Nice. My kid loves this song so much. I think she mostly know the Penatonix version, but I have shown her some others.
So many people like to say Jeff Buckley’s version is the best. I do not know how anybody can hear her version of this and not consider it the definitive version. Nobody can hold a candle to her version.
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She recorded this tune on her “Hymns of the 49th Parallel” album-- all Canadian songwriters, as you might guess from the title (yes, Leonard Cohen was Canadian.)
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Almost exactly 10 years ago, she sang Hallelujah at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics opening ceremony, which was also great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOQSk_cMO0
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i’ve loved many versions of this song, but her rendition is by far my favorite. she has all the pain of the others, but also elevates the passion as well. moves me to tears every time.
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She did it for Leonard’s induction to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: https://youtu.be/YYiMJ2bC65A
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Beautiful - K.D. is a treasure. I love how this song has become a secular hymn. An expose of universally shared human experience encompassing not only pain and beauty but also music itself and how all those experiences are interlaced with each other. Outstanding performance of an outstanding song.
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Her rendition of this and Roy Orbison’s “Crying” are better than the originals.
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I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but Patsy Cline was lang’s inspiration to become a singer, and the reason lang named her band the Reclines.
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Well I am going to disagree with you, because I still prefer Buckley’s version if I had to keep just one.
This isn’t a strike on KD Lang, that was still amazing and give me goose bumps.
I have heard a theory that usually the FIRST version of the song you hear, ends up being your favorite. I am sure you can find exceptions to this, but for me personally it is largely true. I can think of some that I like about equally, like NIN/Johnny Cash Hurt.
I know my kid has been exposed to a lot of older songs via Penatonix. And when I find out she is grooving on their rendition, I find the original to show her. She generally still prefers their version. Though I should ask if she likes their version over Buckley’s.
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I think you’ve got it. I’ve heard many revisions of Hallelujah and like many of them. I am not fond KD Lang’s version because I prefer the rhythm of the first version I heard…which was Wainwright’s version in Shrek. Pentonix uses the same beats, although closer to Buckley’s version than Cohen’s. Lang’s is completely “out of beat” for me.
Like you said - people like the version they heard first (if they liked it then). While traveling a few months back, youtube served me up a video called “33 songs you didn’t know were covers” and I was floored by how different some of them were (and that some of them were even covers!).
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Not that Cohen or KD Lang’s various versions fall into that category.
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