4 ms·

Buckley's version is trash in my opinion. I've just listened to the official video on YourTube. I had to give up halfway through and switch to Leonard Cohen's

Buckley's version is trash in my opinion. I've just listened to the official video on YourTube. I had to give up halfway through and switch to Leonard Cohen's version Live in London. Cohen sings it like it matters, like it's a matter of life and death. Moved me to tears. The gatekeepers have a lot to answer for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q

worik 2y ago
In matters of taste there is no right an wrong Only good an bad
- khazhoux 2y ago
  I always say: there’s no dumb questions, only questions asked by dumb people.
StayTrue 2y ago
Seems like an extreme take. I think Buckley’s version is sublime but love Cohen’s too (which I’ve been privileged to enjoy live on a couple occasions).
- Lerc 2y ago
  I think this is the 'It's either 5-stars or 1-star' principle in action. I feel given a different context they might say that both both renditions are good but one speaks to them on a more personal level. I'm guessing this comes about as a desire to be heard causing a magnification of the opinion rather than the force of the opinion. If you feel like nobody takes notice of your moderate opinion one might feel like a expressing stronger opinion in the same direction might increase the impact.
  - lern_too_spel 2y ago
    I also just don't care for Buckley's cover, and it's not a "not quite as good as the other one" feeling but a "not good" impression, so I can see where GGP is coming from. Buckley needlessly draws out the song. I own both Cohen's track from Various Positions and Buckley's cover from Grace, which Google gave away for free to try to convince people to use its music store. I don't listen to the latter. Even if I didn't have the former, I still wouldn't listen to the latter. That's just how I feel about it, and I understand that other people feel differently.
Quekid5 2y ago
Your opinion is just that. An opinion. (I'll leave it at that)
acchow 2y ago
I think it's a matter of taste. I just watched your link and it seems performative to me. I imagine a video from one of his earliest performances would have come off as authentic. But decades later, does he really even feel the same way as when he wrote it?
- slfnflctd 2y ago
  As someone who has performed a number of songs (some of which I wrote) over several decades, and has played one cover song in particular at least several hundred times... every performance is unique. It is a different experience for the performer than for the audience. As an audience member, I get tired of any particular song very quickly. As a performer, it often feels like a new challenge each time. One night I can struggle to feel anything at all and it's like I'm phoning it in. The next afternoon I can come away from a spontaneous run-through of the same piece and feel like I've found new insights and played it better than ever before. That being said, while I recognize it's somewhat subjective, I vastly prefer Jeff Buckley's version of this song over all others. Maybe because I fell in love with that whole Grace album at a pivotal point in my life. If I'm going to pick a song I feel like Cohen fully owns, it's gotta be Everybody Knows.
emmelaich 2y ago
One thing I really like about Buckley's version is that he says "But you don't really care for music, do you?" Not "do ya", which really jars with the rest of the song.
- stavros 2y ago
  That's what Cohen does in that video as well, and I personally dislike it.
kdtsh 2y ago
It’s apples and oranges comparing a studio recording to a live performance. Anyway, I think this is a similar divide to the performances of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash. People come to each with their own preconceptions and their own taste, and ultimately both tracks explore different ground and express different things through the same composition. It is all a matter of taste; for what it’s worth, I think no one has to think something is good, but I have a lot of time for people whose sense of taste lets them explore the ground that the artist tries to take them to and understand the artist on their level, whether they think one particular performance is better or worse than another by some metric.
- bigmattystyles 2y ago
  I think even Trent Reznor said it was Johnny Cash’s song now.
  - duskwuff 2y ago
    He did. https://web.archive.org/web/20171015203101/http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=11 https://web.archive.org/web/20171015203101/http://www.thenin...
- OskarS 2y ago
  One of my favorite Cash songs is The Mercy Seat, I just think it’s a masterpiece. And it’s SO Johnny Cash (religion! crime! last line twist!) that I was stunned when I recently looked it up and realized he didn’t write it, it’s a cover of a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds song. The Nick Cave version is… fine? I mean, it’s good! But the Johnny Cash version is sublime, there’s no comparison. Must have been a weird feeling for an artist to hear Johnny Cash is covering your song. On the one hand, he’s a legend who inspired you and who you worship, but also it has to be a bit of “oh shit, his version is going to be so much better than mine, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s Johnny’s song now. ”
  - keybored 2y ago
    > Must have been a weird feeling for an artist to hear Johnny Cash is covering your song. On the one hand, he’s a legend who inspired you and who you worship, but also it has to be a bit of “oh shit, his version is going to be so much better than mine, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s Johnny’s song now. ” Pff. Based on monthly listeners on Spotify Johnny Cash is bigger than both Nice Cave and Nine Inch Nails. So what kind of position do you put artists who are both less known and younger in when you cover their songs? Well factoring in respect and professionalism: deference is a likely outcome. “It’s his song now!” Ridiculous. “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails is fine I guess. “Hurt” by Cash is just an old man voice over a steel string guitar. Very monotone and dull. I heard it way before I heard the NiN version (naturally) and I never understood why people were taken by it. Another example is “My Body is a Cage” by Arcade Fire. Peter Gabriel did a similarly boring cover: flat vocals (compare with the AF vocals reaching for the higher notes) over a dun-dun-dun piano which builds into a orchestral backing. I guess the instrumentation is comparable but the vocals are just okay. But the vocals are supposedly the wow-factor for such artists. But AF has done at least one Peter Gabriel cover. So it goes both ways.

worik 2y ago

In matters of taste there is no right an wrong Only good an bad

khazhoux 2y ago
I always say: there’s no dumb questions, only questions asked by dumb people.

StayTrue 2y ago

Seems like an extreme take. I think Buckley’s version is sublime but love Cohen’s too (which I’ve been privileged to enjoy live on a couple occasions).

Lerc 2y ago
I think this is the 'It's either 5-stars or 1-star' principle in action. I feel given a different context they might say that both both renditions are good but one speaks to them on a more personal level. I'm guessing this comes about as a desire to be heard causing a magnification of the opinion rather than the force of the opinion. If you feel like nobody takes notice of your moderate opinion one might feel like a expressing stronger opinion in the same direction might increase the impact.
- lern_too_spel 2y ago
  I also just don't care for Buckley's cover, and it's not a "not quite as good as the other one" feeling but a "not good" impression, so I can see where GGP is coming from. Buckley needlessly draws out the song. I own both Cohen's track from Various Positions and Buckley's cover from Grace, which Google gave away for free to try to convince people to use its music store. I don't listen to the latter. Even if I didn't have the former, I still wouldn't listen to the latter. That's just how I feel about it, and I understand that other people feel differently.

Quekid5 2y ago

Your opinion is just that. An opinion. (I'll leave it at that)

acchow 2y ago

I think it's a matter of taste. I just watched your link and it seems performative to me. I imagine a video from one of his earliest performances would have come off as authentic. But decades later, does he really even feel the same way as when he wrote it?

slfnflctd 2y ago
As someone who has performed a number of songs (some of which I wrote) over several decades, and has played one cover song in particular at least several hundred times... every performance is unique. It is a different experience for the performer than for the audience. As an audience member, I get tired of any particular song very quickly. As a performer, it often feels like a new challenge each time. One night I can struggle to feel anything at all and it's like I'm phoning it in. The next afternoon I can come away from a spontaneous run-through of the same piece and feel like I've found new insights and played it better than ever before. That being said, while I recognize it's somewhat subjective, I vastly prefer Jeff Buckley's version of this song over all others. Maybe because I fell in love with that whole Grace album at a pivotal point in my life. If I'm going to pick a song I feel like Cohen fully owns, it's gotta be Everybody Knows.

emmelaich 2y ago

One thing I really like about Buckley's version is that he says "But you don't really care for music, do you?" Not "do ya", which really jars with the rest of the song.

stavros 2y ago
That's what Cohen does in that video as well, and I personally dislike it.

kdtsh 2y ago

It’s apples and oranges comparing a studio recording to a live performance. Anyway, I think this is a similar divide to the performances of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash. People come to each with their own preconceptions and their own taste, and ultimately both tracks explore different ground and express different things through the same composition. It is all a matter of taste; for what it’s worth, I think no one has to think something is good, but I have a lot of time for people whose sense of taste lets them explore the ground that the artist tries to take them to and understand the artist on their level, whether they think one particular performance is better or worse than another by some metric.

bigmattystyles 2y ago
I think even Trent Reznor said it was Johnny Cash’s song now.
- duskwuff 2y ago
  He did. https://web.archive.org/web/20171015203101/http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=11 https://web.archive.org/web/20171015203101/http://www.thenin...
OskarS 2y ago
One of my favorite Cash songs is The Mercy Seat, I just think it’s a masterpiece. And it’s SO Johnny Cash (religion! crime! last line twist!) that I was stunned when I recently looked it up and realized he didn’t write it, it’s a cover of a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds song. The Nick Cave version is… fine? I mean, it’s good! But the Johnny Cash version is sublime, there’s no comparison. Must have been a weird feeling for an artist to hear Johnny Cash is covering your song. On the one hand, he’s a legend who inspired you and who you worship, but also it has to be a bit of “oh shit, his version is going to be so much better than mine, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s Johnny’s song now. ”
- keybored 2y ago
  > Must have been a weird feeling for an artist to hear Johnny Cash is covering your song. On the one hand, he’s a legend who inspired you and who you worship, but also it has to be a bit of “oh shit, his version is going to be so much better than mine, isn’t it? Well, I guess it’s Johnny’s song now. ” Pff. Based on monthly listeners on Spotify Johnny Cash is bigger than both Nice Cave and Nine Inch Nails. So what kind of position do you put artists who are both less known and younger in when you cover their songs? Well factoring in respect and professionalism: deference is a likely outcome. “It’s his song now!” Ridiculous. “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails is fine I guess. “Hurt” by Cash is just an old man voice over a steel string guitar. Very monotone and dull. I heard it way before I heard the NiN version (naturally) and I never understood why people were taken by it. Another example is “My Body is a Cage” by Arcade Fire. Peter Gabriel did a similarly boring cover: flat vocals (compare with the AF vocals reaching for the higher notes) over a dun-dun-dun piano which builds into a orchestral backing. I guess the instrumentation is comparable but the vocals are just okay. But the vocals are supposedly the wow-factor for such artists. But AF has done at least one Peter Gabriel cover. So it goes both ways.