Saturday, January 23, 2010

Ohad, Haiti and Leonard Cohen

Call me ignorant, naive or just plain stupid but I didn't know Ohad's Boi Kallah was an adaptation of Leonard Cohen's Halelluja. But shortly after hearing Ohayon's video in A Jewish Star, Nathalia and Gabriel - two famous goyish artists - made a tribute to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti with a adaptation of Halleluja of Leonard Cohen. I was then able to compare it to Ohad's version, and it turns out that Ohad didn't change much in the arrangement nor singing - he sings it pretty much in the same way, and I happen to prefer the goyish version.

I'm posting three videos - of Ohad, Leonard Cohen's original and Nathalie and Gabriel. Judge for yourself. Warning: In the vid of Nathalia there Kol Isha towards the middle of the song but Gabriel is the first singer and you can get an idea of it. (actually, he sounds like a lady so maybe you should skip it anyway!)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

he sang it in baltimore where most of the crowd does know all the classic songs from composers such as Leonard Cohen, the place was really laughing and he didnt get what was so funny!

Yosef Greenberg said...

I wrote a post on this very subject highlighting some famous cases,

http://blog.yachdus.com/2010/01/authentic-jewish-music-is-fun.html

YK said...

Anon,

My old baltimore.. I was there in Yeshiva back in the day.
The question is what does it say in the album jacket - does he gives credit to Leonard Cohen?

Yosef,

I saw your post, and it seems that the list keeps growing every day. Chaim rubin wrote a similar post to yours some 2 yrs ago, but i dont have the link.
It's an unfortunate phenomenon, in my opinion. Singers seem to be spending more time "fishing" for adaptations instead of producing real original music..

Anonymous said...

The original is far the best..

Yosef Greenberg said...

YK,

You're right. The ripoffs are usually not good, nor original.

It has been done in a tasteful way in the past. Not to mention Veroba's excellent Variations and Impressions series'.

KK said...

NOW I ASK MY DEAR FRIENDS, DOES COPY RIGHTS REALY EXCIST?

EVEN IN HALACHA?

YK said...

Yosef,

I also like Variations but it seems like AKApella took over this genre. And then you have Shlock Rock too, but this is not Ohad's field. He has to stick to originality.

YK

Margo said...

It's lovely to see all of these together, thanks for sharing!

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