Another Major Lift for 'Hallelujah'

Another page in Leonard Cohen's remarkable comeback--he's playing two packed arenas in NYC this month, e.g.--is the arrival of a pair of books.  I've already posted extensively on the I'm Your Man full bio that I've read, but now we have a new one from Alan Light strictly about his great-if-now-overdone song "Hallelujah," and its link to the late Jeff Buckley. The book was  described in a major AP story last week and now, just posted at NYT, is the Monday Janet Maslin review of the book.

Some good nuggets in the bookhere:  Cohen meant the song to be joyous but it is usually used in films and TV to connote sadness.   Dylan was actually the first to play the song in concert, in the mid-1980s (I've heard it and weak but moving).   And Bono apologizes for the U2 version.  Here's the classic Jeff Buckley version: