My husband David and I were catching up on some shows a lot this past week, now that TiVo II has arrived and made life liveable again. We were watching the end of “Criminal Minds” tonight, which was an episode called “A Real Rain.” It ended badly for the “unsub,” the unknown subject of this week’s exercise in profiling to catch the bad guy.
As it ended, a gurney loaded with a body bag is taken away from the scene, shot from the middle distance. Distinctive, sad guitar chords began to play, and instantly I knew it was Jeff Buckley’s version of the Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah.” What a miraculous song, what a miracle of a performance, what a loss to the world when the singer’s untimely death stilled his beautifully haunting and vulnerable voice forever.
In satisfying my curiousity about Buckley’s life and music, I wandered here and there, reading and pondering life and death. It’s a difficult song, especially if you know a little something about Cohen’s background, education, and lyrical style. It’s full of love and bitterness and irony and loss, so it’s not really a happy-sad love song, it’s more like a love-turning-to-bitter-ashes-in-the-throat song, but ending on a triumphant note.
Apparently a lot of television shows have used this song to good effect – West Wing, the OC, and now Criminal Minds. They’d better be careful, or it’ll suffer the fate of “Pink Moon” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” You know – the “what was that song at the end of the show?” song.
I’m a sucker for ’em, those songs. As a perusal of my iPod shows. And how strange… all three of these iconic, mood-setting songs are performed by singers who died well before their time. Perhaps because they’re all a shortcut to a state of light but enjoyable melancholy?
iTunes: Jeff Buckley: Hallelujah (Live): Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition) [9:15]
iTunes: Israel Kamakawiwo’ole: Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World: Facing Future [5:08]
iTunes: Nick Drake: Pink Moon: Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake [2:03]