Hallelujah.

Everybody knows this song. It has been covered more than 300 times by artists like Bob Dylan, U2, Bon Jovi, Jeff Buckley, John Cale, and many many many more. 

It is a work of genius. 

What is amazing about this song though is the evolution of it. It took the Canadian signer/songwriter Leonard Cohen 5 YEARS to write Hallelujah. He tinkered with it. He labored with it. Wrote 70 verses to it, rewriting and rewriting. He was tortured by it. 
He then recorded it and his label CBS said it was horrible. Finally a very small indie label in France released the song, going nowhere. Then John Cale recorded it, changed some verses, the instrumentation, the feel, and it went nowhere. Then Jeff Buckley covered it, changed it once again, and it went nowhere. Not until Buckley died tragically did the song get recognized as a work of genius.

That's over 15 years of re-writing, re-vamping, re-recording, and re-thinking Hallelujah!

Genius is a funny word. We all have notions of what genius means and for most, it means doing something remarkable, unbelievably fast. Bob Dylan wrote the song "I and I" in 15 minutes. Hank Williams wrote "I Saw the Light" in 15 minutes. Picasso did hundreds of paintings in a very short time. 

But for some, Leonard Cohen being one, genius takes a long long long time to manifest itself.

Just because you can't make remarkable things happen quickly doesn't mean it isn't remarkable.

RIP Mr. Cohen. Thank you for your patience and your persistence to keep plugging away at Hallelujah. The world needed this song. 
#leonardcohen #hallelujah