more lyrics

This morning, I heard Bob Dylan singing his wonderful song "Mr. Tambourine Man" on the radio. His performance of it isn't one I've heard very often. Rarely, in fact. Back when my computer was able to handle YouTube videos, I watched him singing the song while standing behind a lectern, as I recall. It was in glorious black-and-white.

Most of us (in the older generation anyway) are quite familiar with the Byrds' version of the song. Which I observed one day as being quite unique in that it simply goes chorus-verse-chorus, as opposed to what I imagine to be the more common verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus of most popular songs on the radio. I'd actually read that there were more lyrics to "Mr. Tambourine Man" than were used by the Byrds when they recorded it, which is probably why I looked it up and Dylan's performance in the first place.

Of course, I love the Byrds' arrangement and that gorgeous opening by Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker guitar and the trademark vocal harmonies - just a beautiful rendition. It helped define the music of a generation! But listening to Dylan sing the song with its additional lyrics seems to give it more perspective. Here is one site's listing of the lyrics for "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Another song whose lyrics are stunning to read and moreover to hear performed is "Hallelujah" by the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. My first experience with it came from listening to Jeff Buckley's version on his album "Grace." Stunning, absolutely stunning. Over the years, I pay attention whenever I hear the song and also found myself looking for performances on YouTube and more information in general. Before Jeff Buckley, it seems that the singer John Cale first revived the song to greater popularity and what I believe is the arrangement that most contemporary performers more or less follow now.

The story I read is that John Cale contacted Leonard Cohen about wanting to perform the song and asked for the lyrics; Cohen generously faxed Cale the lyrics in their entirety and there were verse after verse, maybe even more than ten in all! So it came down to Cale choosing which ones he wanted to include. Here is the same above site's listing of the lyrics for "Hallelujah" (I wonder if there are even more written down somewhere in Cohen's possession?).