It was a strange old end to the music year.  Leonard Cohen is coaxed out of exile for what could only be called 'financial reasons' then finds he needn't have bothered.

The X Factor pluck one of his best loved songs from (relative) obscurity and stick it on prime time Saturday night TV.

People get up in arms at this sacrilege not against Leonard Cohen, but the late Jeff Buckley who covered it to critical acclaim in his only studio album (Grace) before his untimely death.

A Facebook group sets up a campaign to get the Jeff Buckley cover to number one instead of the X Factor one.  Gobshout joins the campaign.

Unsurprisingly the X Factor version by Whatshername gets the Christmas number one,  bringing a beautiful song to a whole new audience who would probably not have known that much about it.  (Lets face it The X Factor was always going to get to number one, Simon's flunkeys probably bought several thousand copies themselves - allegedly allegedly!!)

Amazingly, the vastly superior Jeff Buckley one gets to number 2, beating among others - another X Factor song by Whadyamacaller.  Many probably heard the Jeff Buckley version for the first time and who knows may have bought them both.

Leonard Cohen probably thinks 'I've been busting my 74 year old ass in various cities and festivals around the world when I could have been sitting on it.'

So let's look at the positives; for once we get a decent Christmas number one overshadowed by an even better number two.

Leonard Cohen (once he has calmed down) can get on and enjoy his retirement.

More people will check out the music of both Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen.

Whatshername and whadyamacaller will go on to have short-term high profile pop success before probably being succeeded by next years X Factor winners.

And not a Cliff Richard in sight!

Fucking result if you ask me!

 

Posted In Comment, Dec 22 2008. Words - The Ginger