Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is another musician I listen to because of my parents. This will be a common theme: my parents met and courted each other doing radio shows in college. My mom went on to create an online music magazine, prompting artists to send their CD’s and Demos hoping to…

Earlier this summer, Rufus Wainwright released Unfollow the Rules, his first full-on pop album since 2012’s Out of the Game, after a three-month delay due to the Covid-19 shutdown. Although he hasn’t been able to go out on the road to share his songs with fans on a tour as…

« Complainte de la Butte » « Complainte de la Butte » Performed by Rufus Wainwright Translated by Hannah Joy Stacy for John Thomas Mars on Valentine’s Day 2020 The battered, sorrow-filled moon above shows riches among every highlight of your golden-blonde hair. The Amber lit moon hides the tattered…

文： Duncan Lau 假期時看了特別放映的德國電影《巴打救心行動 (This Crazy Heart)》，尾段岀現歌曲 《Hallelujah》，這首歌用在電影和電視劇的次數，幾乎達致令人難以置信的地步。而這首歌的發展，可算是充滿傳奇色彩。花了近廿年時間，幾個不同歌手的演譯，一些電影用作插曲，才慢慢成為一曲經典，是極為罕見。 這是加拿大詩人歌手Leonard Cohen的作品，相信很多人知道，收錄在他1984年出版的專輯《Various Positions》中，除了個別地區外，在英國和美國都沒有作單曲推出，唱片公司並不看好。而這首歌是Cohen作品中最令他頭痛和難以取捨的，據說他一共寫了近八十段不同的歌詞，而他最終錄在專輯上的一個版本，還不是最終的版本。他到1988年演唱時，換上一些新詞，那才是他的最終版本。而後來別的歌手翻唱時，亦有不少歌詞上的增減。 自84年問世以來，一直沒太多人留意，直到1991年一張向Cohen致敬專輯《I’m Your Fan》推出，其中John Cale翻唱《Hallelujah》，他的鋼琴編排引起一些注意，也啟發另一位歌手Jeff Buckley做另一個版本，收錄在他94年的處女專輯《Grace》。不過同樣沒有作單曲發行，當時亦不是太多人認識。這張專輯卻是Buckley在世時唯一的一張專輯，他在97年中準備第二張專輯時，遇上意外身亡，只是30歲。到2001年，電影《史力加（Shrek）》用上John Cale的版本作配樂，頗受歡迎，不過在原聲大碟上卻換上Rufus Wainwright的版本。繼而在2004年，加拿大女歌手k.d. Lang推出一張翻唱一批加拿大作曲人的作品集，她的《Hallelujah》受到高度讚賞，多次在公開場合演唱，其中包括在2006年在加拿大作曲家名人堂慶祝Cohen入選時，在Cohen面前演唱，贏盡掌聲，令這首歌更受廣泛注意。

Rufus Wainwright, Missy Higgins, and Daryl Hall — I had the opportunity to see Ben Folds perform live. More accurately, I got to meet him and listen to his soundcheck a few years ago here in Austin. I was on an awkward first date. I appreciated this random dude meeting me at 6 pm and tackling Austin traffic…

Sloan Wainwright Joins Nephew Rufus Wainwright at Landmark — Almost exactly a year ago before his April premiere performance at Landmark, Rufus Wainwright released Take All My Loves: Nine Shakespeare Sonnets (Deutsche Grammophon). …

In November 1996 Penny Arcade asked Rufus to play a special solo show in New York. Though still ensconced in LA recording demos for his debut album DreamWorks were happy to send him first class wherever he wanted to go. “Quentin Crisp had asked me for dispensation from his promise…

(alternate link) Okay, so maybe a little back story on that. This weekend I was out with S who I’ve seen a…

I’ve had the same tune in my head all day. — ‘There’s a fire in the priory And it’s ruining this cocktail party’ I’ve had the same song in my head all day. Last night’s sense of unstable calm has given way to skittishness, and I’ve not been able to write the post I wanted to. …