Roberta Flack’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” was the first version of this song that I heard. I was going through NPR’s list of 150 Greatest Album’s Made by Women in 2017-2018 as a sort of musical education, and as I was listening to Flack’s First Take, this song stopped me in my tracks. Yes, it’s a great song, and I subsequently listened to other versions of it, including the original, but I’m just so in love with her version. So in love, in fact, that I put “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” in my 2018 and 2019 one-woman shows and based the arrangement on hers.
I love how it starts off a cappella for one line and immediately starts a slow build with piano accompaniment, and then the drums, etc. I love how interesting and intricate the arrangement is but it’s never too busy, it’s like she’s singing a duet with it, and every time I listen to it I hear something different in the instrumentation. I love the entire bridge, but transition of the bridge back into the verse just kills me–I think it’s going to build into it but instead it gets quiet and tapers and ends in a soft half cadence (I’m a sucker for a good half cadence). The accompaniment always knows when to pull back and build back up again as if it too understands the ebb and flow of emotions that comes with saying goodbye to a former lover. I love how she sings “distances” and “sorrow” in the return of the verses, with the slightest bit of an ache. I love how she sings “goodbye” over the melisma.
So as we memorialize the work of the great Roberta Flack this week of her passing, give this one a listen. Maybe you’ll fall in love with it, too.
And here’s my version from 2018, completely inspired by her: