Hallelujah?
Is it me you’re looking for?
The best version:
Actually, this is the best version.
It’s the first and second verses which refers to that story–they’re all connected.
David used to play this chord, which he composed when he was watching Bathsheba. And then the speaker describes how they had sex and it broke David’s connection to the divine. The “throne” line at the end of verse two shows it’s still about David.
It does allude to Samson and Delilah, but it does so in the context of talking about the story with David. It is that what he did with Bathsheba broke David’s connection to God, same as when Samson’s hair was cut.
However, it also mentions breaking David’s throne, i.e. cutting off his kingdom. God kills David’s intended descendant, his child with Bathsheba. (Granted, this can also be connected with various other aspects of how David’s kingdom was broken, like with his other sons, or with how the kingdom broke in two after Solomon.)
Yes, the allusions are all negative. And it does end with the speaker questioning if God even exists. However, I don’t see how that negates all the religious allusions, which make up the bulk of the first two verse.
It isn’t a hymn, as it doesn’t praise God. It isn’t positive towards religion at all. But neither is Ecclesiastes but it’s flat out in the Bible, so you can hardly argue it isn’t religious.
It is clear that Cohen’s religion is what informs the song. That is why he relates his experience with these Biblical stories. Whether he believes in God or not, it is the religious stories he learned as a Jewish person which inform the song.
In short, the song’s first two verses are religious allusions. How can you argue it is in no way religious?
Someone I know told me she used “Hallelujah” for the song as she came down the aisle for her wedding. I said, “Um, have you listened to the lyrics?” She said no, she just thought the tune was lovely, and of course, “Hallelujah” is religious, right? I said not in that song, and she shrugged and said well, it was pretty anyway.:rolleyes:
I’ve been a fan of Cohen’s for a very long time. I am not, however, a music critic, and I doubt my words would cause Cohen-disparagers to change their minds. The New York Times referenced his “sophisticated, magnificently succinct lyrics,” and called “Hallelujah” “a majestic, meditative ballad infused with both religiosity and earthiness.”
In an excellent New Yorker piece, Bob Dylan said
And commented on “Hallelujah”:
Then again maybe, if you hate Cohen’s music, nobody else’s assessment is going to matter.
Leonard Cohen: Portnoy’s Complaint, The Musical!
This has been a very eye-opening discussion - both of music and of Cohen.
For anyone who may be interested, Cohen has an “official web site”. But there is another site that contains many good discussions by his fans: https://www.leonardcohenfiles.com
I found that site to be much more informative and more interesting than any of the other sites I have visited.
First, the title of the thread was hyperbole. I don’t hate Leonard Cohen, or his songs. I just hate people who don’t listen to lyrics. Maybe I should get it retitled.
Second, a song with biblical cultural references is not a hymn, it is not a praise song, it does not glorify God. The word Hallelujah in this song does not appear to mean “Praise Yahweh”, its literal translation. It means something like “how great sex was with you, really a spiritual experience, but now my memory of it is all spoiled you bitch”. The theme of sex being an aspect of the divine while torturing a man because women are so treacherous is one of Cohen’s major themes.
The biblical references are to the stories of David and Bathsheba, which is a about David’s lust leading to murder by proxy (but somehow in the song it’s Bathsheba’s fault for being so attractive), and Delilah cutting Samson’s hair and destroying his power (she was paid by the Philistines to figure out how to destroy him), after which her people blinded and imprisoned him, which in the song is a metaphor for the power attractive women have over men and how they abuse it. In the Bible, the story is probably more meant to illustrate the result of breaking faith with God – Samson was specially consecrated to God as a ‘Nazarite’; as part of this commitment Nazarites did not cut their hair.
All in all, neither edifying about religion or sexual relationships but a really catchy tune with a religious word as the refrain.
Well now I am going to have this song stuck in my head for a week. Thanks guys.
Fortunately, I like Hallelujah.
So I’m going to share a YouTube video that talk about the church choir in the chorus. It’s from a channel called 12 tone which, if you dig on music theory is great and you should watch the whole video where he anylizes the melody and then go back and watch the first video where he talk about how the song uses tonal ambiguity to underline the message of the lyrics.
But if you aren’t down with music theory skip to 3:28 here. It’s good stuff. Lots of terrible covers though.
You didn’t even listen to.my offering, much less in the correct frame of mind, with headphones and high. :mad:
And that woman isn’t even the best singer.
ETA: Harumph!
I hear a man bitching at God for not providing him with the really great sex that he *knows * must be out there. Bitterly, he lusts for women he doesn’t like, and blames them for not giving it to him.
I think reducing this song to merely “a breakup song” is a very limited interpretation.
It has multiple applicabilities.
It’s not a Christmas song, though. Yet.
In the last few years, it has become very apparent that some people hear “Hallelujah” in the chorus of a relatively mainstream song and immediately assume that it’s a praise song, and don’t put too much thought into what the the rest of the song is saying. It reminds me a lot of people who think that “Born in the USA” is a rah-rah patriotic song.
I notice a similar thing around Christmastime among my more religious relatives; they’re amazed that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is still given airplay on a major network, given its religious content. A lot of people truly believe that Christianity is under attack in the United States, and will thus give an excessive amount of attention to anything displaying even the slightest hint of their religion, whether it’s an old TV special or a popular (breakup?) song.
A sensitive and moving portrayal of the horror of a marijuana overdose.
What - Brewer and Shipley are chopped liv’a?
I hated him too. Covers of Hallelujah are so overwrought and stupid.
Then I heard a version in a movie. Stuck hearing it so I gave it a fair listen and turns out it was decent. So, I thought I should give credit where credit was due and looked it up on IMDB to see who it was. Turns out it was Leonard himself. Gave me a laugh.
A modern spiritual indeed. 
Leonard Cohen is dead? Why wasn’t I informed?! I think he’s a great writer; some of his lyrics feed my nostalgia for my misspent youth. (But I heartily boo the Doper who suggested Cohen should have got the Nobel Prize instead of Dylan!)
I assume Cohen understood that actually singing wasn’t his strength; is he mocking himself with this lyric?
Listening to Hallellujah is like being lectured on what a song is by a song that’s not that great. You know you’re in it and it’s going to be a couple of minutes before you’re out of it again.