Well, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well, it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah . . .
Well, your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah . . .
But, baby, I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
You know, I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah . . .
Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
~ Leonard Cohen
I do not practice any religion, and I do not celebrate Easter. But today is Easter Sunday, and it seems appropriate to look for some serenity and reflection in the day. "Hallelujah" does that for me. Written in 1984, Cohen's song was originally 80 verses long! For inclusion on his Various Positions, it was pared down to the handful of verses we know today, although various performers have added in up to 15 others from the original 80. The most famous (and arguably the best) version is Jeff Buckley's 1994 live version from his Grace album, which is the one linked above. Buckley's death in 1997 precluded him from knowing how popular his effort would become.
In keeping with the religious theme of the day, Bible scholars will recognize a few Biblical characters in the verses, notably King David, Bathsheba, Delilah, and Mary, mother of Jesus. But Cohen was not focusing on traditional religion. "'Hallelujah' is a Hebrew word that means 'Glory to the Lord.' The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say all the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It's a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion."
Buckley goes even further in his distinction of the song as secular. "Whoever listens carefully to 'Hallelujah' will discover that it is a song about sex, about love, about life on earth. The Hallelujah is not a homage to a worshipped person, idol, or god, but the Hallelujah of the orgasm. It's an ode to life and love."
The most recent noted performance of the song was on a post-election Saturday Night Live. Kate McKinnon, who entertained us every week with her Hillary Clinton impersonation, sat at a piano for a cold open of the show and sang the song to us. Given that Leonard Cohen had died a few days earlier, the performance easily brought the tears. I recall not recognizing one of the verses and assumed that McKinnon had penned the lines in the voice of Hillary. In researching this post, I saw that indeed, the verse is one of Cohen's original ones.
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
At the song's conclusion, McKinnon looked directly at the camera and said, "I'm not giving up, and neither should you." Her comment resonates with Cohen's own assessment of his song: "This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'"
And Cohen also said this, when asked what he thought about the song: "I think it's a good song, but I think too many people sing it."
I hope your day, however you spent it or celebrated it, brought you joy and peace.
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