Friday, August 29, 2014

Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah seems to be one of the most-covered songs ever:  there are seemingly endless permutations and variations, both holy and secular.  In fact, there are three different artist's renditions on Herself's iPod.  Why these three, you may wonder? Alone, they are incomplete; but together, they provide all of the verses. It is those stanzas that do not appear in every version that lend additional meaning to the song.

All of the versions on the iPod contain these four verses:

All 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 you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah


Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah


Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah


Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who has seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

The iPod holds a Leonard Cohen rendition, with a verse speaking to the power of the Word:

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard,
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

As well as Rufus Wainwright's rendition, which in its second half adds to the sensual undertones and recalls the stanza that speaks of her beauty:

There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

And finally, to round out the verses, there is the Three Girls's rendition, that provides hope for what lies Beyond, even when all seems cold and broken and lost:

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 you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

We love this song.  It is a balm to bittersweet memories, and a comfort on difficult days.

Hallelujah. 

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