Reviews for Hallelujah Lyrics

omg this song is so amazing its an honour and a tribute to music an time less clasic to be treasured in our hearts forever

I hear a deep sexuality in the lyrics that has a grab you quality and the emptiness of after when you have taken or been taken from and your spirit is broken. Deeper I hear a remorseful cry to God that believes itself damned which stirs a grief in me and yet there is a wee breath of Hope in there that stops you on the brink.
It is a song which seems like a flagrant display of truth.

One of the greatest songs ever. Brilliant lyrics bt Cohen, Developed superbly by Buckley. A song I believe about addiction. Jack L, an Irish artist, does a version without 2nd last verse, that is the most moving rendition I have heard, because of his voice. Check it out.

not my words, but very insightful... copied from a post on Radio Paradise

the original cohen lyrics were steeped in the old testament

let's examine the word "Hallelujah"
hallelujah - a shout or song of praise to God
or in the vernacular; "Oh God"

I am sure many of us can remember using "Oh God!" in the throes of passion

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below (the belt)
But now you never show that to me do you (no more sex)
But remember when I moved in you (coitus)
And the holy dove (spirit) was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah (Oh God!)

overtly sexual, (parentheses mine)

and

at the same time "Oh, God" when we are in bowels of despair

And it's not a cry (not a scream of passion) that you hear at night ( but instead sobbing)
It's not somebody who's seen the light (not a religous awakening)
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah (Oh, God)

(Oh, God - like when we're heart broken and on our 8th beer or 2nd liter of Haagen-Dasz so we can forget)
Cohen's version had the word "lonely" in place of "broken"

I believe that Buckley's version is about the kind of love that is heavily interlaced with sex - not "love making" but "love-lust", the kind of sex that makes you come back for more again and again and again.... almost drug like

someone who you don't just hold hands with and eat quiet dinners, but someone who you can't wait to get them into bed, since for those 2 or 3 hours, you actually "love"

so here he sings of love-lust gained and love-lust lost
love/lust that literally makes you sing, and like an addictive drug, once taken from you, makes fall into a well of despair

the 1st two stanzas can also be easily interpreted as how love-lust can change someone, strengthen or weaken, as exemplified by the King David/Bathsheba and Samson references

Buckley's haunting voice gives his version that painful quality that makes me believe he is singing not of faith and religion, but of that which, like the moth to the flame, we seek and usually get burned, yet we seek it again and are stronger for the journey

the journey to find someone we can connect with on emotional and sexual level - sex on a Friday night after a few drinks and then on Saturday morning when you're sober

of course if one hears the song with the images from "The West Wing", "The OC" or "Lord of War" it does take on a more spiritual feel and the love-lust part kinda gets lost


PS - KD Lang's version is a close 2nd to Buckley's, but lacks that haunting quality

I first heard this song while watching Saint Ralph, and then on a tv episode of some program. It is simply haunting. But I do not understand most of the words. What is the author saying. The sound is wonderful, but the meaning of the words escapes me. Help.

Hello Everyone ...

Truely beautiful song .. Love it to death !!! I would like to know if someone can tell me a little more about the actual meaning of the song. I know just a little about it and i would like to know more. Its interesting :-) Thanks so much in advance guys

Heard it on The Oc for the first time .. In The First Season ...
and profoundly touched me again when I saw the season's 3 Finale yesterday ...

There is also a very good version of this song by the composer – Leonard Cohen; nearly everyone on this site seems to think it is a Jeff Buckley song which couldn’t be further from the truth. Jeff Buckley sings a very good version of it and it is, indeed, a beautiful song.
Who is the song to? Is it to the Lord Himself or to the Lord of Song - or even to Sampson? Delilah cut Sampson’s hair and blinded him – I don’t think she tied him to a kitchen chair before cutting his hair but the metaphor is there.
The song – and I could be wrong – is written in a rising 5th like ‘My Way’ which may have some meaning in the first verse and hooks the listener from the first hearing.
Apart from being a beautiful song it is also an equally beautiful poem.

This is simply the most beautiful piece of music i've ever heard. i'm generally not a crying person, but when watching the OC and hearing this, I wasn't the same for days afterwards.

I first heard this song in Shrek, Rufus Wainwright sang it. I searched it out and found Jeff's version. This is a song you can not shake out of your head. Jeff is no longer with us but he will live on in this song. I think this is a fitting legacy for one of the finest singers no one knows. Spread the word....

I, too, love the song and the way Jeff sings it, however neither the lyrics nor the music were written by him. In fact, words and music for "Hallelujah" are by Leonard Cohen (first published on his 1984 album Various Positions).

Cheers,

Peter

I first heard this song several years ago when it was featured on the TV show The West Wing and I have been searching for a title and singer ever since! I am in love with this song!!!

I've heard this song before, and loved it. Recentrly I met the man of my life, and fell in love very deeply. For the first weeks, very much in love when I thought of him, I always hard Jeff Buckley singing "hallelujah" inside my head, everytime when I thought of Him. There is no other song like it :-)

Simply a song that goes through your heart. A song to hear on the lonely nights. A song to hear when love is lost. A song that make you remember your religion and your God above.

This song has some of the greatest guitar work I have heard in a long time. Really liked this song.

Some songs are great, and some are outstanding, this is neither. It is among those very few whose combination of words and music simply transcend common adjectives. It just touches you. Whenever I hear it I feel both profoundly hopeless and profoundly hopeful.