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By Pages:   1    2    Add Your New Review About The Song The Reviews about HALLELUJAH (page 1/ 2) ------ performed by Leonard Cohen What the song means | Reviewer: Nathan | 12/1/09 The song can mean much more than what happens to be in Leonard Cohen's mind. In fact, there can be more in LC's mind than even he knows is there. When you recite the stories of David, you can easily be saying more than you understand. When you say the word "hallelujah," the word resonates all the way back to the Psalms and then down through the Hallel prayers and African American worship and a thousand other places. LC doesn't control all of this. When we listen to this song, or sing it in our hearts, we are participating in something more, something that language gives us, and our own study and reflection and whatever prayer we are capable of as well. So, yes, there is a flat and empty and despairingly selfish way to receive this song. There are also many other ways. The song is not just one thing. And beware of charging blasphemy -- remember: that there is a blaze of light in every word. Do you know how the glory moves about? The broken and the holy hallelujahs are not completely distinct, at least not for us. There is a crack in everything--even us. And yet--that's how the light gets in. If you're worried about LC and blasphemy, then remember him when you pray. using the name in vain | Reviewer: nikie | 9/3/09 "The song sounds religious, ‘the melody is almost liturgical and conjures up religious feelings’ said one commentator. This may well be but the Lord’s name, Jehovah or Jah, must not be said in vain. Usage in this pop record is not appropriate. Many use it at a funeral but it is not relevant there either. Doing so would be equal to blasphemy." in the very last verse he says '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?' so.. what's it to you if it's blasphemous? it's about the bitterness of love, a human experience - it's not all candy and flowers. This version I like, the other version I have | Reviewer: Vanilla Rose | 8/19/09 I bought a copy of a double CD called "The Essential Leonard Cohen" or something similar. It does indeed contain all the songs I was looking for, but the version of "Hallelujah" is not the one quoted here (Marble Arch/Holy Dove/outdrew you). It is the other one, mentioned in one of the reviews. And I prefer the version I have not got! Thank goodness it has the version of "I'm Your Man" that is familiar to me! I choreographed a burlesque routine to it. abjection | Reviewer: Martimr1 | 8/8/09 First, since a couple of folks above don't seem to realize it, L. Cohen's the author as well as the original performer. There are many covers. I think this song is about the despair that we ultimately feel at the failure of sex, love, and prayer to ever connect us with anyone or anything else. We die lonely, disappointed, bitter, and broken, but still filled with awe. Is that holy? It's human. I am fairly certain there is no God, but if there were, and He put us in this state, he certainly doesn't deserve to have his name reverenced. Just saw the video of Cohen performing this in London. What a beautiful ruin of a man he has become. He's the embodiment of his own song. Hallelujah | Reviewer: Anonymous | 8/5/09 For those who seek God, He can and will be found where you least expect. I can see the religious reference (David and Samson); but can also understand the cry to be answered by God. As such I have my own interpretation of broken hallelujah. I find no blasphemy, just the wail of sorrow. A broader sense of Hallelujah | Reviewer: Cyril E. Caster | 4/26/09 Leonard's own explanation is the lyrics themselves, but he has also interviewed on the subject. Hallelujah (the word) is a cry from the soul. It has been appropriated by religion, but LC explains poetically that the soul has other non-religious thing to scream about. glory of sex | Reviewer: analogue | 4/15/09 ContraDiction | 12/21/08 While finding the above's review interesting, I disagree on one essential aspect. The song, in my view, is about sexual love, and particularly orgasm, being a religious experience, rather than the glories of music. That's what the lyrics say to me. Hallelujah | Reviewer: Mark | 3/12/09 These are the lyrics that Cohen has sung on records and cd's, though not all at the same time and, therefore, not in this order. He once said that it took him 5 years to finish the song, (at one time banging his head on the floor in frustration). You can see why he could have 80 lyrics for this song, the structure is such that it lends itself to innumerable combinations and as long as the last word in the third line ends in the word "you" and the word before that has the oo sound, "you" are halfway there. It could lend itself to an easy parody...I wonder why I haven't heard that yet... C Am Baby, I've been here before. C Am I know this room, I've walked this floor. F G C G I used to live alone before I knew you. C F G Yeah I've seen your flag on the marble arch, Am F But listen, love is not some kind of victory march, G E Am No it's a cold and it's a very broken Hallelujah. F Am F C G Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah There was a time you let me know What's really going on below, Ah but now you never show it to me, do you? Yeah but I remember, yeah when I moved in you, And the holy dove, she was moving too, Yes every single breath that we drew was Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Maybe there's a God above, As for me, all I've ever seemed to learn from love Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you. Yeah but it's not a complaint that you hear tonight, It's not the laughter of someone who claims to have seen the light No it's a cold and it's a very lonely Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. I did my best, it wasn't much. I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch. I've told the truth, I didn't come all this way to fool you. Yeah even tough it all went wrong I'll stand right here before the Lord of Song With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Now 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 Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and 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 Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah 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 Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Cohen's Lyrics: Never What They Seemed to Be | Reviewer: ContraDiction | 12/21/08 Yes!!! After notebooks full of lyrics Cohen wrote for this song, the result seems rather sparse here and in it's initial short recording (Cohen claims at least 80 verses in Final). It was first recording by Leonard Cohen in 1984. It ended up being comprised of various lyrics Cohen had written for the song and sang in the studio on numerous re-cuts/takes. Because Leonard couldn't decide which to use. It was then pulled together by producer John Lissauer into a coherent 4min 39sec recording. In 1994 a live recording was made with more of the original lyrics at 6min 54sec. When Jeff Buckley recorded it he obtained some of those other lyrics (along with Rufus Wainright and John Cale). Jeff called his rendition, "the hallelujah of the orgasm". So what we see as biblical references here, were in fact only superfluous descriptions of Cohen's love of music and the sometimes orgasmic sensations it can induce or produce in us! That's how many (including Cohen), interpret this song. How music can overwhelm us, with an almost Religious Experience, but much like a sexual orgasm, when it's done, it's gone. Leaving only the Hallelujahs on our lips!!! This song has been played at funerals. There again we can find not so much a religious experience, but that once life is done, it's done and gone forever. Fading simply to spent Hallelujahs! We also have to remember much of Cohen's poetry and song writing had a somewhat somber and often times morbid pre-occupation with suicide and death due to the depressions he suffered from periotically until later in life! In the end though, it's brilliant song that comes very close to revealing our cycle of life and how music and love affects us all!!! What Blasphemy??? | Reviewer: Miriam Ohara | 12/15/08 What Blasphemy in expose your feelings and truths out? Blasphemy are historic lies and deceives passing by generations!!! This lyrics is the most beautiful one that someone has even write because came from a pure heart in serch for the truth! Add Your New Review About The Song By Pages:   1    2