InannaWhimsey
Discussion on Hallelujah
Posted on: 02/13/2010 18:20
This is for discussion of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" as sung in the 2010 Olympics as a thread-spawn from the Olympic Fever thread in Social.
I will note that there are more than one version of the song (with different lyrics). So it may behoove one of you to state which lyrics were used. And then on with the discussion! :3
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crazyheart
BUMP
Posted on: 02/13/2010 19:20
BUMP
MorningCalm
Thank you for starting the
Posted on: 02/13/2010 19:22
Thank you for starting the thread but I have nothing to add. I gave my objections and sighs gave a wonderful answer back. As far as I'm concerned the discussion is closed.
crazyheart
oops deleted it Don't know
Posted on: 02/13/2010 21:20
oops deleted it Don't know what happened.
ninjafaery
Am I underestimating my
Posted on: 02/13/2010 19:37
Am I underestimating my compatriots in thinking that the King David/Bathesheba reference is lost on most? Or Samson and Dehlila?
Overwhelmed by Beauty --- "the baffled king composing "Hallelujah".
It's all so ripe with holy metaphor......
LBmuskoka
Hallelujah – Leonard
Posted on: 02/13/2010 19:51
Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen (from Leonard Cohen Live in Concert)
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 in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne
she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the halleujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Maybe I've 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
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's real and 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
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above
And all I 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's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah…
For me, it is classic Cohen. Love is heartbreak, full of struggle and tragedy and yet....
the passion is needed to feel alive.
His God is never one dimensional and the story is often one of losing faith because others do not recognize either his pain or love. It is never God that destroys but people with their prejudices.....
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?
Its about love lost and the tragedy that becomes...
And remember when I moved in you
the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
There is not a questioning of existence but the lessons man teaches....
Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
k.d. lang's rendition is, imho, bang on. Soaring hope, soft pleadings, cries of hope.
I couldn't find the Olympic version, this is from the 2005 Junos
InannaWhimsey
match3frog., good for you
Posted on: 02/13/2010 19:53
match3frog., good for you :3
I think it also comes down to, take a look at the song this way: it tells a story, a tale. Now, I am guessing that you don't have a problem when Moses is doubting G_d, earlier on, because that is a tale in that Moses is someone who learns, who changes...similar to the tale and the story of the song, no?
What I get from the song is that David, who really likes singing and who really groks G_d gets lured by Bathesheba, who is going on aboot 'fie to your singing and songs, I want you'--in other words, for Bathsheba, lust/love was more important than G_d ('there may be a G_d above...') and David was tested. And the part aboot being tied to the kitchen chair I get a metaphor for the daily grind of life, with taxes and bills and children, as opposed to the transcendence of G_d and love...and the cold and broken hallelujah is him feeling quite hurt, he remembers the glorious hallelujah's he had composing his songs for G_d but his heart has been broken...and his praises that he would give to G_d he gave to Bathesheba...but at the end of the song, even though his heart is broken, he is still willing to sing G_d's praises...we fight on, despite our hearts being broken...we have faith...
Remember your critical thinking that you are learning. I recommending trying to form at least 2 (I recommend 5) points of view on something :3
Crazyheart, whoah girl! That post of yours, you might want to check it for length :3
ninjafaery,
indeed. I think there are also linkages to Samson & Delilah...a very deep and transcendent song...I enjoy Rufus Wainright's the best (it is the most transcendent). kd's is the most heart-wrenching for me...
Just a Self-writing poem,
InannaWhimsey
crazyheart
Thanks inanna, I deleted it
Posted on: 02/13/2010 21:21
Thanks inanna, I deleted it Don't know what happened.
SLJudds
I had hoped to learn the song
Posted on: 02/14/2010 00:32
I had hoped to learn the song to sing in church - but the lyrics aren't quite appropriate for that venue. - and it's too good to rewrite. It`s more of a tough guy`s lament for lost and betrayed love.
Unfortunately KD Lang's diction was too good.
Northwind
Quote:Maybe there's a God
Posted on: 02/14/2010 01:29
And all I 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's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
This really hit me in the clip above. Wow.
I tried to comment.....no words right now. I am in a community choir and we sing this. It is one of our favourites. We don't sing all the verses that are listed here. I think we just sing three........I'd have to look at the music again.
Pilgrims Progress
Really appreciated the K D
Posted on: 02/14/2010 04:24
Really appreciated the K D Lang version of Halleluljah.
All I can say is that those of us who've experienced suffering, know that this speaks for us.
Maybe it helps , just a little, to know that we are not alone.
sighsnootles
match3frog. wrote: Thank you
Posted on: 02/14/2010 08:26
Thank you for starting the thread but I have nothing to add. I gave my objections and sighs gave a wonderful answer back. As far as I'm concerned the discussion is closed.
WOW... thanks, frog. coming from you, that really means a lot to me.
thank you... that made my morning, and hopefully my whole day!!
sighsnootles
thank you so much for posting
Posted on: 02/14/2010 08:39
thank you so much for posting that version kd sang at the junos... that is the best juno performance EVER, followed closely by loreena mckennitt singing 'lady of shalot' the year that 'the visit' was released.
brought tears to my eyes all over again.
in the book 'the top 100 canadian albums', this is the quote beside album 59 - 'hymns of the 49th parallel' by k.d. lang...
'Did you see k.d. lang sing 'Hallelujah' at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame show? That really was something!'
- Leonard Cohen
apparently, many music industry leaders have commented that 'hallelujah' is perhaps 'the best song ever written'. to be honest, i think i would have to agree.
lastpointe
I liked kd langs verswion but
Posted on: 02/14/2010 10:40
I liked kd langs verswion but in reality I ws surprised why they didn't get Cohen himself to do it. He is alive and well and touring although possibly he became sick and she was a fill in??
I love Cohen singing this song on his new live from London CD.
Beloved
I love this song . . . but
Posted on: 02/14/2010 11:13
I love this song . . . but I'm not 100% sure I would have chosen it for the world Olympics - you know the inclusive thing - with all the Bible persona references.
But in saying that I love the song - especially the way kd lang sings it. I kept trying to see if she was barefoot on Friday night - I think she was. I almost like her version of it better than Cohen's.
Nikki Yanofsky is a wonderful, talented, beautiful, singer and performer and a joy to watch and listen to. I'm wondering who arranged the rendition of O Canada though and how much liberty an arranger should be able to take with a national anthem?
myst
I was pretty sure kd was
Posted on: 02/14/2010 13:07
I was pretty sure kd was barefoot Beloved. I'm a big Leonard Cohen fan, but for me there is nothing like kd singing Hallelujah.
LBmuskoka
Just want to thank
Posted on: 02/14/2010 14:17
Just want to thank Sighsnootles for mentioning Hymns of the 49th Parallel. I have been spending a wonderful afternoon listening to them.
For those that would like to experience ....
Youtube Search Results Hymns of the 49th Parallel
For sure check out The Valley - sent shivers down my spine.
psst Pilgrim - the Max Sessions are from Down Under.
LB
Oh like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Leonard Cohen, Bird on a Wire
Tiger Lily
I first heard this song at my
Posted on: 02/14/2010 19:59
I first heard this song at my church's Good Friday service one year. It was the k.d. lang version and it was soooo amazing as part of the service.
It became one of my favourite songs and I have the cd. I think that "a broken hallelujah" is very much a part of life in many different ways whether personal or well beyond that.
TL
MorningCalm
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 02/15/2010 11:12
match3frog., good for you :3
Thank you, Whimsey, and thank you also for your explanation of the song.
MorningCalm
sighsnootles wrote:WOW...
Posted on: 02/15/2010 11:13
thank you... that made my morning, and hopefully my whole day!!
Hey, you're welcome.
MorningCalm
Tiger Lily wrote:It became
Posted on: 02/15/2010 11:15
Jennifer Heil looked like she might have been saying one, standing in between the two American medal winners as they waved their flags behind their backs proclaiming America the best in the world. She looked both happy and like her heart was breaking.
ninjafaery
I was just pondering this a
Posted on: 02/15/2010 11:50
I was just pondering this a little more, and it occurs to me that LC is someone who is deeply, deeply spiritual and sees the old testament god as an imaginal touchstone. I find he uses the "bride and bridegroom" analogy a lot.
God as Lover. Always eluding clumsy attempts at pigeonholing, but speaking through our deepest emotions and manifesting symbolically through our lived relationships and the lessons we learn from that.
I also believe that LC equates god with pure beauty.
I don't believe this song is about Rebecca DeMornay though......
MorningCalm
The song reveals something of
Posted on: 02/15/2010 11:54
The song reveals something of the one who wrote it. Can any of us truly understand the depths of Leonard Cohen's soul? Or anyone else's soul for that matter? Really I believe only God can reach and know the depths of our human hearts.
Pilgrims Progress
ninjafaery wrote: Always
Posted on: 02/15/2010 16:50
Always eluding clumsy attempts at pigeonholing, but speaking through our deepest emotions and manifesting symbolically through our lived relationships and the lessons we learn from that.
Ninj, well done! An eloquent description of the poetry of the one and only Leonard Cohen.
I'm still hanging on by the fingernails to crepid - but when I get to decrepid I'll prewrite my funeral service and include these lines:
Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
Mendalla
First of all, here's a good
Posted on: 02/15/2010 17:26
First of all, here's a good history of the song from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song).
This is one of my favorite songs of all time, easily in the top 5, at times making it to number 1. KDs version isn't necessarily my favorite (Cale's takes that cake) but it's very, very good.
That said, I was a bit surprised by the use of it in the Olympic opening ceremony. It's a beautiful, powerful song but I didn't (and still don't) see how it fits that context other than as a celebration of Canadian popular culture at its best. Still, loved hearing KD in full voice and getting a well deserved place in this very Canadian Olympics.
Mendalla
SLJudds
I am intrigued that Wikipedia
Posted on: 02/15/2010 22:09
I am intrigued that Wikipedia says the original poem by Cohen from which the song was taken had 80 verses.
SG
K.D. always sings
Posted on: 02/16/2010 18:25
K.D. always sings barefoot.
I love K.D's version of Hallelujah. I like Jeff Buckley's version, as well as really liking the Norwegian guys doing it -Espen Lind, Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen(World Idol)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM
Northwind
That's really nice Stevie.
Posted on: 02/16/2010 18:45
That's really nice Stevie. Thanks for posting that.