Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah

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Send "Hallelujah" Ringtone to Cell

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 you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
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
Hallelujah
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
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was 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

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Send "Hallelujah" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by fallen_crow05

Track duration: 06:55

"Hallelujah" as written by Leonard Cohen

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Hallelujah song meanings
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367 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:"love is not a victory march
    it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"

    These have to be some of the most sad and haunting lyrics I have ever heard.
    Flag RosesAndRuffleson May 07, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:sorry nancy sinatra ( for Bang Bang ) but this is the best cover of all time ...
    Flag Yazardshiron March 06, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Cohen's version wreaks of pain so I prefer his version. Buckley's is second in line. Both very talented, although Cohen is hands down one of the best songwriters. (Dylan is also great, but his voice is like nails on an old chalk board). I can relate to this song. I can relate to feeling broken. And I can relate to having little to give others due to feeling broken. Sometimes a promise broken is what breaks our back, so to speak. Knowing there is nothing waiting for us sends us spiraling and unable (or sometimes unwilling) to give. Add to that being physically broken, and sometimes it's just too much to be able to give to others. GREAT song regardless of who sings it...except one female who gives one of the worst renditions of ANY song I've ever heard. This song really should be left to the masters...
    Flagged IllToast2Thaton January 25, 2013   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:The wisdom of this tender poem and accompanying music is astounding. Look at the discussion and varied ideas of what it means. Does that not speak to its brilliance? To some it puts words to their love of God and religion. To others it speaks to their love of woman/man. More argue for its depiction of sex. It might even describe music as ethereal, therefore above the mundane musings of everyday life. And all tell a story of an ultimate disappointment, and the subsequent pain of wronging and doing wrong. It is my belief that it’s all of that and perhaps more.

    This piece tugs at the human spirit on different levels. People describe a physical tightening of what may only be defined as soul. Notes. Words add the unexpected dimension; intellectual. The combination is always music, but is rarely a memorable experience. This is that experience.

    Great artists tell of great creations coming from another place. A higher power. God. Heaven. An unexplained place. Mr. Cohen seems to have spilled this beauty upon us from such a place. Add a great messenger, KD Lang, and you have an experience bigger than life. Watch any of the people in Ms. Lang’s audience. They witnessed an event they will never forget. A song.
    Flagged parlyon December 19, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The first time I heard Jeff Buckley's' version, I was just left speechless. I had heard Cohen's version- the one most often performed and was not all that enamored with it . Then I heard Buckley's, the k.d. Langs, and Jon Bon Govi's. Celtic Thunder does a good rendition too. To me there is very little that is actually religious to the piece. Far more about not only personal, intimate relationships, but also how we each much move through the world. And in in doing that 'Hallelujah' in some form or another is drawn from our lips.
    Flagged caitriona4on December 19, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:Cohen is a Life long committed Jew and a practicing Buddhist. He is clearly deeply spiritual with the details of that spirituality not for anyone else to fathom, but it does inform something about this song. This is a deeply spiritual song about faith, loss, grace, and love. Its not about sex and its not about Christianity, but certainly the later contains its themes.

    The songs speaks the the deepest feelings of what it is to be human in a manner that most of us can apply it to our own lives in a deeply spiritual and emotional way which also explains why there is so many covers and how a song like this can be hold the 1 and 2 slot on the charts in the same week.

    This song is pure genius. It is a shining light in a world that can be very dark. Its the sort of song we should ask what it means to us, not what it means to Cohen.
    Flagged GloryRoadon November 01, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +1
    My Interpretation:Gods name is Jehovah, the word Hallelujah means Jehovah be praised. King David had a favored and special relationship with jehovah God. He committed a grave sin against Jehovah by having relations with Bathsheba. He hid his sin until Jehovah sent his prophet Nathan to confront David with a story about a man with only one sheep. David instantly confessed and was heart broken that he had sinned against God. The song describes what happens when a very righteous man falls. How the love of the flesh is cold when causing the loss of God's love. It strikes into the heart of sinful fallen man, out of the grace God. He was given forgiveness but suffered the consequences of his sin for the rest of his life. Make peace with Jehovah and repent, ask for forgiveness of sins
    Flagged grannyvivon October 09, 2012   Link
    • 2 Replies
  • 0
    Link(s):
    Flagged ann8cantuon September 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Link(s):Seems every siner and their dogs, so to speak, have recorded Leonard Cohen's wonderfully poetic and musically apt Hallelujah. But for me the ONE singer/performer who, including and despite Cohen, does it true justice, is k d lang. Please check out her video on youtube.com from the 2005 live performance at the Juno awards show in Winnipeg. There is also a decidedly scholarly article, but worth reading if one gets through it, on this very subject - fordham.academia.edu/BabetteBabich/Papers/1085391/…
    Flagged ann8cantuon September 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:Make sure to look at the original song (LEONARD COHEN) for all the versus. Some of the covers are not complete.
    Flagged bradlon September 20, 2012   Link

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