Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah

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  General Comment:He's genius in writing but I prefer Jeff's cover ...

  Flag Yazardshiron March 13, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:From a biblical stand point only, this is pretty straight forward. The word Halleluyah means "Praise Yah". Yah is the abbreviated form of the ancient Hebrew name (tetragrammaton) of the Almighty. So you are praising Yahweh's name when you say it.
  
  The second verse describes how even the most righteous can fall into sin. David was Israel's King, chosen because of his faith and humble obedience to Yahweh's law, but later he coveted another man's wife, committed adultery with her, then had her husband murdered to cover the sin. Samson also, a judge of Israel who was bestowed superhuman strength by Yahweh, fell into sin and lost that blessing.
  When sin is present in someone's life the Almighty withdraws from that person. It's possible that the line "from his lips she drew the Halleluyah" means that Yahweh was no longer being praised because of the presence of sin in their lives. Both repented, but had to endure the consequences of their actions.
  
  Verse 3 - The Jewish religion created a rule that it was blasphemy to speak the Sacred Name of Yahweh. Leonard Cohen is Jewish, his father a Rabbi so he knew the rule and it is likely some of his family/peers objected to the use of the Sacred Name in the song. When he says he never knew the name, that is possible because many Jews are raised substituting the name of Adonai and are not told of Yahweh's name. It may have come as news to Cohen that the suffix "yah" referenced the Sacred Name.
  
  Last Verse - In the end we stand before the judgement of Almighty Yahweh looking at the things we did in and with our lives. We always seem to justify ourselves as good people, even though some of the the things we did were not good. It's a humbling experience when you compare how you lived your life to how the law of Yahweh commanded you to live. Unable to justify yourself you will have to stand before Him... With nothing on your tongue but Halleluyah.

  Flagged Shlangandoon February 25, 2013   Link

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    What a wonderful spiritual message on this interpretation. It really touched my heart and made me think and meditate. Thanks for that.

    Flag Orabidooon March 05, 2013  

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    I read your interpretation with great interest and learned from it, thank you. Given some of the information you shared, I thought you might find it really interesting to learn - if you don't know already - that there is verse written by Cohen that he has used, although not often. I think it confirms exactly some of what you shared:
    
    "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 ya?
    There's a blaze of light in every word
    It doesn't matter what you heard
    The holy or the broken Halleluyah"

    Flag camabeluon March 11, 2013  
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  General Comment:The different versions of this song seem to have the last verse in common and therefore I would start interpreting from there.
  
  "And even though
  It all went wrong
  I'll stand before the lord of song
  With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah"
  
  The essence is about love in it's different forms - sexual love, platonic love, love for god. With various references (biblical, personal) he shows that the human experience of love includes both, the ups and downs, ecstasy as well as depression and also ultimately and necessarily the experience of insufficiency and failing.
  
  Amidst those ups and downs, however, there is one thing that remains unchanged - this is the divine part of love which is not originating in the human existence and which no human weakness can affect. The "hallelujah" confirms its existence.

  Flagged MysticSongon February 23, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:The lyrics taken as a whole in stead of disecting each word is simply this- the love he felt took on a biblical proportion- as did the loss. period.

  Flag mikeybdyon January 07, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:There's a new book out all about the evolution of this song and how it's been altered for different purposes by artists over the years. NPR did an interesting piece about it. The book is The Holy or the Broken by Alan Light.
  
  npr.org/2012/12/02/166112493/…

  Flag JackOrwellon December 23, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:there was a time when you let me know what's really going on bellow the surface, bellow your pose, you act, bellow your belt, bellow your cloths, bellow your everyday thoughts, bellow what you are willing to show to everybody else, but now you never show that to me, your eyes are sealed to me, i can't see your insides anymore, you are locked, do you? your soul is blocked. but remember when i moved in you, when i moved in with you and we were living together, when i moved in your body and your eyes were infront of mine such as every other limb of ours, and we were flying like doves and felt in peace surrounds us and moving us towards better air, colorful air, we breathed it in and then out and it came out as hallelujah.
  
  this verse is so sad, sad like tears.

  Flag nati1271on October 25, 2012   Link

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    The verse you are referencing is in the Jeff Buckley version, not in the original Leonard Cohen version. I prefer the Buckley version; just pointing this out for accuracy/credit where credit's due sake.

    Flag JackOrwellon December 23, 2012  

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    Actually, you are not wrong. There were many verses Cohen wrote - some he used at different times, some not at all. But when the song was originally recorded by him in 1984, this verse was present. And it is sad - I can't listen without crying - takes me back to early days with my (now ex) husband. I think your interpretation of that verse is right on the money - it certainly echoes mine.

    Flag camabeluon March 11, 2013  

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    Actually, you are not wrong. There were many verses Cohen wrote - some he used at different times, some not at all. But when the song was originally recorded by him in 1984, this verse was present. And it is sad - I can't listen without crying - takes me back to early days with my (now ex) husband. I think your interpretation of that verse is right on the money - it certainly echoes mine.

    Flag camabeluon March 11, 2013  
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  General Comment:I've always thought the song was supposed to be a joke. The first verse begins apparently very meaningfully with a Biblical line, and then dissolves first into a garbled musical reference and next a couplet that shouldn't even rhyme (do ya/Hallelujah). There is a shift from the sublime to the ridiculous throughout the song. I suspect it reflects the fact that Leonard was struggling with his record company at the time and this was his quiet revenge. It's ironic that the song has been adopted by some of the people he was mocking.

  Flag Toby1974on September 25, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I got a question its pretty stupid so don't judge me I'm just curious. Why does it say It was written by Hayley Williams and Josh Farro I'm just asking !

  Flag jadzi22on September 11, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I'm sorry, but why does it say "Hallelujah" as written by Natalie Jane Appleton, Stephen Garrikk, Carsten Kroeyer"? :/

  Flag mndcon April 09, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:"Hallelujah", in its original version, is a song in "6/8 feel", which evokes the styles of both waltz and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression follows the lyric "it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, and the major lift": C, F, G, A minor, F.
  
  Cohen's original version contains several biblical references, most notably evoking the stories of Samson and traitorous Delilah from the Book of Judges as well as the adulterous King David and Bathsheba:"she cut your hair" and "you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you".
  
  Following his original 1984 studio-album version, Cohen performed the original song on his world tour in 1985, but live performances during his 1988 and 1993 tours almost invariably contained a quite different set of lyrics with only the last verse being common to the two versions. Numerous artists mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make direct lyric changes, such as Rufus Wainwright, a Canadian-American singer, substituting "holy dark" and Allison Crowe, a Canadian singer-songwriter, substituting "Holy Ghost" for "holy dove".
  
  Cohen's lyrical poetry and his view that "many different hallelujahs exist" is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones of speech, allowing the song to be "melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on the performer:The Welsh singer-songwriter John Cale, the first person to record a cover version of the song in 1991, promoted a message of "soberness and sincerity" in contrast to Cohen's dispassionate tone; The cover by Jeff Buckley, an American singer-songwriter, is more sorrowful and was described by Buckley as "a hallelujah to the orgasm"; Crowe interpreted the song as a "very sexual" composition that discussed relationships; Wainwright offered a "purifying and almost liturgical" interpretation to the song; and Guy Garvey of the British band Elbow anthropomorphised the hallelujah as a "stately creature" and incorporated his religious interpretation of the song into his band's recordings.

  Flagged Magnolyaon March 29, 2012   Link

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