I’ve heard this song a gazillion times, by amatuers and professionals alike.  I had always liked the Josh Groban version(s) I have heard over the years.  Today, I heard the writer sing it.  The fact I had never heard of Leonard Cohen says more about me than it does about his popularity and following.

The Indepent in London had this to say:  

It had a difficult beginning. The story goes that Cohen took two years to pen the song, writing at least 80 verses that were eventually distilled into the six that make up his original. He said: “I filled two notebooks and I remember being in the Royalton Hotel [New York], on the carpet in my underwear, banging my head on the floor and saying, ‘I can’t finish this song.’” Thankfully, he did.

Cohen has often recalled meeting Bob Dylan in the Eighties. Dylan performed “Hallelujah” in concert at the Montreal Forum in 1988 and he asked Cohen how long it had taken him to write it. Cohen said two years, although it actually took slightly longer (“I lied because I was ashamed to tell him how long it really took”). When Cohen turned the question back on Dylan, asking him how long “I and I” had taken him to write, Dylan replied: “About 15 minutes.”

Cohen said of the song: “The song explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have an equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm; with emotion. I know that there is an eye watching all of us. There is a judgement that weighs everything we do.”

But the song that became widely accepted as one of the best of all time did not become so via Cohen’s understated original. When Dylan heard Various Positions, he commented that Cohen’s songs were becoming more like prayers. The Canadian songwriter had started as a poet and novelist and his original ballad is half-spoken in his deep voice.

Though Cohen discarded many verses as he went along, legend goes that 36 verses out of 80 remained.

Listening to Leonard Cohen sing the song, I wondered what it might have been like if Clint Eastwood or Kris Kristofferson had sung it.  They may have equalled Cohen . . . maybe. 

Listen and feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttv5dyvtF4o

“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

Baby I have 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 really 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

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

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah