Song Lyric Sunday – Hallelujah

This week for Song Lyric Sunday we are tasked with choosing a cover song that we felt was better than the original. I may get some push back this week from the purists out there, but I can take it! One of my favorite singer/songwriter/poets is Leonard Cohen. I am sure we are all familiar with his Hallelujah. A song that has been covered by many artists over the years. Some of you may remember the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and the Hope for Haiti concert to which many artists contributed their time. I remember watching the concert on TV and listening to this version of Hallelujah by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris (A Singer/Songwriter/Producer.) It was so beautifully performed and the harmonized vocals gave me goosebumps. It took nothing away from Cohen’s masterful lyrics and this version of the song has stayed with me ever since.

As noted below, there was a Jeff Buckley version that received a lot of attention at the time but I still think this one is better. I hope you enjoy it too.

The Song

One of Leonard Cohen’s most popular songs, “Hallelujah” is his magnum opus, crafted over a period of five years.

The word “hallelujah” is Hebrew for “glory to the lord.” The idea of the song is, there are lots of different hallelujahs, and they’re all valid, even the ones that are cold and broken.

The most famous version of this song is Jeff Buckley’s cover. He included it on his 1994 album Grace, but his version wasn’t widely heard until after his 1997 death when he drowned at age 30. His death renewed interest in the song, bringing it to the attention of many artists, many of whom performed it in tribute to Buckley. Over the years, the song brought a great deal of attention to Cohen as well, but it took a while. Peak “Hallelujah” was probably some time around 2012; by that time it had been recorded by hundreds of artists and performed by many church choirs. Artists to cover it include k.d. lang, Rufus Wainwright (as heard in the movie Shrek), Bono, Regina Spektor, Damien Rice and Tori Kelly.

The song is loaded with religious imagery, with references to David, Bathsheba (“You saw her bathing on the roof”) and Samson (“She broke your throne and she cut your hair”). Cohen explained that the song is “a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

Cohen wrote about 80 verses for the song, settling on six he included. Some of the extra verses he would sometimes use when he performed the song live.
Cohen’s original version was a #1 hit in France and charted in his native Canada, but had just a small fan base in America, so the song didn’t get much attention there. It didn’t chart in America until after Cohen’s death in 2016, when it went to #59.
There is a faction that doesn’t rank “Hallelujah” among Cohen’s best songs. In that camp is Jennifer Warnes, Cohen’s longtime backing vocalist who sang on the track and arranged the choir. By this time, Warnes was far more popular than Cohen in America, with the hits “Right Time Of The Night” and “Up Where We Belong,” her #1 duet with Joe Cocker for the movie An Officer And A Gentleman.

Warnes released an album of Cohen covers in 1986 called Famous Blue Raincoat in an attempt to draw more attention to his songs, and she left “Hallelujah” off the set. “We thought it was too generic, and I wasn’t fond of the lyric,” she told Songfacts. “When it took off, I was kind of surprised, because I don’t think it’s one of his greatest songs. I don’t think it’s as cohesive as his other songs are.”

The Lyrics

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, now 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

Now maybe, maybe there's a god above
As for me, all I ever learned from love
Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
But it's not a cry that you hear tonight
No, it's not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the light
It's cold and it's a very broken hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Neil Larsen on the Hammond-22

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Baby, I've been here before
I know this room, and I've walked this floor
You see, I used to live alone before I knew you
And I've seen your flag on a marble arch
But listen love, love is not some kind of victory march
No, it's a cold like I said, very lonely hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

There was time you let me know
What's really going on below
Ah but now you never show it to me, do you?
I remember when I moved in you
And the, the holy dove was moving too, yes
And every single breath that we drew was 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 did not come
All the way to Glastonbury to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand right here, before the lord of song
With nothing, nothing on my tongue but hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah (oh), hallelujah


Writer/s: Leonard Cohen
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Hallelujah Courtesy of Songfacts

Matt Morriss Courtesy of Wiki