Hallelujah lyrics-what do you think they mean?

2»

Replies

  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
    I got chills reading that -- I've never seen the lyrics written out before. I think it is about the fine and often arbitrary line between the sacred and the profane.
  • t8tersalad
    t8tersalad Posts: 85 Member
    Lisa Lavie, you can find her on YouTube, she does an AMAZING job on this song. Love it :)
  • CatherineHaak
    CatherineHaak Posts: 1
    It's a beautiful song. I've loved his music for years, but I don't understand the intellectual meaning. for me, it's more about getting the emotional meaning than the literal one, and I think Leonard deliberately makes the lyrics mysterious. the song to me is about lost love, sorrow, pain, anger, cynicism.
  • mommared53
    mommared53 Posts: 9,543 Member
    That is such a beautiful song. I always thought the part where it says "she cut your hair" was a reference to Samson but I can see where it could mean losing your strength. I can see where the whole song is actually about David. Anyway, it's one of my favorite songs. Just beautiful.
  • Firephoenix013
    Firephoenix013 Posts: 214
    Love that song!
  • BootCampC
    BootCampC Posts: 689 Member
    i agree
  • BootCampC
    BootCampC Posts: 689 Member
    It's a song about losing love and not regretting the loss, but basking in the memory.

    Also, Jeff Buckley's version is probably the best in my ever so humble opinion.
    i agree
    who has loved and lost and never got it back
  • angel823
    angel823 Posts: 190 Member
    I dont think its necessarily a religious song, but a collaboration of different struggles people go through.

    Thats why, in my opinion, so many people like, and can relate to it.

    He stated his struggles, but also recognizes them, and " hallelujah" meaning he moves on. All in one song!

    His greatest asset is the way he uses different metaphors to mask different situations.

    All the biblical contexts are metaphors. David

    I think he uses the metaphors to broaden his appeal not only to the secular world but also to the religious.

    Very smart man I say.
  • roohill
    roohill Posts: 87 Member
    Jeff Buckley's version adds a very chilling and almost haunting aspect to the lyrics. I still get chills and lost in this song. Love it. I get the feeling that its a collaboration of someone's thoughts who has loved and lost. Describing all those "Hallelujah moments" Personal revelations. Maybe this love is their religion.
  • happypath101
    happypath101 Posts: 534
    This is my favourite song. I sing it in the shower everyday (for years, I've actually gotten pretty good, haha). Leonard Cohen is an amazing song writer, he actually once mentioned it took him two years to write this, and he went through 80 verses. I think it is about the many facets of love, or many types of "hallelujah". Awe, rejoice, obsession, love, lust, hurt.

    Great insight! That makes sense. I'll look at that song a new way now. Thanks!
  • ShreddedTweet
    ShreddedTweet Posts: 1,326 Member
    I have a great little book, a kind of a compendium of poems by Leonard Cohen.... the man is a genius.
  • for2day
    for2day Posts: 209 Member
    Love this song!
    I first heard it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooZonYCkz-Q beautiful!!!

Categories