Another Song For March

[khaosworks]

There's at least two versions of this Leonard Cohen song I've heard. One is about faith, and the other about love. This is a merged version of the two.


Hallelujah
Music and Lyrics © Leonard Cohen

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, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Baby, I've 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
But 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?
I 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
All I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And it's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not someone who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a lonely 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 - I learned 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 lips but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelu...
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Comments

[allisona.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but I'd never heard of this song until I heard it in "Shrek". And now I always cry at that scene and I grew to love the song. It's sad and haunting and beautiful.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd never seen the last two verses, and I'd always heard the verse before that starting with the line "Maybe there's no God above." (Which they left out of the version they sang in Shrek, incidentally.)

It's a beautiful song.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Heh. After hearing it on Shrek, I started collecting recordings of this song. I've got John Cale's (the one they edited for Shrek) and Jeff Buckley's, and I *did* have one of Cohen's live performances until I gave the album away as an emergency Christmas present! =:o\