‘Hallelujah’: a brutally rejected song became our collective world prayer

The load of notebooks is sky-high. Verse after verse, endless phrases,strikethroughs. Always turning on new ones. Canadian singer-songwriter LeonardCohen spent seven years on what would later become his masterpiece’Hallelujah’. He toiled for every word.

“Of course it is a gift,” explains Cohen in an American talk show, “for whichyou have to keep your tools and skills sharp. But where the real song comesfrom, no one knows. That is (His) grace. It’s a gift.”

And also on Rollingstone editor Larry “Ratso” Sloman, who has spoken to thesinger regularly since 1974, tells the singer how he couldn’t find an endingfor “Hallelujah.” It takes him way too long, says Cohen himself. How manystanzas are there? One hundred and eighty maybe. One hundred and fifty too.Cohen wants to be as accurate as possible, but puts himself in a tight spot inthe worn pop song with ‘gospel feel’.

From poet to pop star

Again there is a documentary about Leonard Cohen, who died in 2016. Initiallyfollows Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song by Daniel Geller andDayna Golding rather tedious and detailed the development of Cohen’s career,from poet to pop artist.

The basis of his writing (Tolstoy, Proust and James Joyce). How the Montréal-raised Leonard Norman Cohen, of wealthy Jewish descent, only started writingsongs at the age of thirty, uncertain as he was about his low monotonoussinging voice. How he became the minstrel with mournful songs – hisbreakthrough: ‘Suzanne’.

Those who follow him have already seen (and read) enough about thisbiographical part in many films and books. Although the archive material madeavailable by the Cohen Trust – private photos, concert footage, interviewswith, among others, his last love, photographer Dominique Issermann – is quitespecial. The film touches everything equally: the intellectual philosopher,the dreamer, the brooder, the bohemian, the womanizer. Although the latter,thanks to the Cohen heirs, depends very much between the lines. Hisdepressions and fears remain sidelined.

It gets more interesting as soon as Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, ASong tells about the genesis of the song that would define him as asongwriter, his well-known and still widely covered ‘Hallelujah’.

The song loaded from the first sentences: “Now I’ve heard there was a secretchord/ That David played, and it pleased the Lord/ But you don’t really carefor music, do you?”. Then, via “Well, It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth/ The minor fall, the major lift”, to crawl up in emotion in ascending notes.After which “The baffled king… composing… Hallelujah” knots the melody aroundagain.

And then the chorus: four times the word “hallelujah.” It is rich, itresonates and affirms. No interpretation without this feeling. An almostreligious experience sometimes at concerts. Although Jeff Buckley’s versionbecame normative. But about that later.

One takes the text as it is. The other wants to get to the bottom of thelyrics full of symbolism (transience, impotence, but also passion anderoticism) and the many biblical references. It is almost impossible tounderstand, according to the film, without understanding how long Cohen’sspiritual path was. It was his “complicated relationship with God.” Heexplored multiple religions, but an important foundation for his songwritingwas his Jewish heritage. He studied Kabbalah. His song ‘Who by Fire’ was basedon a Yom Kippur prayer. Charged speeches in the synagogues made an impressionon him, even as a child.

Also read a background article on the many films that have been made aboutCohen: ‘ Leonard Cohen: from local poet to living legend’

Pensively reviewing his writing at his typewriter, Cohen says: “If I knewwhere songs came from, I would go there more often.” He is referring to the’bat kol’, his rabbi indicates. The divine voice comes to you and you writedown what it tells you. That is also what the singer meant in ‘Hallelujah’,when he says: „But I remember when I moved in you. And the Holy Dove, She wasmoving too. And every single breath that we drew was Hallelujah.” Notnecessarily the erotic scene that many, including singer John Cale, saw in it.

Dylan, Cale and Buckley

“Hallelujah” rises Various Positions , the album with which Cohen would havebroken through in America. Record label Colombia rejected the recordings hard.However, singer Bob Dylan falls head over heels for ‘Hallelujah’; he is goingto sing it at concerts. And John Cale, co-founder of The Velvet Underground,also picks up the song, solo at the piano, ignoring the religious elements. Hechooses the more ‘cheeky’ couplets.

However, for most people, Jeff Buckley’s version of ‘Hallelujah’ (1994) istheir first encounter. He wishes he’d written it himself, Buckley laughsshyly. They are beautiful, old images of how the young born artist manages tobend the emotional and spiritual ‘Hallelujah’ completely to his will. The folkrock singer is an almost sensual angel, in contrast to the mumbling Cohen.Buckley’s sudden, mysterious death in the Mississippi River makes the songeven more magical.

Following Buckley’s incredible version on his album Grace many pop artists,from U2 singer Bono, kd lang (Winter Olympics), American vocal groupPentatonix to americana artist Brandi Carlile, have performed the song. Thesong unexpectedly got a few extra wings in 2001 through the animation film_Shrek_ – an expurgated version, without sexual hints. The then young singerRufus Wainwright is allowed to sing it. His enthusiastic version lost out tothat of John Cale, who sounded more like monster Shrek. The retranslatedversion of the artist Jan Rot, who died this year, became his swan song.

New zest for life

By the age of seventy, Leonard Cohen was an artist with a renewed zest forlife, in costume and hat, who seemed to be freed from inner demons. He waspoverty-stricken, robbed by his assistant who diverted millions. So he went ontour again. The backing singers with whom he always worked lifted his sonorousvoice.

The third act of his life became a great success. Certainly also because of’Hallelujah – he often fell to his knees for it. Cohen saw the irony of thesong, which had grown into a pop anthem from wedding to funeral. Revenge onhis old record label was sweet. He would like how singer Regina Spektorinterprets ‘Hallelujah’ in the documentary. “’Hallelujah’ is a modern prayer.A life manual for this world.”

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A version of this article also appeared in the December 28, 2022 newspaper

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