One Song, Many Artists

The song I am going to talk about today is one that has touched the lives of many and relates to a very large group of people. This song is called "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. There are several covers of this song, one of the most known covers of it is by Jeff Buckley, the song itself actually found greater popular acclaim through a cover by John Cale. But my personal favorite cover is by Rufus Wainwright. He puts so much emotion into the way he sings this song and even if you don't even understand the meaning the first or second time you hear it, it still might make you emotional and feel the why Rufus feels while singing it.





Many other cover versions of "Hallelujah have been performed by many various singers, both in concerts live and recorded for different events which have added up to 300 total versions. The song has been widely used in films and television soundtracks, the most popular was my favorite cover of the song by Rufus Wainwright in the movie "Shrek", which was actually the first time I had ever heard the song before.




What most people don't pay attention to, is the true meaning of the song. Even when people listen to it, I can't believe no one fully understands this song. The song is about both love and heartbreak, but there are also strong religious undertones, not exactly "anti-religious" but just showing the theory that people only turn to God to complete the holes left by the imperfections in life. The first verse combines these two meanings, beginning with a biblical reference to David being Gods favored man on earth, before a lyric with two meanings, "it goes like this, the fourth the fifth... the minor fall and the major lift" the first part cleverly refers to the musical structure of the song, but it also refers to the rollercoaster of love, peaks of emotions from the best to the worst.




The second verse is a reference to Sampson and Delilah from the holy bible, although when it says "you saw her bathing on the roof" is another reference to David and Bathsheeba. It finished by telling how a failed relationship can break your life apart, and again how people in relationships and mid_life crisis's "find god".