Now 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, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have 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
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?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was 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, so I tried 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 tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Most of the interpretations I have heard refer to biblical stories and of course it is impossible to ignore the analogies with King David and Bathsheba. However,I think these can obscure the meaning of the song and I would rather go beyond them. Analyzing a poem line by line sometimes misses the core of meaning which may actually be not fully realized by the poet himself.What after all was Kubla Khan, Coleridges poem about? It came out of a drug-induced reverie and the words are impossible to interpret literally.
What I see in the poem is a man who finds it hard to reconcile his own singular personal quest for truth as a spiritual seeker and as a creative artist with earthly love.He is "overthrown" by the beauty of the woman bathing on the roof and intoxicated with desire for her yet with that comes compromise.Being tied to a kitchen chair suggests being bound to domesticity and having his hair cut recalls Samson whose strength was lost when Delilah cut his hair.He feels he has sacrificed his power for ephemeral sexual desire,emotional needs and freedom from the burden of loneliness.
And inevitably the hallelujah, the ecstasy fades and withit bitterness and disillusionment since his lover has no feeling for creativity as evidenced by her lack of interest in music,his explanation of which seems to fall on deaf ears.
At the same time,the sexual magnetism, "down below" has diminished or even gone in the way that the energy of many relationships weaken into dead habit.
So there is a sense he has been left with nothing, doubting a god above and likening earthly love to a gunfight.It is as if he has betrayed his deepest yearnings and is only left with a cold and broken hallelujah, an empty exhortation, a state of inner desolation.
Yet the tone of the song is so bittersweet, so beautiful and sad that there might be a suggestion that he has reconciled those feelings and accepted the limits of the relationship,knowing that even sharing a life with someone cannot assuage his inner loneliness.
Hallelujah is a beautiful,ironic and melancholy masterpiece.
wrote by musicjunkie:
The first line, "I heard there was a secret chord, that David played, and It pleased the Lord," is fairly obvious, if you're going with the thery that this song is based on biblical stories. I don't know what other explination threre would be if you don't believe that this is based on biblical stories. So anyway, this line is refering to King David before he became king. David played the harp, and if you remeber the David and Golith story, the chord that David played pleased King Saul. Since it was a pleasing chord, and it pleased King Saul, it also pleased the Lord. The lyrics are REALLY go well with the music, because in Rufus Wainwright's version the piano actually sounds like a harp, and in Leonard Cohen's version there are arpeggios that are harp-like.
Now for the second line. I've visited a few other lyric interpretation websites that are really into the whole Hallelujah debate, and I might use some of their interpretation in mine. I suppose if I believe they are right, it isn't plagerism is it? Anyway, the second lineish, since I'm not exactly going by lines, "But you don't really care for music do you?" I think that Leonard Cohen is telling his song from David's point of view, and commenting on how he thinks David sees this all. I think this line is a sarcasim, and it's talking about Bathsheba. Bathsheba didn't appreciate how big of a sacrifice David made to betray the Lord's trust, and going after her instead.
Third line. "It goes like this, the forth the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift." David is proving to Bathsheba how great music is. In Leonard Cohen's version, (I havn't listened that closely to the others yet) the music atually goes into forth and fifth, and then into a minor chord, then a major one, as dictated by the lyrics. It's pretty cool to listen.
Forth line. "The baffled king composing Hallelujah." I think this is a perfect literary picture of David, about how he tried to get Bathsheba, but it all backfired. He baffled how love could do this to him, and he's now composing Hallelujah.
Chorus. "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah." This is just describing how David (and possibly Leonard) feels about love, and it's effects.
First line, second verse. "Your faith was strong but you needed proof." I'm not completely sure about this phrase. I think personally it might be about David's faith in God, or maybe in love. He needed proof in God, or maybe he needed proof in love. I'm not sure, I could use someone to give their interpretation to me:D
Second line "You saw her bathing on the roof." This is when David sees Bathsheba bathing on the roof. (Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah.) David is now King, and temptation got the best of him, and he wathced Bathsheba on the roof.
Third line "Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you." I'm pretty sure it's describing Bathsheba bathing on the roof. If it's not than I'm blabbering on about nothing here.
Forth line "She tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne and she cut your hair" This is talking about what happened afterword. Bathsheba got pregnant, and Uriah was killed in battle, under David's orders. Bathsheba found out, and when the "House of David" was ruined, it also broke his throne. I'm not sure about the symbalism with the kitchen chair. A lot of people think that the cutting of hair is refuring to Sampson, who was a Nazarit. I think someone gave a better interpretation on a website. They said that the cutting of hair is like the way he was in a way 'stripped of his morals." then after stripping him of his morals, she broke his throne.
Fifth line. "And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah" I think it's just decribing what Bathsheba did to David, how love was in his sight. She did this then drew a Hallelujah from his lips pretty much.
The different versions of the song have different verses from here on out, but I think most of them all are talking about how love is to them. Then at the end with the line, "It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah," it's talking about how love is cold and hard, but through it all love is still love. Love is still beautiful and special, and it's still Hallelujah through it all.
*lagu ni byk version dia...byk dinyanyikn oleh pbagai org...tp yg saya rasa plg best skali adalah dinyanyikan oleh Jon Bon Jovi dan Alexandra Burke...
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