Saturday, November 15, 2008

not sure about the song idea....

the whole thing with commenting about the lyrics. not sure if its too cliche'.... anyway, i think i'll start with leonard cohen's hallelujah. it's been covered by rufus wainwright and jeff buckely, among others. but the point is, that this is simply a piece of genius. period. that having been said, let me introduce (or reintroduce) the lyrics.

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 fall is minor, the lift, major...
The baffled king composing Hallelujah despite his being baffled, he still composes. i can just see his face. baffled. but composing nevertheless. digging into himself. searching. "The" halleuja. finding the essence being expressed in spite of himself. we often create things that we had no intention of creating. i'm referring to the nicer ones here. the ones that, had we been trying, perhaps we would have never created.

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 she destroyed you and took your strength. but that wasn't enough.
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah hallelujah. the very essence.

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you. wasn't great, but i managed. it was ok.
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 i'm not even going to defile this line up with a comment. too late. i did. but it deserves attention nonetheless. and it is. a cold and broken Hallelujah...doesnt make love any less beautiful though.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know but not anymore. it got stale. and old.
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 in our togetherness we had found the essence.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain that i've touched something that shouldnt have been disturbed
I don't even know the name but i was just being me. nothing intentionally disturbed or touched.
But if I did, well really, what's it to you? you've gone. you dont care anymore. so why does it bother you?
There's a blaze of light In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard all the essences are ultimately the same
The holy or the broken Hallelujah the juxtaposition of holy and broken is brilliant.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch wow. wow. wow.
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you it wasnt intentional like you thought it was.
And even though It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah a life lived the best way i knew how. amazing. this last stanza just rips my guts out and stomps on them. but what can i do...

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

ok. so thats that. i'm still getting the chills. it doesnt seem fair for one song to have so much, but what can you do, right? and yes. i know there are a lot of religious overtones in here and one would better understand the song if they knew the biblical origins of some of the lines, but its not that important. there's too much here (aside from those references) to even bother arguing about those few lines. this didnt work out the way i had planned. perhaps i wont do it again. we shall see...

but that last stanza. whew.

3 comments:

Diane said...

I like the way you did it. You should do it again.

justsomethoughts... said...

thank you for your kind words diane.

its like the comic that says a joke and receives (out of kindness, no doubt) one or two stray claps, and a low murmuring from the crowd *tinkling of glasses and silverware*... i shall have to consider whether this idea is a good one or not. i think i'll give it another whirl soon and see how it goes...

Diane said...

Ah, although there are times I say or do things simply out of kindness, this was not one of them. Had I not liked your post, I would have skipped it and only left my comment about your Cottonelle post ;).

I liked how thoughtful you were... and how the romantic in you came through. Your words made my heart hurt a little.