Hallelujah!
Leonard Cohen recorded Hallelujah 25 years ago. Since then, it has been analyzed by philosophers, examined by professors, mulled over by theologians and sung by millions of idealistic students at drunken parties. Is Hallelujah a Biblical reference? Or a song of love, loss and suffering? Does it describe pain or pleasure, sexuality or spirituality? Should Obama declare it the anthem of the disenfranchised? Hallelujah has been reinterpreted by an array of artists over the past quarter of a century, but John Cale is one of the few singers who manages to convey all the emotions of this extraordinary Cohen composition.
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
Leonard Cohen (Various Positions, 1984, Columbia Records)
