Halelujia #
I read this really interesting Rolling Stones article about Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujia. Until this article, I never heard the Cohen version of the song before. The one I am the most familiar with is Rufus Waingright’s. The other popular version is Jeff Buckley’s.
These two versions paint a story of sadness. The hallelujia sounds like an exhalation of dispair.
The lyrics to the last verse in Cohen’s are:
Now I’ve done my best, I know it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didnt come here to London just to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand right here before the Lord of song
With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
I don’t know if positive is the right word. It’s more like a “despite everything I am still here”. It’s kind of like a joy of just existing. Without this verse, the song has such a different meaning.
This Land was Made for You and Me #
I’ve also never bothered to look at the lyrics to this song. I didn’t know Woody Guthrie was a socialist.
Guthrie most likely took a lot of inspiration from other songs. And the lack of “controversial” versus was probably intentional so he could make profit