Leonard Cohen reportedly took five years to write the lyrics of Hallelujah, and his own explanation of the song's appeal was: "It's got a great chorus", but there is more to it than that, as outlined by Richard Godwin in the Evening Standard:
"The secret of good lyrics is less that they hang together under analysis and more that they convey a certain feeling. In Hallelujah's case it is a desire for transcendence, and despite the song's moral complexity, this is so eloquently expressed that it can be felt by anyone."
Richard Godwin, Evening Standard
standard.co.uk
godwin.thisislondon.co.uk
3 comments:
One of my all-time favourite songs, by one of my all-time favourite songwriters.
Earthy, sexy, yet fiercely religious: Judaism in a nutshell.
The devil definitely doesn't have all the best tunes.
There is something very devilish- or, shall we say, religiously ambivalent- about Leonard Cohen, however.
I barely need ask what you thought of the X Factor version.
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