A reader writes:
I've been drawn in by the Hallelujah track of the blog.
To me, much of the attraction to the song lyrics comes from the versatility of the word "Hallelujah":
Praise the lord ... I found it!
What an intense experience!
Thank god that is over. (Gratefully)
Thank god that is over. (Resignedly)Take the versatility of the word and the variety of images in the rest of the lyrics and you have a song to fit many moods. The chorus can evoke a different feeling with each repetition of Hallelujah.
The song is a wire frame (in the CGI sense) that can be used to create many faces and expressions. Or, in the sense of my youth, it is a four legged frame of chicken wire upon which you can apply paper mache to create a pony, or a horse, or a dog, or a wolf, or a Cheshire cat grinning at the variety of human emotional experiences.
For me - surprise! - it's spiritual.
Cohen evokes faith through doubt and pain - or, rather, faith reborn in an acceptance of doubt and pain:
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
Or one of Cohen's other unforgettable lyrics:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
There is a tragedy even in salvation.