Jeff Buckely also does a haunting version that is simply beautiful. Other people who covered it are Allison Crowe and Rufus Wainwright (which I heard was also on Shrek).
Everyone has their own interpretations. But based on the article cited above, from LC's own words, I really think it is about pure emotion, and it is both good and bad at the same time.
There is a spiritual Hallelujah, and the biblical references are the starting point for the idea of the song. He says he got the idea from the "tradition" of compusers who said Hallelujah.
But Cohen takes it much further, and the song really gets into Hallelujah in everyday life...in the emotion of things like beauty, pain, love and sex.
An in my interpretation, the most important thing to me was how the song/music made me feel when he sings the word "Hallelujah." I love the other lyrics, they are so simple but deep. But the emotion in that one word, hallelujah, is both beautiful and sad.
It is a very powerful and intense song. The songwriting is compared to Shakespeare in the Stylus Magazine article cited by ablack8 above.
I found some additional information about Leonard Cohen's comments about what the song means at perso.wanadoo.fr/pilgraeme/hallelujah.htm.
Jeff Buckely also does a haunting version that is simply beautiful. Other people who covered it are Allison Crowe and Rufus Wainwright (which I heard was also on Shrek).
Everyone has their own interpretations. But based on the article cited above, from LC's own words, I really think it is about pure emotion, and it is both good and bad at the same time.
There is a spiritual Hallelujah, and the biblical references are the starting point for the idea of the song. He says he got the idea from the "tradition" of compusers who said Hallelujah.
But Cohen takes it much further, and the song really gets into Hallelujah in everyday life...in the emotion of things like beauty, pain, love and sex.
An in my interpretation, the most important thing to me was how the song/music made me feel when he sings the word "Hallelujah." I love the other lyrics, they are so simple but deep. But the emotion in that one word, hallelujah, is both beautiful and sad.
It is a very powerful and intense song. The songwriting is compared to Shakespeare in the Stylus Magazine article cited by ablack8 above.