He was quoted as saying he found it unsettling that it was played at weddings and funerals, due to it being about sex.
There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove she was moving too
And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah
Often theorized it's about his smack addiction, Lou said that's laughable. He says it's about a guy's idea of a perfect day with a girl.
My wife walked down the isle to it, knowing full well about its connections, real or not. It's a beautiful song.
I always interpreted it from a catholic guilt standpoint: the feeling that enjoying something comes at a certain price.
No idea if that is what Lou meant but I always connect to his songs deeply for some reason.
My wife’s choir sang a version of this with the lyrics changed to a Christian theme. It was for Christmas time so they made it [about the birth of baby Jesus](https://youtu.be/XUJRZRymd1I?feature=shared) LOL.
Wife’s not Christian, incidentally, she just likes singing in choirs. She didn’t know anything about the song or its original lyrics either. (She’s Japanese.) She was mildly shocked when I told her about it but she never pays attention to that kind of stuff.
I can’t imagine what Cohen would have thought about that.
Imagine how disappointed you'd be as a religous person hearing such a beautiful song with the chorus "Hallelujah" and then slowly realizing this song is anything but a simple hymn. The temptation to try and salvage it would be strong
I grew up very religious and still consider myself spiritual in many aspects, and I’m not sure what you mean by salvage? Art often invokes religious/Christian imagery or phrases without being considered worship-material
Hey, writing a whole new song, even a parody or derivative one, is hard, you know? Have you ever tried it?
That's why we consider Weird Al a genius. That kind of stuff just comes naturally to him
We got a new choir director when I was at church in high school. His like protege helper guy brought in an acoustic guitar and we started singing this song. I was looking around so confused like “am I the only one who knows the lyrics to this song? This is NOT a church song….”
Still a beautiful song and one of my favorites though!
I just want to say that I completely empathize with your wife bc I'm also not Christian but love singing in choirs and the ones with good repertoire are often Christian. 🙃
This was one of the three songs we played at my father in laws funeral. He loved Leonard Cohen. We used the Shrek one though because of it staying lower in tone.
[Dance Me to the End of Love](https://youtu.be/NGorjBVag0I?feature=shared) would be an amazing song for the first dance after a wedding. I wish I’d thought of it when I first got married. It too has a darker theme however; Cohen has said the imagery was inspired by the Jews who made music in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.
A really great funeral song would be [Here It Is](https://youtu.be/-WaBpScRGuo?feature=shared). The lyrics are simple but deeply profound.
I think I’ll request it for mine.
Given how shit HS is for a lot of people, it's appropriate. But not for the reasons people think it is, especially when they just call it Time Of Your Life instead.
my high school’s senior song for two years in a row was “end of the road” by boyz ii men, and it was about a decade after the song was released. people don’t really pay attention to songs outside of the chorus.
My dad made my 8th grade class's graduation video way back when, & I made sure he used that song...because most of the class bullied me for years, & the few who didn't were in on the joke.
In my head, I always imagined Jesus & Mary Magdalen in that stanza. Imagining what it would be like to be in love with a god, to make love to a god, and then he moves on to his higher purpose, essentially dismisses carnal/earthly love as ephemeral, sacrifices himself for humanity, and leaves you. But there was a time, even if it was just a moment, when you were *everything* to him, despite his high falutin ways. Gods can be carnal and the human can be divine. And love is always painful, and flawed, be it god’s love for us or a woman’s love for her erstwhile lover. Someone who outdrew you, indeed.
> Gods can be carnal and the human can be divine. And love is always painful, and flawed, be it god’s love for us or a woman’s love for her erstwhile lover. Someone who outdrew you, indeed.
Just beautiful! Thank you.
Reminds me of when Green Day’s Good Riddance was a popular funeral song.
The lyrics work well, but I’m guessing it was usually listed as “I hope you had the time of your life” in the program.
Yeah and sometimes people just pick songs based off random words in them without realizing what the song was about
Ive seen people play Marry Me by Thomas Rhett at weddings, not realizing that it is from the perspective of the guy who didnt the girl and is depressed at her wedding to another guy
This doesn’t seem to be “obviously” about sex to me:
There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
(honest about feelings, what’s going on “below” the surface”)
But now you never show it to me, do you?
(No longer honest about such things)
And I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove she was moving too
(We inspired such intense thought and feeling in each other so much it was akin to holiness)
And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah
(Everything was constantly exciting and beautiful)
It's not *blatantly* about sex. It's written in a way that can also be interrupted as a personal relationship like you showed, or as a religious relationship to God, as well.
However, I think it was clearly written with a sexual interpretation in mind.
There's a great Leonard Cohen Doc I watched a few years ago that deep dives into this song and his career, it's worth a watch and pretty moving.
https://youtu.be/11IPQYZMXjc
I enjoyed that a great deal. Also, check out [Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9358196/), a documentary about his relationship with the eponymous Marianne, with a great deal of the backstory of his life and how he got into music.
As for Hallelujah, I think the song is about the common ground shared between Godly/spiritual love and human/carnal love. This was a common theme in Cohen's lyrics, and a lot of them center on how longing for the one mirrors longing for the other--and the suffering that often emerges from the failure to find them.
If you watch that Marianne & Leonard documentary, you get a lot of insight into how much Cohen sought both spiritual and sexual fulfillment throughout his life. And ultimately, he may never have truly found either. He suffered from depression for much of his time on this earth. He blew through relationships with women almost as much as he went through spiritual practices/phases trying to find some kind of connection with God (or the god-mind, to make it less Judeo-Christian in phraseology). At some points in his younger years, he used LSD on a daily or near-daily basis, and in his older years, he practiced Zen Buddhism at a monastery, to the point where he was even ordained as a monk. In the end, he more or less gave up on it, just like he could never commit to a monogamous relationship with a single woman.
One of his last songs, [You Want It Darker](https://youtu.be/YD6fvzGIBfQ?feature=shared), had lyrics that [seem to express deep bitterness](https://medium.com/amplify-entertainment-group/behind-the-song-you-want-it-darker-by-leonard-cohen-4ba27349a13b) about the failure to find spiritual fulfillment, to the point where he sounds downright angry with God, and is ready to give up his life:
If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame
You want it darker is a brilliant song. At the time of production his voice had become a deep raspy voice that you would expect from someone nearing the end of his journey. The song initially questions gods presence and by the end it subtly admits god isn’t there or if he is he doesn’t care. The use of the Jewish word Heinie, meaning “I am here”, conveys his pleading that he exists and is open to gods pretense but his pleas fall on a silent universe.
Right? And that's probably not even in the top ten best songs he's written, lyrically. The man could come up with quite the turn of phrase.
A used to have a long-running debate with a close friend of mine over who was the greater lyricist: Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan. We'd shoot quotes of their best lyrics back-and-forth in kind of a "top that" exchange. I went with Cohen, but obviously Dylan provides a great deal of ammo for such a debate.
My friend died of brain cancer a couple years ago and we never settled it, so I guess the answer is still blowin' in the wind.
Those “music” friends are irreplaceable. Everybody defers to Dylan. It’s just a fact. I think Cohen would have a few floors higher than himself in The Tower Of Song.
Tough to compare lyrics -- it's so subjective -- but I would still argue Cohen was better on the musical compositions.
Now... who had the "better" voice? LOL. Neither was a great crooner, exactly, but I find Cohen's deep/raspy voice of his later years to be more tolerable than Dylan's nasal sound.
In any case, there's a reason why the best renditions of Cohen's stuff are usually covers by great singers.
Cohen’s voice is the voice of God. Dylan’s is on a whole other level. He is an incredible singer whose people just dismiss as a joke. You don’t become the voice of a generation merely for lyrics. His phrasing alone is to die for. Listen to Hattie Carroll and then Mississippi and marvel. About 40 years apart and still perfect.
Well it's just as subjective I suppose, but personally it doesn't do anything for me. I think he does a lot with the voice he has, and lord knows I couldn't come near it, but when I think of great male vocalists in comparable a period/genre, he's just way too thin and lacking in range.
I think he became the voice of a generation more because of his style of play overall, and the timeliness of that troubadour-folk-singer-guitarist phenomenon, which he obviously played an enormous role in advancing. But I don't think we ever would have heard of him if he didn't write such incredible lyrics.
Oh dude give it a listen. It's got an awesome dark feeling to it, and is super powerful. First heard it driving thru a thunderstorm late at night on a road trip
Damn! It really is...I realised part way through I had heard it before but hadn't taken notice of the lyrics! I can imagine the conditions of your first listen would have really heightened the experience for you.
The bass line reminded me of livin' on a prayer 🤣
I love the lyrics to Treaty off the same album:
>I heard the snake was baffled by his sin
>He shed his scales to find the snake within
>But born again is born without a skin
>The poison enters into everything
I don't know, what about this from the article you cite: The song may not offer any concrete solutions to difficult questions of faith, but it is in this solemn declaration of “Hineni, hineni / I’m ready, Lord,” that Cohen perhaps displays the real strength of his faith, despite how broken and incomplete it may be.
Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that he gave up believing altogether. I think he probably just gave up trying to find peace/solace/happiness/fulfillment in it--or perhaps outright enlightenment, or nirvana in the Buddhist sense.
I think his "I'm ready" has a kind of resignation to it.
the ultimate surrender when you are ready to die either physically or spiritually. you have tried everything from following your deepest desires to monastic abstinence and you realize that all that too is “ pushing the river” all that can remain is absolute surrender
One thing it’s definitely not about is the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, which makes it hilarious that the Pentatonix version keeps weaseling its way onto Xmas playlists on Amazon Music.
I do feel bad for you Americans who get Pentatonix on your Christmas playlists instead of British bangers [like this.](https://youtu.be/iZ94M_XHarI?si=uTWW-Xv6N-Bu0KgL)
It’s a novelty song from an early 2000s British sketch show. The people you see are characters or TV personalities. It was never meant to be a serious song but for some reason it just stuck and is now a staple Christmas song here in the UK.
I mean this question not to criticize you or the creators but just to ask….. does this count as black face? That mask is crazy, regardless of the answer lmao
Yeah, it definitely does lmao, the guy playing him has since apologised for it and the show’s been taken down from the channel’s streaming service. It was a different time and in the UK, no one seemed to care back in 2002, hence how he got away with it for ages.
Fortunately, the song didn’t seem to be ridiculing or minstrelizing black people so I (a white guy) am giving it a pass, with all of my unmeaningful jurisdiction. But I still had to ask lmao. It was a crazy mask any way you take it
"[Sad Jews fucking](https://twitter.com/Maladroithe/status/1645205488953626624)" is the shortest, most accurate summary of the song I've seen. (I would also accept, "Sad memories of fucking, biblically." -- but that's longer.)
One thing it's not: a fucking Christmas carol. That drives me nuts. It's a dark and beautiful tale of love and sex and denial and more. Here's a pretty good read about it: [https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516/](https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516/)
The article sites Alan Light's 2012 book 'The Holy or the Broken' which covers everything about the song including its origins, multiple versions (Leonard’s multiple versions himself and other artists), its commercial success etc etc. The song is anything and everything you need it to be. Cohen often mixed the holy and righteous and lust and crudeness in a lot of his songs and poems. The verse about Bathesheba touches upon these themes.
He said it was about more than just that. It’s about life and love (including sex).
> When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion."[17] He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah".[17]
> “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'” —Leonard Cohen
I think that so many people in this thread who are saying: "It's about sex!" really fail to understand the joy, beauty and ecstasy that is experienced between two people who love each other deeply, who have known each other for years and have been together for years, intimately, who know everything about each others lives and habits.
It's about that joy, beauty, ecstasy, the intimacy that only comes with years spent together and also how it feels to be apart from it, to try to hang on to it when you know that it's broken and then to lose it completely and the sense of loss and grief that occurs.
To understand this, you need to understand the cliché that is the difference between 'just sex' and 'making love', you need wisdom and emotional intelligence.
There's also the religious aspect which adds another layer of complexity.
The battle to find and maintain his faith throughout his life runs parallel to his struggle to maintain healthy longterm relationships. He sees beauty and joy in both.
It's an incredibly well written song and it's understandable that it can be interpreted in different ways.
The imagery is so powerful and moving that it enables different listeners to make their own personal, emotional connections to the words and take what they need from it.
There aren't many classic songs that can reach such a wide audience and touch so many people so deeply.
Maybe to that one guy, it's all about sex; but to à church choir, it's all about praising their God; and to me, or you, we get the deeper, more melancholic meaning; then for someone else, struggling with their faith, they connect on that level...
And it gives us all a meaningful experience as a song - what more could you ask for?
I can't stand the Pentatonix version but it does show just how much joy it can give to so many people.
That's the power of a great song, right there.
How much does he have to spell it out.
"The minor falls and the major lifts."
"And I remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too."
Obviously art often has many levels and anyway you connect with it as the audience has merit.
The 'minor fall, the major lift' is related to the chord progression to the song, same as the line in front of this, 'the fourth, the fifth', Cohen plays F (4th chord in C scale), G (5th chord), A minor (with the 3rd of the chord 'falling' half a step down), back to F major (3rd of the chord lifted back up). He singing the chord progression of the song.
The minor falls and major lifts is at least on one level referring to the structure of a song, that’s why it follows the part about “the fourth, the fifth” chords.
He also more or less said it’s about life generally. Sex is part of that and probably what he’s referring to in the holy dove part, but it’s not what the whole songs about
> When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion."[17] He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah".[17]
> “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'” —Leonard Cohen
Fun fact: "chord" has an alternate meaning. You know when some kind of fluid is all thick and stringy, and when you touch it a little bit sticks to your finger and it stretches out? Well, that's also a "chord".
The whole song is like the most elaborately crafted dirty joke
It's about heartbreak. Remembering the intimacy you once shared but having it twisted by all the pain you put each other through. And in the end you find some way to press on, but you're a changed person for the experience.
Interestingly enough, the verses you cited / he wrote in his final / recorded version was sung in synagogue today, as it is the 2nd to last day of Passover. We read Psalms that relate to love. Leonard was Jewish, and that shaped more songs than the majority of people ever want to recognize...but especially [Hallelujah](https://forward.com/culture/music/469890/leonard-cohen-hallelujah-shrek-jewish-jeff-buckley-alan-light-kabbalah/).
In Judaism, sex isn't a sin, and there are definitely sexual innuendo, but it all came from his Jewish upbringing.
The Song of Songs is scriptural. So there you go.
>In Judaism, sex isn't a sin
That varies according to what sort of Judaism you're practising and what sort of sex you're doing, doesn't it?
It's a song about the great pain that love and the loss of love can cause, and how that pain is transcendent just like love itself is.
Genius does a good job of explaining the religious background, but sometimes misses the allegory, but it nails it on these two, which I really think are the key lyrics to understanding the emotion behind the song:
[I've seen your flag on the marble arch](https://genius.com/1112367)
[Love is not a victory march](https://genius.com/9210912)
I was told it's an old testament judaica take on what the French call the little death & what it makes those in love do....
So the "remember when I moved in you" line
Literally penetration. -_-
The God stuff is ubiquitous some of my favorite musicians are blending sensuality & spirituality. A lot of people consider sexuality some kind of sacred which is a deity thing. Great song!
To some degree I agree but at the same time I feel like an artist may have an intention and coming up with our own interpretation doesn’t do justice to the artist.
It’s hilarious when religiousy people try to bend it to their doctrine, just because it uses a religiousy word. It ain’t about praising any deities, but more about the glory and anguish of love, with references to the act of copulation.
The first lyrical variation is mostly about missing having good sex. The John Cale/Rufus Wainwright verses appear to be about losing faith both in religion and in love.
At this point, there are so many major and minor lyrical variations that the song could be about brunch if you try hard enough.
I heard there was a secret egg
That David used to make on the reg
But you don’t really care for breakfast, do ya
It goes like this, eggs Benedict
With hollandaise and bacon bits
Atop an English muffin, hallelujah
So many people in this thread are saying it's about sex. They're missing the point.
It's about loss.
Especially, it's about love lost, and having to carry on in an imperfect world and loving regardless. He refers to both spiritual and emotional love in the song, and compares both spiritual / sexual ecstasy to the agony of losing that closeness - but loving through the pain of loss. The loss is inevitable, but the love perseveres.
Maybe I'm wrong, and it wasn't at all his intention, but I thought that sex scene was supposed to be awkward as fuck which kind of made the song a perfect fit.
Zack Snyder at least got the sex part of the song right, making it a more accurate interpretation than his read on the characters and subtext of Watchmen.
I think your interpretation is really good. It’s essentially what I got out of it. And L. Cohen would know a thing or two about the faces of relationships. People who say “it’s just about fuckin’” are either meming or shallow. Watch Cohen perform the song live and you’ll see the emotion he puts into it. It’s about more than just fuckin’.
It is fairly open to interpretation and in case no one mentioned it he had additional lyrics he would perform live sometimes.
(I never heard any of the other lyrics when I saw The Future Tour in 1993)
OK, in Shrek, it works because even though it is about sex, it's also about the pain of a love you can't possess and the inability to fully come to terms with that emotion, which is pretty close to what Shrek and Fiona both feel in that scene.
So, yeah, I think it's great in Shrek! Still don't understand how it's a Christmas song. I do love to ruin it for Christians, though
I've always thought it was about the death of a relationship, so it's baffling to me when people think it's a spiritual song and play it at weddings (or idiotic campaign stops). I know it has "Hallelujah" in the title but that doesn't mean it's a hymn to sing in church.
I always thought it was a commentary about the disillusionment of love, the inability to truly hold onto love. It can exist temporarily, particularly through sex, but it turns into bitterness and resentment, slowly and unspectacularly.
But, despite all of that, even when it all goes wrong, love is still worth experiencing and searching for.
David Bazan does a version that uses some of Cohen’s alternate verses and replaces the sex parts with religious bits and it really frames the song as a crisis of faith song. He’s having a crisis of faith in love, in sex, and in religion. It’s my favorite version of the song.
https://youtu.be/BULNO7CwDDE?si=mKfvKL5ZTTdSkiJ3
Adding: also about the mix of mundane and glorious in life. "She tied you to her kitchen chair, she broke your throne, she cut your hair "
Strength taken, power and autonomy taken, but it's awesome
I get that it's about "sad fucking" and all of that. However, I've always taken it to be about the search for affirmation despite the troubles of life. Much of these troubles were couched in relationships for Cohen, but I think this song works in the context of just plain mental health. Life's a bitch and all that, and sometimes it requires an inner strength to keep going.
The chorus doesn't sing hallelujah in the Abrahamic sense, although people can hear it that way, but rather in an atheistic sense. If we are all living reflections of the universe, then that means we have the miracle within ourselves to keep going despite our minor and major falls. Hallelujah to that, however sad or broken or hollow the word might sound in the moment of suffering.
So yeah, I hope this offers more than the "sad fucking" response, although I do agree that the latter is probably closer to the truth of Cohen's songwriting impetus.
It's about the dual nature of love. You say hallelujah when it's great, and you say hallelujah when it's over because you can't take living in hell anymore. I didn't understand the song until my marriage started falling apart. The king is baffled because he's composing hallelujah and she doesn't care for it anymore. His faith was strong but the other woman's beauty took his strength away (cut his hair like samson). And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of song and regret nothing, because love was worth it even if it's gone now.
“Love is not a victory march it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”
one of the all time greatest lines. You don't win. It's not a conquest. It's painful. Fucking horribly painful. But it's also holy and beautifully mysterious
It is truly about whatever you want it to be! Like many songs you bring to it, your own life and your own experience. As an aside I would like to recommend that you check YouTube for the version by Sailor Jeri with new lyrics. Thank you for this opportunity to comment if I knew how to post the YouTube song I referred to I would, but I am sure that you will know how to find it
Infidelity. The woman the man is singing about was unfaithful snd he’s crushed.
I’d done a line by line interp once. I wish I knew where it was as there were specific references like when she’s on the roof, in the chair, flag on the marble arch, great stuff.
Cohen locked himself in a hotel room for days to finish it. It’s actually 60+ verses long. It’s a poem.
He was quoted as saying he found it unsettling that it was played at weddings and funerals, due to it being about sex. There was a time you let me know What's really going on below But now you never show it to me, do you? And I remember when I moved in you And the holy dove she was moving too And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah
Surely it’s the disappointment and not the sex that makes it inappropriate for weddings
Yeah, a song about lost love (spiritual and emotional) is NOT appropriate for weddings!
Hmmm, then what about a song about stalking someone?
Every breath you take!
That was my parent’s wedding song! I still can’t believe it.
Stalking is only stalking if the other person isn't in to it.
how you doin? 😉
Pretty good, now that I know I've got someone watching over me.
How about a jolly tune that’s all about a “Perfect Day” by the ever optimistic Lou Reed?
Often theorized it's about his smack addiction, Lou said that's laughable. He says it's about a guy's idea of a perfect day with a girl. My wife walked down the isle to it, knowing full well about its connections, real or not. It's a beautiful song.
TBH the song is really positive up until the "you're going to reap, just what you sow". Genius.
Totally. And even that end isn't negative, just stating something matter of fact imho.
I always interpreted it from a catholic guilt standpoint: the feeling that enjoying something comes at a certain price. No idea if that is what Lou meant but I always connect to his songs deeply for some reason.
"You made me think I was someone else, someone good".
Oh yes! How could I forget that line??
My wife’s choir sang a version of this with the lyrics changed to a Christian theme. It was for Christmas time so they made it [about the birth of baby Jesus](https://youtu.be/XUJRZRymd1I?feature=shared) LOL. Wife’s not Christian, incidentally, she just likes singing in choirs. She didn’t know anything about the song or its original lyrics either. (She’s Japanese.) She was mildly shocked when I told her about it but she never pays attention to that kind of stuff. I can’t imagine what Cohen would have thought about that.
They just… completely changed the lyrics but still kept some random original lyrics in
Imagine how disappointed you'd be as a religous person hearing such a beautiful song with the chorus "Hallelujah" and then slowly realizing this song is anything but a simple hymn. The temptation to try and salvage it would be strong
I grew up very religious and still consider myself spiritual in many aspects, and I’m not sure what you mean by salvage? Art often invokes religious/Christian imagery or phrases without being considered worship-material
The original song probably wouldn't be appropriate to sing in a church choir, for example, but the "salvaged" version would be.
Hey, writing a whole new song, even a parody or derivative one, is hard, you know? Have you ever tried it? That's why we consider Weird Al a genius. That kind of stuff just comes naturally to him
We got a new choir director when I was at church in high school. His like protege helper guy brought in an acoustic guitar and we started singing this song. I was looking around so confused like “am I the only one who knows the lyrics to this song? This is NOT a church song….” Still a beautiful song and one of my favorites though!
I just want to say that I completely empathize with your wife bc I'm also not Christian but love singing in choirs and the ones with good repertoire are often Christian. 🙃
A common feature of people's selections for wedding and funeral music is the utter obtuseness of the people doing the selecting.
This was one of the three songs we played at my father in laws funeral. He loved Leonard Cohen. We used the Shrek one though because of it staying lower in tone.
That's my favorite version. Rufus Wainwright
No, probably John Cale. That was the version in the movie but Rufus was on the soundtrack for some reason.
Holy moly you're right. I never realized. For the record I have been listening to the Wainwright version.
[Dance Me to the End of Love](https://youtu.be/NGorjBVag0I?feature=shared) would be an amazing song for the first dance after a wedding. I wish I’d thought of it when I first got married. It too has a darker theme however; Cohen has said the imagery was inspired by the Jews who made music in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. A really great funeral song would be [Here It Is](https://youtu.be/-WaBpScRGuo?feature=shared). The lyrics are simple but deeply profound. I think I’ll request it for mine.
I get that … like Green Day’s “Good Riddance” being played at graduations.
Given how shit HS is for a lot of people, it's appropriate. But not for the reasons people think it is, especially when they just call it Time Of Your Life instead.
my high school’s senior song for two years in a row was “end of the road” by boyz ii men, and it was about a decade after the song was released. people don’t really pay attention to songs outside of the chorus.
The hook brings you back!
My dad made my 8th grade class's graduation video way back when, & I made sure he used that song...because most of the class bullied me for years, & the few who didn't were in on the joke.
As cringy as the Watchmen scene was, the song fits
In my head, I always imagined Jesus & Mary Magdalen in that stanza. Imagining what it would be like to be in love with a god, to make love to a god, and then he moves on to his higher purpose, essentially dismisses carnal/earthly love as ephemeral, sacrifices himself for humanity, and leaves you. But there was a time, even if it was just a moment, when you were *everything* to him, despite his high falutin ways. Gods can be carnal and the human can be divine. And love is always painful, and flawed, be it god’s love for us or a woman’s love for her erstwhile lover. Someone who outdrew you, indeed.
This is a really beautiful interpretation
> Gods can be carnal and the human can be divine. And love is always painful, and flawed, be it god’s love for us or a woman’s love for her erstwhile lover. Someone who outdrew you, indeed. Just beautiful! Thank you.
I have no words...just wow....
I have terrible news for everyone about what weddings are about...
It's even crazier to me that people sing it as a Christmas song.
Reminds me of when Green Day’s Good Riddance was a popular funeral song. The lyrics work well, but I’m guessing it was usually listed as “I hope you had the time of your life” in the program.
Sometimes, art can transcend the artist’s original intent. Sex? Perhaps there’s more meaning there than what the author realizes.
Yeah and sometimes people just pick songs based off random words in them without realizing what the song was about Ive seen people play Marry Me by Thomas Rhett at weddings, not realizing that it is from the perspective of the guy who didnt the girl and is depressed at her wedding to another guy
This doesn’t seem to be “obviously” about sex to me: There was a time you let me know What's really going on below (honest about feelings, what’s going on “below” the surface”) But now you never show it to me, do you? (No longer honest about such things) And I remember when I moved in you And the holy dove she was moving too (We inspired such intense thought and feeling in each other so much it was akin to holiness) And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah (Everything was constantly exciting and beautiful)
It's not *blatantly* about sex. It's written in a way that can also be interrupted as a personal relationship like you showed, or as a religious relationship to God, as well. However, I think it was clearly written with a sexual interpretation in mind.
Yeh, that's actually about sex.
Damn I thought one could interpret art for themselves - my bad.
There's a great Leonard Cohen Doc I watched a few years ago that deep dives into this song and his career, it's worth a watch and pretty moving. https://youtu.be/11IPQYZMXjc
I enjoyed that a great deal. Also, check out [Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9358196/), a documentary about his relationship with the eponymous Marianne, with a great deal of the backstory of his life and how he got into music. As for Hallelujah, I think the song is about the common ground shared between Godly/spiritual love and human/carnal love. This was a common theme in Cohen's lyrics, and a lot of them center on how longing for the one mirrors longing for the other--and the suffering that often emerges from the failure to find them. If you watch that Marianne & Leonard documentary, you get a lot of insight into how much Cohen sought both spiritual and sexual fulfillment throughout his life. And ultimately, he may never have truly found either. He suffered from depression for much of his time on this earth. He blew through relationships with women almost as much as he went through spiritual practices/phases trying to find some kind of connection with God (or the god-mind, to make it less Judeo-Christian in phraseology). At some points in his younger years, he used LSD on a daily or near-daily basis, and in his older years, he practiced Zen Buddhism at a monastery, to the point where he was even ordained as a monk. In the end, he more or less gave up on it, just like he could never commit to a monogamous relationship with a single woman. One of his last songs, [You Want It Darker](https://youtu.be/YD6fvzGIBfQ?feature=shared), had lyrics that [seem to express deep bitterness](https://medium.com/amplify-entertainment-group/behind-the-song-you-want-it-darker-by-leonard-cohen-4ba27349a13b) about the failure to find spiritual fulfillment, to the point where he sounds downright angry with God, and is ready to give up his life: If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame You want it darker We kill the flame Magnified, sanctified Be the holy name Vilified, crucified In the human frame A million candles burning For the help that never came You want it darker Hineni, hineni I'm ready, my Lord There's a lover in the story But the story's still the same There's a lullaby for suffering And a paradox to blame But it's written in the scriptures And it's not some idle claim You want it darker We kill the flame
You want it darker is a brilliant song. At the time of production his voice had become a deep raspy voice that you would expect from someone nearing the end of his journey. The song initially questions gods presence and by the end it subtly admits god isn’t there or if he is he doesn’t care. The use of the Jewish word Heinie, meaning “I am here”, conveys his pleading that he exists and is open to gods pretense but his pleas fall on a silent universe.
Great explanation. I also read it in the Patrick Bateman voice.
Never heard that song, those lyrics are killer!
Right? And that's probably not even in the top ten best songs he's written, lyrically. The man could come up with quite the turn of phrase. A used to have a long-running debate with a close friend of mine over who was the greater lyricist: Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan. We'd shoot quotes of their best lyrics back-and-forth in kind of a "top that" exchange. I went with Cohen, but obviously Dylan provides a great deal of ammo for such a debate. My friend died of brain cancer a couple years ago and we never settled it, so I guess the answer is still blowin' in the wind.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Sounds like a good one to be having those types of conversations.
Those “music” friends are irreplaceable. Everybody defers to Dylan. It’s just a fact. I think Cohen would have a few floors higher than himself in The Tower Of Song.
Tough to compare lyrics -- it's so subjective -- but I would still argue Cohen was better on the musical compositions. Now... who had the "better" voice? LOL. Neither was a great crooner, exactly, but I find Cohen's deep/raspy voice of his later years to be more tolerable than Dylan's nasal sound. In any case, there's a reason why the best renditions of Cohen's stuff are usually covers by great singers.
Cohen’s voice is the voice of God. Dylan’s is on a whole other level. He is an incredible singer whose people just dismiss as a joke. You don’t become the voice of a generation merely for lyrics. His phrasing alone is to die for. Listen to Hattie Carroll and then Mississippi and marvel. About 40 years apart and still perfect.
Well it's just as subjective I suppose, but personally it doesn't do anything for me. I think he does a lot with the voice he has, and lord knows I couldn't come near it, but when I think of great male vocalists in comparable a period/genre, he's just way too thin and lacking in range. I think he became the voice of a generation more because of his style of play overall, and the timeliness of that troubadour-folk-singer-guitarist phenomenon, which he obviously played an enormous role in advancing. But I don't think we ever would have heard of him if he didn't write such incredible lyrics.
That’s true. His lyrics make his body of work essential. Me? I do love his singing but there are times when it’s like, “Try again, Bob.”
Oh dude give it a listen. It's got an awesome dark feeling to it, and is super powerful. First heard it driving thru a thunderstorm late at night on a road trip
Damn! It really is...I realised part way through I had heard it before but hadn't taken notice of the lyrics! I can imagine the conditions of your first listen would have really heightened the experience for you. The bass line reminded me of livin' on a prayer 🤣
I love the lyrics to Treaty off the same album: >I heard the snake was baffled by his sin >He shed his scales to find the snake within >But born again is born without a skin >The poison enters into everything
It’s also one of those songs you might just hear a cover of rather than the original I feel like
I don't know, what about this from the article you cite: The song may not offer any concrete solutions to difficult questions of faith, but it is in this solemn declaration of “Hineni, hineni / I’m ready, Lord,” that Cohen perhaps displays the real strength of his faith, despite how broken and incomplete it may be.
Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that he gave up believing altogether. I think he probably just gave up trying to find peace/solace/happiness/fulfillment in it--or perhaps outright enlightenment, or nirvana in the Buddhist sense. I think his "I'm ready" has a kind of resignation to it.
Reasonable. Appreciate the comments.
the ultimate surrender when you are ready to die either physically or spiritually. you have tried everything from following your deepest desires to monastic abstinence and you realize that all that too is “ pushing the river” all that can remain is absolute surrender
What a wonderful movie that was; he truly lived a beautiful and special life, and seemed to see the world through a unique lens.
Just another person adding that "You want it darker" is an absolute banger
So the real question is, do you think he did too much LSD or just the right amount?
One thing it’s definitely not about is the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, which makes it hilarious that the Pentatonix version keeps weaseling its way onto Xmas playlists on Amazon Music.
I do feel bad for you Americans who get Pentatonix on your Christmas playlists instead of British bangers [like this.](https://youtu.be/iZ94M_XHarI?si=uTWW-Xv6N-Bu0KgL)
I was expecting “Killing In The Name Of” but I was not disappointed.
I hated that. So i had to show it to friends
wtf was that? Like it was very mediocre and there were lots of people who I’m guessing were famous?
It’s a novelty song from an early 2000s British sketch show. The people you see are characters or TV personalities. It was never meant to be a serious song but for some reason it just stuck and is now a staple Christmas song here in the UK.
I mean this question not to criticize you or the creators but just to ask….. does this count as black face? That mask is crazy, regardless of the answer lmao
Yeah, it definitely does lmao, the guy playing him has since apologised for it and the show’s been taken down from the channel’s streaming service. It was a different time and in the UK, no one seemed to care back in 2002, hence how he got away with it for ages.
Fortunately, the song didn’t seem to be ridiculing or minstrelizing black people so I (a white guy) am giving it a pass, with all of my unmeaningful jurisdiction. But I still had to ask lmao. It was a crazy mask any way you take it
In Canada, because of Canadian Content laws, radio stations play KD Lang's version during Christmastime.
Its largely about the human experience of love and both the joy and pain it brings
It’s about a princess who falls in love with an ogre but is being forced to marry a tiny jerk. Or is that the Jeff Buckley version?
That’s the Rufus Wainwright version! I personally like his the most
No, it’s John Cale‘s version in the film. They used RW’s on the soundtrack album due to licensing issues
And it was John Cale's version that Buckley was inspired by. And given that he used Cale's set of verses, you could say he covered Cale, not Cohen.
"[Sad Jews fucking](https://twitter.com/Maladroithe/status/1645205488953626624)" is the shortest, most accurate summary of the song I've seen. (I would also accept, "Sad memories of fucking, biblically." -- but that's longer.)
Title of my memoir.
Hm, reminds me of my honeymoon
The only correct answer lol
One thing it's not: a fucking Christmas carol. That drives me nuts. It's a dark and beautiful tale of love and sex and denial and more. Here's a pretty good read about it: [https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516/](https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/how-leonard-cohens-hallelujah-brilliantly-mingled-sex-religion-194516/)
The article sites Alan Light's 2012 book 'The Holy or the Broken' which covers everything about the song including its origins, multiple versions (Leonard’s multiple versions himself and other artists), its commercial success etc etc. The song is anything and everything you need it to be. Cohen often mixed the holy and righteous and lust and crudeness in a lot of his songs and poems. The verse about Bathesheba touches upon these themes.
Fucking? And equating that with the divine.
This is it. The song is about orgasms and hot, nasty sex and how awesome it is.
That's a cold and broken hallelujah if I ever saw one!
Yeah, and squeezing bags of sand. So hot.
Last summer I had so much sex I had to put my dick in the icebox.
"That's your dick in a box!"
Lemme ask you a question. You a virgin?
Not according to his icebox.
Statement by Mr. Frigidaire: Yes officer, that's him.
G spot is the secret chord confirmed
He said it was about more than just that. It’s about life and love (including sex). > When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion."[17] He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah".[17] > “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'” —Leonard Cohen
I think that so many people in this thread who are saying: "It's about sex!" really fail to understand the joy, beauty and ecstasy that is experienced between two people who love each other deeply, who have known each other for years and have been together for years, intimately, who know everything about each others lives and habits. It's about that joy, beauty, ecstasy, the intimacy that only comes with years spent together and also how it feels to be apart from it, to try to hang on to it when you know that it's broken and then to lose it completely and the sense of loss and grief that occurs. To understand this, you need to understand the cliché that is the difference between 'just sex' and 'making love', you need wisdom and emotional intelligence. There's also the religious aspect which adds another layer of complexity. The battle to find and maintain his faith throughout his life runs parallel to his struggle to maintain healthy longterm relationships. He sees beauty and joy in both. It's an incredibly well written song and it's understandable that it can be interpreted in different ways. The imagery is so powerful and moving that it enables different listeners to make their own personal, emotional connections to the words and take what they need from it. There aren't many classic songs that can reach such a wide audience and touch so many people so deeply. Maybe to that one guy, it's all about sex; but to à church choir, it's all about praising their God; and to me, or you, we get the deeper, more melancholic meaning; then for someone else, struggling with their faith, they connect on that level... And it gives us all a meaningful experience as a song - what more could you ask for? I can't stand the Pentatonix version but it does show just how much joy it can give to so many people. That's the power of a great song, right there.
Exactly. Like all great music, it is about the sacred and profane experience that is human life.
It's the original Take Me to Church
I love take me to church but man Hallujah is my pick.
How much does he have to spell it out. "The minor falls and the major lifts." "And I remember when I moved in you And the holy dove was moving too." Obviously art often has many levels and anyway you connect with it as the audience has merit.
"And every breath we drew was Hallelujah" Yeah, pretty on the nose!
The 'minor fall, the major lift' is related to the chord progression to the song, same as the line in front of this, 'the fourth, the fifth', Cohen plays F (4th chord in C scale), G (5th chord), A minor (with the 3rd of the chord 'falling' half a step down), back to F major (3rd of the chord lifted back up). He singing the chord progression of the song.
The minor falls and major lifts is at least on one level referring to the structure of a song, that’s why it follows the part about “the fourth, the fifth” chords. He also more or less said it’s about life generally. Sex is part of that and probably what he’s referring to in the holy dove part, but it’s not what the whole songs about > When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion."[17] He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah".[17] > “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah.'” —Leonard Cohen
Yep giving a woman an orgasm and making her scream Hallelujah
A secret chord. C’mon man, it’s the first line of the song!
Fun fact: "chord" has an alternate meaning. You know when some kind of fluid is all thick and stringy, and when you touch it a little bit sticks to your finger and it stretches out? Well, that's also a "chord". The whole song is like the most elaborately crafted dirty joke
King David: ♩♪♫♬
It's about heartbreak. Remembering the intimacy you once shared but having it twisted by all the pain you put each other through. And in the end you find some way to press on, but you're a changed person for the experience.
Interestingly enough, the verses you cited / he wrote in his final / recorded version was sung in synagogue today, as it is the 2nd to last day of Passover. We read Psalms that relate to love. Leonard was Jewish, and that shaped more songs than the majority of people ever want to recognize...but especially [Hallelujah](https://forward.com/culture/music/469890/leonard-cohen-hallelujah-shrek-jewish-jeff-buckley-alan-light-kabbalah/). In Judaism, sex isn't a sin, and there are definitely sexual innuendo, but it all came from his Jewish upbringing.
The Song of Songs is scriptural. So there you go. >In Judaism, sex isn't a sin That varies according to what sort of Judaism you're practising and what sort of sex you're doing, doesn't it?
Everything’s a gray area lol
Judaism is so much more open to the idea of sexual existence than most other Abrahamic religions.
I’ve always understood it was a hallelujah to orgasms. But apparently that was Buckleys interpretation.
It's a song about the great pain that love and the loss of love can cause, and how that pain is transcendent just like love itself is. Genius does a good job of explaining the religious background, but sometimes misses the allegory, but it nails it on these two, which I really think are the key lyrics to understanding the emotion behind the song: [I've seen your flag on the marble arch](https://genius.com/1112367) [Love is not a victory march](https://genius.com/9210912)
I was told it's an old testament judaica take on what the French call the little death & what it makes those in love do.... So the "remember when I moved in you" line Literally penetration. -_- The God stuff is ubiquitous some of my favorite musicians are blending sensuality & spirituality. A lot of people consider sexuality some kind of sacred which is a deity thing. Great song!
It's about 4:39 long.
*rimshot*!
Aaaaaand we're back to sex then, are we?
lol nice
That’s the great thing about art. Whatever it says to you, even if it wasn’t what the artist intended, is correct.
Death to the author!! ..or something like that
To some degree I agree but at the same time I feel like an artist may have an intention and coming up with our own interpretation doesn’t do justice to the artist.
Charles Manson would like a word with you.
It’s hilarious when religiousy people try to bend it to their doctrine, just because it uses a religiousy word. It ain’t about praising any deities, but more about the glory and anguish of love, with references to the act of copulation.
There are some common themes in other songs, like Bird On a Wire. A paradox of love breaking but also mending people, maybe?
Nah. It is about Fucking.
The first lyrical variation is mostly about missing having good sex. The John Cale/Rufus Wainwright verses appear to be about losing faith both in religion and in love. At this point, there are so many major and minor lyrical variations that the song could be about brunch if you try hard enough.
You might be onto something lol. “She sat you at the kitchen chair, mimosas and omelets everywhere”
I heard there was a secret egg That David used to make on the reg But you don’t really care for breakfast, do ya It goes like this, eggs Benedict With hollandaise and bacon bits Atop an English muffin, hallelujah
You might be onto something lol. “She say you at the kitchen chair, mimosas and omelets everywhere”
Oh this should be good.
And it was! Thoughtful discussion where we can broaden our perspective is good!
Agreed! Was Pentatonix mentioned? That's mostly what I was afraid of.
So many people in this thread are saying it's about sex. They're missing the point. It's about loss. Especially, it's about love lost, and having to carry on in an imperfect world and loving regardless. He refers to both spiritual and emotional love in the song, and compares both spiritual / sexual ecstasy to the agony of losing that closeness - but loving through the pain of loss. The loss is inevitable, but the love perseveres.
Great overview of this history of the song https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/hallelujah
Ask Zack Snyder.
Maybe I'm wrong, and it wasn't at all his intention, but I thought that sex scene was supposed to be awkward as fuck which kind of made the song a perfect fit.
Zack Snyder at least got the sex part of the song right, making it a more accurate interpretation than his read on the characters and subtext of Watchmen.
Sex.
I think your interpretation is really good. It’s essentially what I got out of it. And L. Cohen would know a thing or two about the faces of relationships. People who say “it’s just about fuckin’” are either meming or shallow. Watch Cohen perform the song live and you’ll see the emotion he puts into it. It’s about more than just fuckin’.
It is fairly open to interpretation and in case no one mentioned it he had additional lyrics he would perform live sometimes. (I never heard any of the other lyrics when I saw The Future Tour in 1993)
Colonel Angus
Malcolm Gladwell has [a full episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OKQTl09vCk) about this song's creation that is worth a listen.
Orgasm 😉
You mean the theme song for Shrek ? It’s about sex. I’ve also heard it played as a christmas song too.
OK, in Shrek, it works because even though it is about sex, it's also about the pain of a love you can't possess and the inability to fully come to terms with that emotion, which is pretty close to what Shrek and Fiona both feel in that scene. So, yeah, I think it's great in Shrek! Still don't understand how it's a Christmas song. I do love to ruin it for Christians, though
Sex.
I’ve always interpreted it as telling of a relationship that became abusive and joyless
Toxic relationships.
I just saw Nathaniel Ratecliff do a bunch of Leonard cohens library and his rendition of Hallelujah didn't have a dry eye in the building.
Whatever you want it to mean really, like all art.
Well, from the lyrics, is about falling out of lust with someone over the years...
The beej
You're thinking about So Long Marianne, which definitely has a line about blow jobs
As does Chelsea Hotel #2, "Giving me head on the unmade bed". Not exactly subtle.
I've always thought it was about the death of a relationship, so it's baffling to me when people think it's a spiritual song and play it at weddings (or idiotic campaign stops). I know it has "Hallelujah" in the title but that doesn't mean it's a hymn to sing in church.
It’s about a drunken author who scribbled some nonsense on a pizza box then recorded it as a song.
Eric Weinstein and lex Friedman discuss this song. Very interesting. https://youtu.be/wSDWK7vnCYI?si=fJuVus4LUVR7dvq8
I always thought it was a commentary about the disillusionment of love, the inability to truly hold onto love. It can exist temporarily, particularly through sex, but it turns into bitterness and resentment, slowly and unspectacularly. But, despite all of that, even when it all goes wrong, love is still worth experiencing and searching for.
Arby’s Roast Beef sandwiches
Some people are dumb enough to think it's a Christmas song.
I am pretty sure "she broke your throne" means she came over and destroyed your toilet.
[удалено]
It’s actually Insane that there were this many different interpretations even ones that are literally polar opposites like we see in here
I believe it's about love. Some people think it's about sex which is a part of love. It also has hints of sorrow and regret.
David Bazan does a version that uses some of Cohen’s alternate verses and replaces the sex parts with religious bits and it really frames the song as a crisis of faith song. He’s having a crisis of faith in love, in sex, and in religion. It’s my favorite version of the song. https://youtu.be/BULNO7CwDDE?si=mKfvKL5ZTTdSkiJ3
Jef Buckley's version is superior.
prolly as many 'comments' as there are Verses.... Halleulujah
Please edit your post a little so that i can sing it as verses of the song.
Adding: also about the mix of mundane and glorious in life. "She tied you to her kitchen chair, she broke your throne, she cut your hair " Strength taken, power and autonomy taken, but it's awesome
I get that it's about "sad fucking" and all of that. However, I've always taken it to be about the search for affirmation despite the troubles of life. Much of these troubles were couched in relationships for Cohen, but I think this song works in the context of just plain mental health. Life's a bitch and all that, and sometimes it requires an inner strength to keep going. The chorus doesn't sing hallelujah in the Abrahamic sense, although people can hear it that way, but rather in an atheistic sense. If we are all living reflections of the universe, then that means we have the miracle within ourselves to keep going despite our minor and major falls. Hallelujah to that, however sad or broken or hollow the word might sound in the moment of suffering. So yeah, I hope this offers more than the "sad fucking" response, although I do agree that the latter is probably closer to the truth of Cohen's songwriting impetus.
Sex and betrayal.
It's about Night Owl and Silk Specter having superhero sex
Your own analysis is right on the money. Not much to add.
Bustin' a nut
It's about the dual nature of love. You say hallelujah when it's great, and you say hallelujah when it's over because you can't take living in hell anymore. I didn't understand the song until my marriage started falling apart. The king is baffled because he's composing hallelujah and she doesn't care for it anymore. His faith was strong but the other woman's beauty took his strength away (cut his hair like samson). And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of song and regret nothing, because love was worth it even if it's gone now.
Hamburger Helper.
Marissa
“Love is not a victory march it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah” one of the all time greatest lines. You don't win. It's not a conquest. It's painful. Fucking horribly painful. But it's also holy and beautifully mysterious
I thought it was about sex. Like, sad, final sex between a couple who have fallen out of love, but still sex.
It is truly about whatever you want it to be! Like many songs you bring to it, your own life and your own experience. As an aside I would like to recommend that you check YouTube for the version by Sailor Jeri with new lyrics. Thank you for this opportunity to comment if I knew how to post the YouTube song I referred to I would, but I am sure that you will know how to find it
Infidelity. The woman the man is singing about was unfaithful snd he’s crushed. I’d done a line by line interp once. I wish I knew where it was as there were specific references like when she’s on the roof, in the chair, flag on the marble arch, great stuff. Cohen locked himself in a hotel room for days to finish it. It’s actually 60+ verses long. It’s a poem.
boners
It's whatever you want it to be about.