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In his Hallelujah song I thought Lennie was singing "The Battle king composing Hallelujah". It was only lately that I realize he was singing "The baffled king....". How silly of me.

You know, "Battle king" seemed so right, because King David indulged in so many wars while on the other hand "baffled king" seemed to me a bit out of contest because since when King David was ever baffled? To me he seems to know exactly what he's doing. Well maybe with women he may have been "baffled" ever since he watched Bat Sheva bathing on the roof. Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew him.

Okey. Baffled king. Who am I not to accept that?

"The baffled king....". How silly of me.

seadove

you're not alone
...that makes me silly too, seadove. (I also thought it was "battle")

Me too and it made sense. I thought for a very long time it was battle king.

Hi Paula and seadove,
you may like to take a look at what a few people have discussed before on this forum. The David /Bathsheba (Bat sheva) baffle.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8910&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... f&start=15

Thanks Mat I will check that out

Try this link for misheard lyrics not all Cohen but some make you laugh out loud

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1485&hilit=misheard

The ones Pete posted had me crying with laughter

The ones Pete posted had me crying with laughter

me too!!

Lol.

seadove wrote:since when King David was ever baffled? To me he seems to know exactly what he's doing.

He was baffled upon seeing Bathsheba and when composing Hallelujah!

ejts wrote:

seadove wrote:since when King David was ever baffled? To me he seems to know exactly what he's doing.

He was baffled upon seeing Bathsheba and when composing Hallelujah!

No I don't think so. Certainly he was fascinated by her beauty but we're talking about a king who never even once lost a battle. This guy was solid steel back then.

seadove wrote:No I don't think so. Certainly he was fascinated by her beauty but we're talking about a king who never even once lost a battle. This guy was solid steel back then.

To the contrary, one of the things that I like best about David is that, unlike other mythical kings, he is portrayed in his own official history as flesh and blood with his share of imperfections.

Check out this piece and video from Norman Ball, entitled We are all Leonard Cohen's Baffled Kings:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11774&p=129899&hilit

"Baffled" sounds like Leonard Cohen when he's writing.
Other stanzas (especially those which appeared later)
don't follow this pattern, but here the effortless Hallelujah
is the "broken" one, and the "holy" Hallelujah is a great
strain.

David was hardly "baffled" over Bathsheba. On the contrary, he was
successful, in a very ugly style of passion. Or am I wrong?
Possibly relevant here are the written answers
to written questions from the Jewish Telegraph (?), cited in
(amongst others) Dorman and Rawlins' Prophet of the Heart. I don't have
my own copy, but I can offer a rough paraphrase of the two of the
questions from memory. The answers together compose 2 Samuel 11:2.

Q: Has your Jewish background influenced your work?
A: From the roof he saw a woman washing herself.

Q: Has your Jewish background helped your work?
A: And the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

I don't know exactly what Cohen is getting at here (he
doesn't mind spreading a little bafflement himself),
but it suggests that the episode somehow
represents to him something about Jewish identity.

I believe Cohen is 'baffled' the woman doesn't care for music.

Perhaps, being aware of his own imperfections & sins, David was baffled by the fact that he was king.