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I don't understand what the song Hallelujah is about. Please explain. Thanks

Like many of his songs, each verse can be interpreted to have multiple meanings. The song isn't strictly about a single thing, but there is a strong theme throughout of sex, orgasms, and how these pertain to interpersonal relationships. Even the title itself can be interpreted as a climactic exclamation.

Lenny's own explanation: "It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value."

A lot of the kooky fundamentalists here in America will try to tell you that it is a song about "blah blah blah repent, jeezus, get born again." Those people are stupid and probably think that Animal Farm is about animals...on a farm. Pay them no mind. In fact, just tell them that Lenny is a Jew and a Buddhist. They'll hate him and stop listening to Hallelujah in no time.

One example:

'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 remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah '

is NOT about being filled with the pure, innocent joy of god.

If you really need a simple answer, I think the most succinct one I can give is "Hallelujah is about sexual ecstasy, despair brought on by love, and a devotion to a lover that borders on religious fervor."

That's a pretty good general sumary; however the song is quite complex and works on multiple levels: one of those levels is indeed religious or sacred. Leonard Cohen has always sought to unify the carnal and the sacred as they are both part of the human condition-- he recognizes the conflicted self and attempts to resolve it in his songs, poems and other works. Hallelujah is probably his most seamless example of that.

TheBigJerkface wrote:Like many of his songs, each verse can be interpreted to have multiple meanings. The song isn't strictly about a single thing, but there is a strong theme throughout of sex, orgasms, and how these pertain to interpersonal relationships. Even the title itself can be interpreted as a climactic exclamation.

Lenny's own explanation: "It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value."

A lot of the kooky fundamentalists here in America will try to tell you that it is a song about "blah blah blah repent, jeezus, get born again." Those people are stupid and probably think that Animal Farm is about animals...on a farm. Pay them no mind. In fact, just tell them that Lenny is a Jew and a Buddhist. They'll hate him and stop listening to Hallelujah in no time.

One example:

'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 remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah '

is NOT about being filled with the pure, innocent joy of god.

If you really need a simple answer, I think the most succinct one I can give is "Hallelujah is about sexual ecstasy, despair brought on by love, and a devotion to a lover that borders on religious fervor."

Hi gidma try this link it will help explain some things.


viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20864#p216318

if you try to explain it too much you lose the meaning