Hallelujah
Easter Sunday’s NYT explores the Unsettling History of That Joyous Hallelujah, revealing that Handel’s Messiah tune actually celebrates the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple as divine retribution against the Jews rather than the birth or resurrection of Jesus. I’m just relieved it’s not about my joyous “Hallelujah“, the one by the Canadian Jewish Buddhist ex-monk Leonard Cohen (originally from “Various Positions“) exploring destruction and divinity in love, sex and intimate relationships.
Like Handel’s, Cohen’s Hallelujah has been performed by many artists. John Cale’s, Jeff Buckley’s, Sheryl Crow’s and k.d. lang’s versions sing to me. Imogen Heap’s a capella and Bono’s dance mix… not so much. But one version cuts through my heart every time, and that would be Rufus Wainwright’s. I’m not sure if it’s the voice, the delivery or the change of “dove” to “dark” in the clincher verse, but reprises arise in me all the time.
Speaking of verses, there are about 15 known ones and they appear in various configurations in each performance. Leonard shifted the lyrics over time from the biblical towards the sexual, while the music went the other way, bloating out with a choir. So I’ve been playing on the keyboards lately my ultimate Hallelujah, which would be Rufus playing his version but adding on the last two of Leonard’s 1994 lyrics… something like this:
I did my best, it wasn’t much.
I couldn’t feel, so I learned to touch.
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you.And even tough it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my lips but Hallelujah.
I’m also open to the possibility that the ultimate Hallelujah is a Tori Amos cover since we’re clearly in her territory. Doubt me? Listen to her transform U2′s Running to Stand Still (8/7/2003).
Easter Egg: New Rufus Wainwright song “Going to a Town” at Hard to Find a Friend.