Wishing you all the best for 2023! Here's a little something. Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" has certainly been interpreted extensively through the years, and after Jeff Buckley's version - why would anyone even bother indeed? But I love the tune and really felt like giving it a try. There are different lyrical versions out there, and it is rumoured that Cohen struggled with some eighty verses before settling on what became the original release in 1984. My struggle with this song has been of a lesser kind - I couldn't even get the word "Halleluja" right. Seems I've been going through life perceiving and pronouncing it "Hallelulja". It was only after I had finished this recording that my brother pointed out that the rest of the world says the word differently. Brought up a Catholic and then discovering something like this at an advanced age feels like a glitch in the matrix for sure. I still think "Hallelujah" is like a toddler's version of the proper word. Nevertheless, I conceded and re-recorded the lead vocal to the best of my ability. ----- Thomas Feiner
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did—well, really—what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah