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Music Monday: Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen.

Posted by John on March 9th, 2009 at 10:25 am · 8 Comments

Galen plays.

When Galen was here a couple of months ago, I brushed the dust off of my guitar, and she played Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah while Amy and I sang along. I had heard about the song via kottke a year earlier, when he linked to the “It Doesn’t Matter Which You Heard”: the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. It’s good reading, but it wasn’t until we sang with G that I actually heard the song for the first time.

It’s on my mind again because the makers of Watchmen used it as the mood music for the love scene in The Watchmen. I thought it a curious choice; at least one critic thought it cheesy:

Speaking of acts of congress, “Watchmen” features this year’s hands-down winner of the bad movie sex award, superhero division: a moment of bliss that takes place on board Nite Owl’s nifty little airship, accompanied by Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” (By the way, can we please have a moratorium on the use of this song in movies? Yes, I too have heard there was a secret chord that David played, and blah blah blah, but I don’t want to hear it again. Do you?)

So, that’s the curious cultural journey of “Hallelujah” in my own life. Like many songs, I liked it best the way I heard it first. In case you haven’t heard it before, here it is, courtesty of YouTube:

Tags: Creativity. · Music Monday · Video

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 aerin // Mar 9, 2009 at 10:59 am

    I love that song. Seriously. I’m not sure I see it for a love scene – but I think everyone can use a bit more Leonard Cohen in their lives.

  • 2 Alisa // Mar 9, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    I guess I don’t hear the movies that play this song, because I only discovered it through Jeff Buckley’s version a little over a year ago and haven’t ever heard it in public or on TV. It’s a powerful song to me, acknowledging the religiosity of sexual experience, and sexuality of religious experience.

  • 3 Adrian // Mar 9, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    http://www.craveonline.com/articles/filmtv/04653139/2/zack_snyder_talks_watchmen.html

    I’ve yet to see the movie (living in a remote rural area), though I serve as manager to an artist whose recording was originally backing that particular scene in The Watchmen.

    Director Zack Snyder explains his choice, in response to Crave Online asking: “What about the Leonard Cohen song?”

    Zack Snyder: “There are two Leonard Cohen’s because there is a Leonard Cohen on the end titles as well. Hallelujah, that love scene, I originally had the Allison Crowe version of that song, a version I’ve always loved, but in the end was just too romantic. Everybody thought that I meant it. They thought the love scene was serious, not that it isn’t serious but her version was too sexy. So I was like yeah, I’ve got to go back to the Leonard Cohen. For me it is incredibly ironic, even with that version of the song it is incredibly ironic. I don’t care what version of Hallelujah is on, that love scene it is ridiculous, but in a great way. With Leonard Cohen it is like you can’t miss it now, can you? I’m sure some people will but that is fine.”

    It is a most beautiful song, open to varied interpretation. This movie use, I sense, needs to be experienced to be understood. And, still, people will react in a multitude of ways!

  • 4 angryyoungwoman // Mar 9, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    The first time I heard Leonard Cohen was when I was nineteen, sitting on the floor of the kitchen of my friend Bryce’s apartment (which was a complete hole), he played LC on his ancient record player. I’ve been a fan ever since. My favorites are Singer Must Die and Leaving Greensleeves.

    “I sang my songs / I told my lies / to lie between / your matchless thighs. / Now ain’t it fine / ain’t it wise / to finally end our exercise?”

  • 5 xJane // Mar 9, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    I also heard Jeff Buckley’s song first…and like it better. Although the version in the movie is not the version above…either that or the sex seen was far more interesting than I remember. The Cohen version makes me want to fall alseep; the Buckley version makes me want to sing along:

  • 6 wr3n // Mar 11, 2009 at 9:24 am

    First time I heard Leonard C. I was around age 20 and stoned at a friend’s house and we channel surfed into him on Austin City Limits. Lemme tell ya, he’s perfect for that mindset. lol

    First time I heard this song was Rufus Wainwright’s version in Shrek.

  • 7 Kaimi // Mar 13, 2009 at 12:41 am

    One of the great folk songs, definitely. It’s pretty cool that G likes to play it on guitar. I like to do that, too.

    (I mean, how can you not like a song that gives you instructions on your chords, within the lyrics.)

  • 8 Munjaros // Mar 13, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    I can’t help but play this song any time I pick up my guitar. Jeff Buckley’s version was my first exposure to it and is my favorite, though I can’t sing it anything like him. I think I’ll go play some guitar…

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