I can’t be the only one upvoting bcz naked butt, am I?
I guess I mostly relate the song to the 2011 Japan tsunami. I think it got used for montages and donation campaigns etc. in my country.
This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’
His original version, recorded on his 1984 album Various Positions, contains allusions to several biblical verses, including the stories of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges (“she cut your hair”) as well as King David and Bathsheba (“you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you”).
You didn’t really read your linked source, did you? It references Bathsheba but - if I understand right - isn’t really about that, per se.
Even knowing extra verses of the song rather debunks it. The og version on Various Positions only includes a few, and isn’t about it either, but it seems all the verses are “canon” because he uses them at random. Well, it may not be at random, but I haven’t looked into why if not.
Didn’t John Cale write a ton of extra verses? Or am I misremembering
No, Cohen wrote a ton of verses that weren’t recorded (he claimed he had a notebook with 80+ verses), but most of what people consider, “extra verses,” are from Cohen’s live version. In fact, Cale, Buckley, and pretty much every version leave out two verses:
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
and:
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
That low ass crack, what in the world.
Full source for that:
I love the song, but that’s brilliant
I could not agree more
Turns out the secret chord David played was the sound of his nuts slapping on some Judean booty
That D Major 7-incher
Fingering A-minor
Be sure to further follow the rabbit trail, and check out the rest of Leonard Cohen’s songwriting and poetry. Lots of beautiful stuff.
Let’s sing another song, boys. This one’s grown old and bitter.
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Bathsheba, 1889
Oil on canvas
60.5 cm × 100 cm (23.8 in × 39 in)Thank you for posting the painting info.
I will take this opportunity to quote my 6th grade RE teacher, when we were talking about David and Batseba:
Der David ist eine hinterfotzige Killersau.
Roughly translates to "David is a backstabbing killer-pig.“ But “hinterfotzig” doesn’t really translate from German… it’s wayyy more insulting than just backstabbing. “Fotze” is German for “cunt” so you could imagine it like “backstabbing cunt” in one adjective.
Did I mention we were in 6th grade… Funnily enough said teacher came from the nuthouse and went back there not long after.
It’s more like “someone who’s talking behind your back”, quite literally, because “Fotzn” is just Bavarian dialect for “mouth” that has really nothing to do with female genitalia. I also don’t think it’s hugely offensive and a lot of people use the term Fotzn in various ways pretty casually in Bavaria and Austria.
That said, it’s still a pretty weird thing to say for a teacher though, that’s for sure.
Well, considering the number of killings David did he is not wrong.
I mean, that’s an aspect of the song, but I wouldn’t say that’s what it’s about. The first two verses are full of religious imagery, mostly about David (playing music for the angels, creating the word Hallelujah, Bathsheba) but also Sampson being betrayed by Delilah (“she cut your hair”). Then the rest of the song shifts to first person narration, and while there are still some religious allusions (the holy dove and the Lord of Song verse that no one remembers because it’s not in the John Cale version), it’s just about two people who’ve fallen out of love.
The shift from third-person description of David to the first person narration implies that David is not the subject of the song. The author is just using elements of David’s story (and Sampson’s I guess) to recount how his own love, which was once an expression of joy like Hallelujah, has fallen apart (“It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”). That’s my read anyway.
The one from Shrek
People like OP are the type that still trigger me wanting to say the R word…
Rancorous?
Rascal.
Repugnant?
Smashmouth, the band from shrek
Do people really think of Hallelujah as “the song from Shrek”?
Maybe this is my “old man tells at cloud” moment.
I didn’t even know it was from Shrek. Now I feel old as fuck.
It’s not from Shrek. It’s from Leonard Cohen’s Various Positions album in 1984. It was used in Shrek 17 years later, along with several other popular songs.
I like the Jeff Buckley version best
Was Shrek only 17 yrs after Various Positions?!
I knew it was originally Leonard Cohen and my dad had that cassette when I was a kid. What I meant was that I didn’t realize they used it in Shrek. I’m slightly too old to know it from there.
Ah, they did, but it was a cover.
Yes.
What are ya doin’ in ma swamp?
It’s like saying Clancy Brown, who voices Mr Krabbs.
Whose world is just so small that a reference like THAT is the definitive work?
I’m 31, and Shrek was where I first heard this song. I would have been 9 years old.
Obviously it’s an amazing song with a rich history and many covers. But I’ll bet that most folks my age heard it first in Shrek.
Gen Z probably (hopefully) doesn’t associate the song with Shrek as strongly as millennials.
My favorite cover is the one by Jeff Buckley. Though the John Cale (Shrek film) and Rufus Wainwright (Shrek soundtrack) covers are both great. Honestly, I think the original by Leonard Cohen is the least good (but still good).
The cover artists have beautiful voices, but none of the covers convey the raw emotion that Cohen does.
There’s like a thousand covers of this song.
K.D. Langs version was a very popular version for a while as an example
Because ive spoke about this with many people, though its still only anecdotal so take that into consideration, most people enjoy a version of a song that made them recognize the song. Which usually means the version of a song that was done in a genre that you already listen to.
Part of this is just what is familiar, and the covers they encounter arent in a style they enjoy anyway so the new versions have a hard time sinking in with people.
I think a good example of this(and its another Leonard Cohen song!) is Everybody knows from Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume* and the soundtrack from it.
The main character in the movie uses the Cohen version, or at least a snippit of it, frequently throughout the movie, but the version that is part of the soundtrack is the concrete blonde version. Yes the concrete blonde version is used in the movie, but the Cohen version is the version that is fundamentally connected to the story.
If you are listening to the soundtrack and you are decently familiar with the movie, you will(probably) be left unfulfilled by just listening to the soundtrack. But if you hear the Cohen version on its own sometime, you IMMEDIATELY are reminded of the movie.
At least thats been my experience, and most people ive shared this theory with agree with me. Admittedly more of them than i realize could just be being polite. But i urge anyone who is still reading this unintentional wall of text to watch the movie, listen to the soundtrack then just listen to the cohen version on its own
- (which is one of my favourite movies from my teenage years, im quite curious what young people these days would think of it given the ties to the message in that movie and the world we live in with social media, but i digress)
While I dont like 90% of their catalogue, the Pentatonix version is amazing.
The appearance on this song on the Pentatonix Christmas album is the cornerstone of my argument that Shrek is a Christmas movie. Every year I am closer to being thrown out of a family holiday meal.
Except Hallelujah isnt a Christmas song. Its just been co-opted by christians who went “that word is in our book!”
Its as much of a christmas song as Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode.
Or Independence Day by Martina McBride is about gun rights and patriotism.
adds Personal Jesus to Christmas Day playlist
The Johnny Cash version right?
Add the Marilyn Manson version instead.
I’m a millennial as well but that’s still insane to me. Even saying that about smash mouth seems insane to me - they were both well-known popular songs that just happened to play during the movie
It would be ridiculous to say that All Star is from Shrek.
It’s from Mystery Men.
(Only partly /s. Especially given the music video)
I’m pretty sure Leonard Cohen wasn’t really your average teenager’s jam at the time Shrek came out. A lot of us knew the song, but I’m pretty sure a lot of us wouldn’t be able to tell you who sang it. Smash Mouth didn’t really get much airtime over here either before Shrek, as far as I can remember, and the movie was amongst the top grossing movies of the year IIRC, so it’s not that surprising that many people discovered them both through the movie.
All Star got radio play where I grew up.
Hallelujah didn’t.
At least in 2001. No idea if Hallelujah got air play in the 80s; I wasn’t there.
Buckleys version had tons of radio play in the late 90s.
Cohen isn’t really a radio star. He’s a cult musician with an absolutely amazing discography.
That’s gonna depend on the station you were listening to
Cohen is a massively talented songwriter and poet, but IMHO, most of his songs have covers that are a lot more pleasing to listen to than his.
Agreed. He’s like a Canadian Bob Dylan in that sense.
Aside from Jimi’s version of All Along the Watchtower (and maybe Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds), what Dylan songs fit this description?
It’s ok not to like the guy’s voice or whatever, but let’s not rewrite history here. Dylan was a legend and stood entirely on his own (and alone).
Good poet, terrible vocals?
That’s like every Dylan track…
Yes, but there’s something about Cohen’s cracky voice in “Everybody Knows” that sends shivers up my spine.
He does that for me In Halleluia.
Jeff Buckey made the best one indeed
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I’m a millennial and don’t associate any song with any movie because the majority of those songs are just licensed and have other origins. Actually written movie scores are typically very different sounding. I think this is more a thing of being stupid rather than a generational issue.
I don’t think it’s about intelligence. I knew All Star before Shrek came out, but I still think about Shrek when I hear it because I just watched that movie a lot as a kid and built up that association. Does that make me stupid?
Does that make me stupid?
Did anybody ever tell you the world is gonna roll you? You ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
This version is up there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE
Shit,I should have checked yours before I posted mine. This version is the ultimate. There’s so much power in that voice.
I found the one I was looking for, I think this is even better :)
Pretty much every cover, including Buckley’s, is based on Cale’s rendition.
Yep.
They also think The Sound of Silence is that song by Disturbed.
Silly kids. Get off my…um…music…
That is a great version though the covid video makes me cry every damn time.
I hate that version with a passion. It takes away the simplicity of the original and turns it into an overproduced heap of garbage. I can hear the Autotune running hot to make it perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with other people liking it, but I have to turn off the radio when it’s on because I just can’t stand it.
I’ve never heard it on the radio. I’ve only seen the video and the visual of those empty city streets gets me.
What video are you talking about? The official video was published in 2015, so long before covid.
Ha ha, you’re old. Me too, bruh.
Pfft, it’s the song from The Watchmen movie to anyone with taste and good sense ;)
I think I first heard it in Scrubs, but it could have been either.
Hell, Shrek isn’t even the movie that comes to mind in reference to this song. Comes up near the end of Lord of War.
Amazing movie
It’s cool man. Cohen’s contributions to movies gained him lots of lifelong fans. I first discovered him watching Natural Born Killers in the 90’s through the song Waiting for the Miracle .
Why I was younger my buddy and I were in the music store HMV and they had Sweet Dreams playing. We both overheard a kid say “why are they playing this shitty cover song and not the Marilyn Manson version?”
It was the Eurythmics playing… To this day I wish I found who made that comment and openly beat them in public.
I was barely in high school when Shrek came out. In what context was I supposed to have encountered the song before then? And what about the kids–or young adults–who were born since then? Why wouldn’t Shrek be the first place they’ve heard this song?
It wasn’t written FOR Shrek but as an extremely popular movie aimed at a general audience it’s likely where two generations of young people first heard it.
It’s not even inspired by. It’s half a stanza in the song.
He was using Biblical imagery in part of it to illustrate the struggle in man between the divine and the animal.
Did you read the lyrics before posting?
Despite it being about sex, it’s a very popular church song by people who don’t listen to lyrics. Because of that, there’s a Christian version where the lyrics are changed to actually be about God that churches will play when people request Hallelujah to be played at their mom’s funeral.
It’s as ironic as it is hilarious that this is considered a “Christian” version when it’s literally a song about a bible verse.
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