What then became really odd about the song [Hallelujah] was the utterly contradictory way in which it was used and understood. This was, in part, due to the fact that Cohen seems to have written at least two versions. The first ended on a relatively upbeat note:
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah . . .
It was this ending, curiously, that Dylan especially liked, as he told Cohen over coffee after a concert in Paris. Cohen sang him the last verse, saying it was “a rather joyous song”. (Incidentally, during the same conversation, Cohen told Dylan that Hallelujah had taken a year to write. This startled Dylan. He pointed out that his average writing time was about 15 minutes.) Anyway, for once, Dylan’s taste had led him astray, because the bleaker ending in the Buckley version is much better, in the sense that it is more consistent. There is no redemptive Lord of Song, the only lesson of love is “how to shoot at someone who outdrew you” and the only hallelujah is “cold and broken”.
Encouraged by this apparently official duality, subsequent covers tinkered here and there with the words to the point where the song became protean, a set of possibilities rather than a fixed text. But only two possibilities predominated: either this was a wistful, ultimately feelgood song or it was an icy, bitter commentary on the futility of human relations.1
Bob Dylan Sings “Hallelujah” Montreal & L.A. 1988
Dylan was one of the first artists to cover “Hallelujah,” performing it twice during his 1988 concert tour, in Montreal and Los Angeles.
Bob Dylan – Hallelujah
Montreal: July 8, 1988
Bob Dylan – Hallelujah
Hollywood: Aug 4, 1988
Also See “That song ‘Hallelujah’ has resonance for me.” Bob Dylan Praises, Sings Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted Oct 14, 2016.
__________________________________
- Excerpted from Hallelujah! by Bryan Appleyard. (London Times: 9 January 2005) [↩]