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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The secret chord

Not a lot of rhyme or reason for the following. I am just intrigued by some of Cohen's expressions in this stanza of "Hallelujah".

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


From "Hallelujah" by Leonard Norman Cohen

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we truely find the secret chord of peace and harmony in our Lord, this shall be glorious than the greatest musical score that man could compose.

JamesCharles said...

Funny you posted this. One of my friends just told me about this song so I looked it up. It appears to make obvious reference to King David and Bathsheba, then an indirect reference to Samson maybe? Finally, it seems a total destruction of the song into nothing at all Bible related.

Lincoln Brewster borrowed the first verse and made a Christian "worship" song out of it called "Another Hallelujah". Maybe you'd wanna check it out?

Oh, and last thing. For guitarists, we know he's playing the fourth chord, then the fifth (as he sings these words), then drops down to an E minor, and then up to the A major I think? Anyway, whichever chords they were, they were fourth, fifth, minor, then back up to the major.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Interesting. I'll have to check out Lincoln Brewster's song "Another Hallelujah".

R. L. Vaughn said...

One online source gives this as the text of Cohen's song:

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

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

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was 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

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

The cutting the hair part sounds like at least at nod to Samson.

Anonymous said...

Definitely a nod to Samson in the haircut department: "she took your strength and you loved every minute of it." When I first heard it, I was impressed; but I told my mom I didn't think I'd be hearing it at church anytime soon