Leonard Cohen's iconic 'Hallelujah' was originally released 35 years ago. Read how the song brilliantly mingled sex and religion
by Alan Light, copyright 2012 by Alan Light, Published by Atria, an imprint of Simon and Schuste. In June 1984, Cohen and Lissauer recorded the album that would becomein New York’s Quadrasonic Sound studios. In the album’s arrangements, for the first time on Cohen’s recordings, synthesizers were prominent; they would come to define his sound more and more in the years to come. A group of musicians from Tulsa provided the backbone of the arrangements.
“He’s not one to share his struggles,” Lissauer continued. “If he wasn’t up to recording, if he was still working on something, then we just wouldn’t go in. But he’d never go in and act out the tormented, struggling artist.”and has remained part of Cohen’s production team ever since, said that there was a pragmatic reason he would not have been experimenting with lyrics during the recording. “He wouldn’t bring extra verses to the studio because of time pressure,” she said.
But this first verse almost instantly undercuts its own solemnity; after offering such an inspiring image in the opening lines, Cohen remembers whom he’s speaking to, and reminds his listener that “you don’t really care for music, do you?” “The story of David and Bathsheba is about the abuse of power in the name of lust, which leads to murder, intrigue, and brokenness,” said Reverend Scott. He recounted that until this point, David had been a brave and gifted leader, but that he now “began to believe his own propaganda – he did what critics predicted, he began to take what he wanted.”to describe this David “an obvious understatement on Cohen’s part.
Lisle Dalton, an associate professor of religious studies at Hartwick College, noted the many levels on which Cohen’s linking of David and Samson works. “Both are heroes that are undone by misbegotten relationships with women. Both are adulterers. Both are poets – Samson breaks into verse right after smiting the Philistines. Both repent and seek divine favor after their transgressions.
And as he brings the song to a conclusion, Cohen shows that for a composition that has often come to be considered a signifier of sorrowful resistance, “Hallelujah” was in fact inspired by a more positive feeling. “It’s a rather joyous song,” Cohen said whenwas released.
“To me, it’s not about the lyrics at all,” said Shimabukuro. “I really think that it has a lot to do with the chord progression in the song. There are these very simple lines that are constantly happening . . .” and though we were seated in the restaurant of a midtown Manhattan hotel, he had to stop to get his ukulele out of its case and demonstrate.
Though the song potentially lent itself to a grand, anthemic treatment, and a note on the actual score indicates that the musicians were to perform the song in a gospel style, the producer wanted to hold it back. The drummer, Richard Crooks, played with brushes, not sticks; “we had to get strength without bashing,” Lissauer said. The producer felt that a regular bass wasn’t a big enough sound to match Cohen’s vocals, low even by his usual standards, so he crafted a synthesizer bass part.
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