Confessing Evangelical

Laughing Len's finest hour:

Hallelujah
by Leonard Cohen

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 battle king composing Hallelujah:

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:

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 are 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
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Genius. Apparently, it took him ten years to write this song - and it was time well spent. Don't let the ghastly version used in Shrek put you off - listen to the original, from Cohen's classic album Various Positions.

My wife originally introduced me to Cohen's music, and it was listening to her copy of Cohen Live last night that prompted this post. One of E's favourite Cohen songs, also from Various Positions, and also on the live album, is If it be Your Will:

If It Be Your Will

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

Cohen is not and, as far as I know, never has been a Christian. But it's difficult not to feel a sense of sad frustration at how close he seems to have got in some of these songs.