Awesome Performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
This is actually from Sunday, May 26—the Kansas City Symphony’s free Memorial Day concert at Union Station (facing the Liberty Memorial, a WW1 monument/museum). I was at the concert and this performance completely entranced the crowd. I find myself coming back to the video again and again—a powerful, heartfelt, definitive performance.
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 4th, the 5th, the minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
(Not sung)
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in 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
(Chorus)
Baby I have been here before
I’ve seen this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
But love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
(Chorus)
There was a time when 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
(Chorus)
(Not sung)
You said I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But even if I did, well 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
(Chorus)
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not somebody who has seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
(Chorus)
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
