There are a few songs that really hit home for me. this is one of them. The one thing that botners me about this song is how misunderstood it is. This is not a religious song. There is no religious connotation to this song. It is using an aspect of religion as a metaphor to give some insight into the nature of what true love is.
Here is the only statement that this song makes about religion " religion has a powerful influence on the behavior of humans"
Tere is a dual nature to religion. It has a frivolous side, the ceremonies and garments and hymns. There is a serious side too, the teachings and the philosophies. If people could focus on the philosophies and the teaching, then the garments and hymns and ceremonies could be just tossed out because the "purpose" of religion would have been accomplished.
The hymns, the "hallelujah" are just trappings, not the core, the substance. This song relates this statement to the same aspects of true love, the frivolous side and the serious side. the trappings and distractions and the substance, the core.
The chorus of this song, hallelujah repeated several times, is almost sarcastic in the way it is sung. The singer has a downbeat and inglorious tone. the exact opposite of what a religious "hallelujah" is meant to be spoken. The message in the chorus is that we sometimes celebrate and get lost in the frivolous of both religion and love while the core, the substance is failing.
there are three people in this song. There is
The first stanza is
"I heard there was a secret chord
that david played and it pleased the lord
but you dont really care for music do you?
it goes like this:
the fourth the fifth
the minor fall and the major lift
the baffled king composing hallelujah
This stanza gives a hint of the theme of the song. The singer is stating that "you" does not understand the true value of things. "David has music that pleases the Lord, God Almighty bur that will not interest "you" because that person does not like music. If I had something that Tickled the fancy of God, it wouldn't matter what it was, only that it made God happy. Only the results would matter. "you" doesn't think like this. the singer i saying that "you" is getting hung up on their personal disinterest in music and missing an opportunity to be part of something special. "You" is getting lost in the trappings and ignoring the substance.
The second stanza is this:
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 her kitchen chair
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew hallelujah
The second stanza descries the problem. "you" has left. "you had faith, that faith was commitment to the singer. that commitment was strong. The "proof" of that commitment will be affirmed if "you" can interact with a beautiful woman, the woman on the roof, and remain committed to the singer. This did not happen. "you" was "overthrown"by her beauty. what is interesting is the result of going to the woman on the roof. She ties "you to the kitchen chair. domesticating him. she breaks "you's" throne and cuts "you's" hair, a reference to samson, symbolizing the taking of strength, a reduction in power, and enslavement to empty beauty. The woman on the roof has beauty, she has lips and she can draw from "you" a hallelujah, but that is just frivolous trappings, "you" has lost the seat of power and has had their strength stolen.
the third stanza is this:
baby ive been here before
ive seen this room and ive walked this floor
i used to live alone before i knew you
aand ive seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
its a cold broken hallelujah
This is the most telling part of the song. If you want to see the true power of love, dont get lost in the frivolous trappings when it is joyous and plentiful, rather look in the wake, in the empty ruins after the frivolous trappings and ceremonies are gone. when love is cut off, when it is denied. The singer is now alone. "you" has left but the singer still loves them more than anything. The singers love has become something "cold" and "broken". "you" is lost in the frivolous trappings, the "lips" and the "beauty" while the singer harbors something real, something powerful that has become neglected and damaged because "you" did not see the value of it and was too focused on the trivial and ceremonial. "you" sees lovee as only the phony, only the "hallelujah" and not the core.
you was able to leave the singer because the ceremonies and hallelujahs are easy to replace. the Marble arch Arch is a monument near speakers corner hyde park at the western end of oxford street in london. people go their to speak publicly and spread their ideas. many printed flyers or "flags" are left behind for others to take and read. thee singer is saying that "you" feels like they have a "victory" in their transition to the woman on the roof and that they have expounded on it to others. like someone talking at the marble arch. the highs of the emotions stirred up by this transition to the woman on the roof are small and insignificant to the depths that the singer has sunk to as a result of this loss. the singer is cold and broken and sarcastically sings hallelujah.
The fourth stanza goes
there was a time that you let me know
what was really going on down below
but now you never show that to me do you?
but remember when i moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too?
and every breath we drew was hallelujah!
This stanza deals with the physical side of love. the first few lines are obvious sexual references. The point the singer is making is that their physical intimacy was wonderful. "every breath we drew" is a sharp contrast to "from your lips she drew". Thee singer implies that their pleasure and love was reciprocal and that now "you" has moved away from that for something shallow and fake while the singer still loves "you" and is numbed and swallowed by thee weight of the roken love he carries in him.
the fifth stanza is
Maybe there's a god above
but all ive ever learned from love
is how to shoot at someone who out drew you
and its not a cry that you hear at night
its not somebody who has seen the light
its a cold and its a broken hallelujah
The final stanza is sad. There might be love in this world but the singer has nt experienced it successfully. "shoot at somebody who outdrew you" is the same as "you cant fire me i quit!" The singers experience is that love always ends suddenly. the singer has learned to kill the relationship as soon as there is the slightest problem, to shoot his gun as soon as the other person draws theirs. He doesn't even have hope that he can be in a relationship where there would be no guns, no need to shoot and hurt the lover first.
The last three lines restate the theme. Love is not a cry at night, the sound of love making. it is not some personal revelation or "seeing the light" of some new aspect of love. The depths of your love can sometimes be best evidenced by how cold and broken you become when it dies.
I can really relate to this. I am cold and broken and surrounded by the ruins of everything i have lost. I take some solace in knowing I'm not the only one to feel this way, not the only one to have ever lost, and im not the only one to carry the weight of that loss on top of me.
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