I
have always loved music in various forms and genres, but except for Thai
classical music, and some Chorus in high schools, I had not had a chance for
formal training until recently. As
an author, I also like to hear stories behind the songs. Often, I’m moved by some songs that I
like so much that I want to express the thoughts and feelings through writing. One song in particular that had been in
my mind was Leonard Cohen’s
“Hallelujah”.
Genesis of the Project
I
started to have an idea about learning music and writing about Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
in early June, of 2014. That was when
I saw a guitar demo from singer, songwriter friend, Lennox Fleary. I asked from him the lyric of the song
and watched the video of the guitar demo.
However, the key of the chords seemed to be too high for me. Come July, nothing happened. So as a person who liked to set goals, and
follow through with them needed to do something. Fortunately, I was able to get started musically by taking weekly
music lessons from a friend, David C. Cowan also known as the “Young Professor”. A former Berklee College of Music
professor and a drummer, he has an unconventional way of teaching music. He made it easier for me to understand
music, and helped me start the song project by writing the chords that were suitable for my voice and guitar skills level. I am grateful that I can complete this project that I had
wanted to do for quite some time. It's a good feeling to be able to complete the recording before, and to write during my vacation time up on the mountainous province of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. The scenery is just too inspiring as you can see here.
My First Impression of
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
As
a Christian and a bible scholar, when I heard for the first time the song
Hallelujah sung by KD Lang on YouTube, I told myself, this song got the bible
story all wrong. But after
listening to other versions of the same song from Bon Jovi and the movie “Shrek” as well as Leonard Cohen himself, I started to look at the song in a different light. I should look at it artistically rather
than strictly as a bible scholar. Since Leonard Cohen and many other songwriters wrote their
songs that way. Just like surrealists painting of their art pieces, song
writers may not arrange their words in chronological or logical manner.
Heroes and Downfalls
The
song starts out with a description that tells you right away that it’s a ballad
about David, the great King, poet and musician. The hero of the Israelites, with strong faith in the living
God, defeated Goliath, the seemingly unbeatable Philistine giant. He was not only a warrior that brought
victory to the nation of Israel, but also a talented musician who could play
beautiful songs on string instrument that helped heal the mentally ill King
Saul.
“I
heard there was a secret chord, that David played and 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”
With
the hero status, David was elevated to King Saul’ son in law. He was given the King’s daughter,
Michal. There might be excitement
during the victory march, but the marriage was not based on love, but on
politics. The princess was interested
neither in his music nor his dance to the drumbeat, but she had no choice. The custom at the time was: women were
properties of their parents, and if the marriage was not because of the love of
a man, the woman was to be the property of the husband as well.
When
the popularity of the son-in-law exceeded that of the father-in-law, King Saul
was jealous and tried to kill David.
He took his daughter, Michal back and gave her to be wife of another
man. This did not make David a
happy family man that he should have been.
David’s
life while King Saul, his father-in-law was alive, was one of great struggle
facing danger both from the enemy without and enemy within, namely his own father-in-law. He had basic faith in God, and never
seek to harm King Saul, who he considered God’s anointed one. Needless to say, being rejected by his
first love was the heartache the hero King had to bear. Michael despised her husband’s acts of praise for the
Mighty God through music and dance.
That was a sad story of the man after God’s own heart. This was the man that God loved, seeing
much promises as the leader of a great nation destined to provide lineage to
the Savior of the world. When he
had too much time in his hand and relaxed his focus on the Lord of host,
weakness and temptation visited David as read from the second verse of the
song.
“Your
faith was strong but you needed proof; you saw her bathing on the roof. Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew
you…”
This
was the scene that showed that a seemingly perfect person could be led downhill
to commit things that he would himself oppose to. It started innocently in the name of love and infatuation,
but the cover up process afterward made it ugly and led to betrayal and murder
of his follower and the woman's husband.
The
next part of the second verse threw me off in the beginning, as it did not fit
the story of King David the Great in the Bible. This described what happened to another icon in the Old
Testament: Samson, the Marvel-like man of the Bible in the period of
Pre-monarch judges.
“.She
tied you to her kitchen chair; she moved your throne, she cut your hair, and
from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!”
Centuries
before David, God purposed a man named Samson before he was born to lead the
Israelite against the pagan nation of Philistines. The Angel of the Lord himself came to tell his mother to
refrain from alcoholic drink in preparation for the birth of him who had
extra-ordinary strength. Samson could
annihilate thousands using his own bare hands with the strength from the Lord. His hair was let grown as a symbol of
his extra physical strength that helped him serve God’s people, fight enemies,
and rule on behalf of God.
Unfortunately,
Samson was a rebel; he channeled his energy doing things that were against his
calling by God to be Israelite leader.
First, he went against the teaching of the prophets and patriarch and
had a Philistine wife. It’s not
that God was against foreign women for God’s people just because they were foreign, but it was the value of the women, materialistic, unfaithfulness, and
other evil customs. There were
other foreign and marginalized women that commanded high regards in the
Bible. Examples of these female
icons were Ruth, King David’s Grandmother or Rahab, the Amorite prostitute who
sheltered spies sent by Joshua but became the great grandmother of King David. It was grace of God and not because of
the merit of the Israelite that God chose them to be His people. The Philistine women that Samson
associated with fell into the general category that God was not pleased with for his
children. We know the story of
Delilah (the flirty one) that led to the downfall of the hero with God’s given
strength. She used her charm to
deceive Samson, and though she might have admired Samson before and became his
lover, she developed ulterior motive and cooperated with her own people. All these was for her own
material gain without regards for her earlier tie with Samson. She cut Samson's hair and eliminated the
source of his strength that was the promise of his God for him and his people.
“Baby
I’ve been here before, I’ve seen this room I walked this floor. I used to live alone before I knew
you. I’ve seen your flag on the
marble arch, but love was not a victory march, it’s a cold and it’s a broken
hallelujah.”
“There
was time that you let me know, what’s really going on below; but now you never
show that to me, do you? Remember
when I moved in you, the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was
hallelujah”
For
both King David and Samson, their Hallelujahs, expressions of praise to the Lord God, were those of
joy and ecstasy in those moments with the beautiful women that they fell in
love with.
There was an old saying that described love as something as potent
as death (Song of Solomon 8:6), and that may very well describe what happened
to these two great men in their weakest moments. And as Richard Puz put it, “Death
leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal-From
an Irish headstone”
This was a forbidden love and impure compared with the physical love
that is celebrated in the Song of Songs written by King Solomon the wise. An irony is that Solomon was the son
that was born to Bathsheba and King David. The results of this forbidden love were guilt and
shame when they lost control of their feelings and physical attraction for each
other without regard for the dire consequences. The guilt and shame further eroded into doubt in the
existence of God, and bad feeling about love as read from the following verses:
“May be there’s a God above, but all I ever learned from love was how
to shoot somebody who outdrew you.
It’s not a cry that you hear at night, it’s not somebody who’ve seen the
light, it’s a cold and broken hallelujah”
Second Chances
It’s a bittersweet kind of experience, and until the relationship with
God was made right through repentance, both men would not be able to find
peace. Through the grace and
understanding of God, both men were forgiven and given a chance to make
amend-David and Bathsheba, after losing their first child, had Solomon, whom
God loved and gave tremendous wisdom and wealth; Samson was given a
chance to fight back and destroy more enemies than he could during his
lifetime. They suffered not only
from the sins of others but also as the direct consequences of their own
conducts. Their falls in their
relationship and family lives cost them so much, and their lives were full of
tragedy. If we read songs and
psalms written by King David, we can see that he was “real” in his relationship
with God even when he was sorrowful as the result of his own sins and from the
enemies including his very own sons.
He remained “the Man after God’s own heart”.
Although most people including myself sing only five verses, it is
worth mentioning Verse 6 of the song because it sums up
the overall life of David. All in
all, David basically loved God and wanted to serve and praise Him for his grace
and mercy that he knew was unconditional and everlasting:
“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!!”
My First Recording of the Song Hallelujah
After two months
learning the song, although my right brain said I was not ready to record and
publish the song, my left side of the brain told me, you set a goal and you should
follow through with it. So here it
is! I will appreciate it if you listen
to the song. I would be much
encouraged especially if you happen to enjoy it as well despite all the
shortcomings of a novice musician!!
