Hallelujah

A strange thing about me and music is that I never pick favourites. I mean, there is music I love and music I can't stand and music I think is all right. And I don't love all of the songs made by the musicians that I adore. But... The music that I listen to... The actual songs that I really listen to, (and make no mistake, there are a LOT of those, seeing as I listen to a LOT of different artists) among them... I don't pick favourites. I love them all intensly. I just do. I've never understood why people have to have just ONE or TEN all time favourite songs or artists or books or movies. Sure, you love different things about different songs/artists/books/movies. Why there doesn't seem to be enough room in people's heads and hearts to really adore more than just a few things. I just don't get it. I love, love, LOVE everything that I listen to, and in such different ways. I fall in love with things so easily. That doesn't mean that I'm not critical of things, because there are lots of things that I really DON'T love. I can be very, very picky. That's not what I mean. I just... When I really like something, then I grow to love that something really fast. It will only take me a few minutes, or seconds. And in my head, there's no barrier telling me that "Juno" can't be as much of an amazing movie as... Let's see... "Garden State" or "Shine" or "Spirited Away" or "Kill Bill". There's no barrier telling me that I can't have five hundred all time favourite songs. There's no barrier telling me that I can't take to heart every single book that makes me really feel something. And there's no barrier telling me to value Tom Waits' awesomeness and his whiskey voice and his jazzy, breathtaking style, and his knack for describing emotions and moods in that amazing way only he can do, over The Pillows' simple and sunset-like kind of laid back summer songs, the "riding your bike" or "lying in a grassy field" or "being in love" kind of songs, that only they know how to make. I just love it all. Everything you actually take in will touch a different part of you in a certain, particular, special way. And that's why you shouldn't keep all time favourites shut away inside of your mind. Take it all in.

Oh yeah, there was actually a point to this. It's about all rules having exceptions. Yes. What I meant to say was, that, normally, I never pick all time favourites. I'd never, ever be able to, for example, decide what song I think is the most heartbreaking, exact, beautiful, breathtaking, sincere, moving, story-like, heartfelt description of love... Well, if it weren't for this here song. The only known exception to my little rule.I only just listened to it again. It's been on the shelf for almost three years, because it's always hurt so much for me to listen to it. And just now, I listened to it again. And, this song... It just... It's just the most beautiful love song ever made. It really is. To me. Just hands down. That doesn't mean I love it more than all the other love songs precious to me, it's just... This one is... Well, it's just, like I said, the most beautiful love song ever made.

The original is by Leonard Cohen, but this version is the one that grips hold of me. Not the Jeff Buckley one. Not the Rufus Wainwright one. This one.

~

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 and the major lift
the baffled 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

baby, I've been here before
I know this room, and I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
it's a cold and it's a broken "hallelujah"

hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah

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?
remember when I moved in you?
and the holy dove was moving, too
and every breath we drew was "hallelujah"

hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah

maybe there's a god above
all I ever learned from love
was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
and it's not a cry you can hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken "hallelujah"

hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah