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Hallelujah: Jeff Buckley

I have played this before on Coffee, but I figure it a perfect song for my triumphant return so you get it again!!

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This entry was posted on December 2, 2010 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Music. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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9 Comments on “Hallelujah: Jeff Buckley”

  2. splendid's avatar splendid Says:

    December 2, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    such a fantastic piece of art!
    my favorite version as well!

    xoxoxxoox

  4. sblake's avatar sblake Says:

    December 3, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    Just a few things:

    Leonard Cohen: “Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means ‘Glory to the Lord.’ The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

    Regarding the line, “The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift,” to which the chords played are: F – G – Am – F:
    It is clever the way that not only the chords line up in the lyrics and in the music, but also because the connotations themselves of “major” and “minor” add to the meaning of the song. The “fourth” is a major chord based on the fourth of the key Buckley is playing in. Likewise the fifth is the major chord based on the fifth tone of the key. The “Minor Fall” corresponds to Buckley playing a minor chord based on the sixth of the key. “Major Lift” corresponds to playing the major chord on the fourth again

    Buckley started covering this after he became inspired by John Cale’s version off his 1992 album Fragments Of A Rainy Season. Cale shaped his own interpretation after Cohen faxed him 15 pages of lyrics for this song. He claimed that he “went through and just picked out the cheeky verses.”

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      December 5, 2010 at 2:04 am

      sblake,
      As always I learned something new. This has always been my favorite version of this song. I didn’t realize that Leonard had sent him the lyrics.

      My limited knowledge of music has been expanded by your information about the chords.

  6. Mark Anderson's avatar Mark Anderson Says:

    December 5, 2010 at 7:55 pm

    Thanks Katry and SBlake!


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