maximillionb (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

This made me lol. I like strings, I just don't think they go well with this song... Or they just didn't play a very good style for this song. Obviously the best performance of this song is Jeff Buckley seeing as he's the one that covered it the way everyone else copies now. But I guess that's more a matter of opinion.

foomsbah (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

Idiots! John Cale has forgotten more music than all of those others. Also, God wouldn't let David touch the Ark of the Covenant, because he had killed so many people.

foomsbah (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

Idiots! John Cale has forgotten more music than all of those others.

4plainlimbs (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

i didnt like it at first, but to be completely honest, it's a good cover, the emotion comes out pretty well a minute in the song, a couple bits annoy me, but the tempo is at the same speed as rufus wainwright which i think is probably one of the best covers of this song so, 4/5

sreembit (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

what soulless way of sing..

oldladymaz (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

If you want to hear a version that will blow you away, listen to "k.d. lang sings Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah from oneandonlyck.

sheila13669 (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

I've gone through all the versions of this song and no one is as good as Jason Castro. This one just made me giggle...whoa!

gilboagilboa (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

The words refer simultaneously to both religious experience and erotic love - the two levels are completely intertwined. David was a great warrior king, a man who was driven by erotic love to do terrible things - but who was also the quintessential religious poet, the author of Psalms (Read Samuel I&II). Cohen tries to show how these are all paradoxically interconnected - erotic passion gives rise to "hallelujah" ("Praise the Lord!), the word most closely identified with Psalms.

cbyam1300 (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

I think there are more versions of this song than any other on youtube, which surely shows what a great & important song it is.. this perhaps the most stark & dramatic version & does the most justice to the original. Captivating.

PurpleKittenTasha (December 31, 1969 at 5:59 pm)

Hey dread, the rhyme with hallelujah, I think, is an important part of the song. If you focus on the lyrics there is a kind of weary and cynical outlook mixed in with the spirituality and beauty, that is reflectd in the casual 'ya'. I also feel that it affects the rhythm and meter, the poetical nature of the lyric. That is as important to me as the beauty of the melody.