Comments on: If It Be Your Will

By: gabrielle

gabrielle — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:07:28 +0000

Terry, Leonard is all mixed up with my youthful days as well, as stand-up comic, poet, musician, and dark, deep “older man “heart-throb. Thanks so much for the link to Jeff Buckley’s version; I am not at all familiar with him.

JustMe, do you remember the McGarrigle sisters (Canadian – Montreal) from the seventies onwards? To see something I posted around this time last year, JUST GO HERE.
Rufus is the son of Kate McGarrigle and Louden Wainwright III.
I have absolutely grown to love him since I discovered him this time last year, and apparently Cohen is like his artistic Godfather.

By: JustMe

JustMe — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:26:28 +0000

I’ll be darned! Then Rufus is cool, too! Who is Rufus?

By: terry

terry — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:04:51 +0000

I first heard Leonard Cohen in the 70’s and bought his LP Leonard Cohen:The Best Of. The weekend that I bought it I was visiting a friend in Central PA who’s father-law-was a renowned psychiatrist. I was there to see him because I was in the midst of a big-time mental/emotional/anxiety crisis and my friend had arranged a sit down with the good doctor. I will forever be reminded of that time of suffering and healing by songs like Sisters of Mercy, So Long Marianne and Bird on a Wire. They have a downright spiritual significance for me.

I, too, appreciate Cohen’s beautiful sentiments about surrender. However, I am accepting his lyrics at face value. Who really knows what is in the heart and mind of a poet?

Also, it is Rufus on the JPII Hallelujah. I am a BIG Rufus fan but I really do prefer Jeff Buckley’s stark, sparse and beautiful version. Here is a link to You Tube if you want to give it a listen.

By: gabrielle

gabrielle — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:03:00 +0000

I popped over and watched/listened. You know, you were the one who introduced me to that song, actually, when you first posted it on one of your blogs last year. I fell in love with it. I’m not sure who Jeff Buckely is, but that sounds like Rufus singing to me. Anyway, so glad you found it again!

By: JustMe

JustMe — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:37:04 +0000

I’m so excited, and indeed, 20 years ago, this, too, would not have held me, but I found Leonard Cohen’s/Jeff Buckely’s/JP II’s Hallelujah again. I cannot tell you how many times I looked for it after losing the link, once, when I thought it didn’t do JP II justice. I knew it did – that is what scared me. The reality of love, since the Fall, is that it is a cold and broken Hallelujah. But it is always a hallelujah rising, since His ascension. Amen.

By: gabrielle

gabrielle — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:17:19 +0000

JustMe, Owen used to have that very quote from Anthem on his sidebar! I remember asking him about it. I like what you say about the good, the bad, the ugly and the heartbreakingly beautiful. It all speaks to the soul.

Ann, that’s right, and so many times too, resonating with us differently at various points in our lives, or along our spiritual journey. I wonder how I would have interpreted this song twenty years ago?

By: Ann

Ann — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:31:56 +0000

Thanks, Gabrielle, for your reply and sharing your insight into the meaning, I’m with you and Justme on this. It’s always interesting how different people read things in different ways, no right, no wrong way just individually undestood and resonating within individual hearts.

By: JustMe

JustMe — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:46:50 +0000

Holy mackerel. Yep. Extraordinarily honest. I may sleep with the lights on tonight! It led me to look at the lyrics of Anthem.. “there’s a crack in everything–that’s how the light gets in.” Oh, baby. That IS how the light gets in. Hearts, minds, theories, hopes, fears, weather, food, bodies.

Being more of a mute than a poet, more of a mule than a brain, there are two artists who happen to have often been sweaty and messy and although brilliant in their own ways and venues, wouldn’t win any lyrics awards, but their songs have never needed words anyway. They could just make noises and I’d know and nod and be grateful for the good, bad, the ugly and the heartbreakingly beautiful that they both put into each 100% sharing. They sing my inside (Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker). Again, there’s that blessedness where there’s no duplicity in either one. Honesty. After peace is gone, after goodwill is gone, even after sobriety, sanity, looks, hopes, dreams are gone, there’s still hope, because even if it’s all we have left, honesty is a biggie. The funny thing is, that’s all we ever really want/ed: The Truth. There is only one Truth. And we want it because we live and move and have our being in It, just as Saul-nee-Paul said.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:13:28 +0000

Here’s a taste of Leonard Cohen at his apocalyptic best, in my opinion (brought to mind because of your mentioning repentance/love in your comment just now on the other post)

The Future

By: JustMe

JustMe — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:47:59 +0000

I think I have seen every version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah on YouTube. And how astounding that “Cohen” means “priest.” That comes as such a sweet surprise. Your parsing of this poem-song above resonates in many ways, more than a parsing by anyone of a Dylan song ever does with me; Cohen seems very humble and outward.. I look forward to reading more about him.