Music that breaks me

[sauergeek]

I was just reminded of a song that I recently met that breaks me every time I hear it. It is Hallelujah, originally by Leonard Cohen. I was introduced to it when Pandora played the Rufus Wainwright version

There are many verses to the song, only some of which appear in any given version. No version I've heard has more than five verses, but I think a good version would include all seven that I've come across. The most important verses for me are the second, fourth, and seventh, with the imagery in the third being significant. However, I cannot omit any of the other verses; they set up the key ones. I find it hard to sing along with this one; I sometimes end up crying instead -- it breaks me that badly.

I 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, the major lift,
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Chorus:
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelu----jah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof,
You saw her bathing on the roof,
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair,
She broke your throne, she cut your hair,
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Chorus

Maybe I have been here before,
I know this room; I've walked this floor,
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch,
Love is not a victory march,
It's a cold and its a broken Hallelujah

Chorus

There was a time you let me know
Whats really going on below,
But now you never show it to me, do you?
Remember when I moved in you;
The holy dark was moving too,
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Chorus

Maybe there's a God above,
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And its not a cry you can hear at night,
It's not somebody who's seen the light,
It's a cold and its a broken Hallelujah

Chorus

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Chorus

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

Chorus, repeat and fade