Don’t just hum along - listen to the lyrics!

Recently passed 2016 was a terrible year for celebrity deaths, especially in the music industry. Prince, David Bowie, Natalie Cole, Greg Lake, Bobby Vee, Pete Burns and George Michael and Leonard Cohen all met their maker last year.

Cohen is particularly known around the holidays because he was the one who penned the song “Hallelujah.” It is an iconic song and one that has been covered by several musicians, with Jeff Buckley’s version being the most popular. Cohen is mourned as a talented singer and songwriter, but one thing he isn’t noted for is his Christmas music contributions. But that doesn’t deter radio stations from playing “Hallelujah” during the holidays.

I implore disc jockeys around the land, if any of them are still doing anything other than pushing play on an iPod, to listen to lyrics before deeming something a holiday tune. “Hallelujah” is many things. It is an anthem for sad scenes. It is a haunting melody. It is a vehicle to showcase a singer’s range. But it is by no means a Christmas song.

In fact, it really isn’t a religious song at all. It is a story of a love gone wrong, with some religious imagery splattered in. It isn’t something to be tapping the toes to as we are Rocking Around the Christmas Tree or having a Holly, Jolly Christmas. It is a bemoaning of a love gone bad:

“Maybe there's a God above. But all I ever learned from love, Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you. It's no complaint you hear tonight; It's not some pilgrim who's seen the light. It's a cold and it's a lonely Hallelujah.”

The only thing that cold and lonely Hallelujah might do is keep Frosty from melting. Another stanza says “love is not a victory march it’s a cold and it’s a lonely Hallelujah.” Pretty much the antithesis of kissing somebody under the mistletoe, it is like ripping the mistletoe to shreds and spitting in the face of your date.

I hate to make this a microcosm of the society we live in because, after all, it is a song. But the interpretation is one that would make Cohen roll around in his grave, which he can do quite nimbly since the decomposition probably isn’t hasn’t progressed too much yet. But in the ADD-driven present, we don’t care to do things like listen to lyrics. We hear “Hallelujah” and proclaim it a song fit for Christ’s birthday.

When you think about it, Grandma getting run over by a reindeer and a little girl wanting a rhinoceros has more to do with the holidays than Cohen’s ballad. But that requires thinking.

This story was originally published January 9, 2017 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Don’t just hum along - listen to the lyrics!."