Go read this paper now! It is so good. I think the funny thing is how “Hallelujah” has become shorthand for “have feelings now” when, at its root - it’s playful, it’s ironic, and there’s this disconnect with its life in movies/tv and where the song’s coming from.

I do remember going out and buying a copy of Beautiful Losers after falling in love with Buckley’s “Hallelujah.” The bad Leonard Cohen-inspired poetry that spilled from my teenage pen! You can only imagine. “the city/is a woman/and she is tired.”

barthel:

My “Hallelujah” paper can be found here for now, since I let my hosting lapse, which I need to deal with, argh.