“Hallelujah” has an overt reference to the story of David & Bathsheba in the Bible, which is a story about a king watching a woman bathe and then sending her husband into an unwinnable battle so he could steal her from him.
Cohen is reputed to have written between 80[7] and 180[8] draft verses for “Hallelujah”—a number affected by having many versions of the same line.[9] He claimed 150 draft verses, substantiated by his notebooks containing manifold revisions and additions, and by contemporary interviews.[10] In a writing session in New York’s Royalton Hotel, Cohen is famously said to have been reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, filling notebooks, banging his head on the floor.
I know this because I love that song and was obsessed with it for a year or two.
“Hallelujah” has an overt reference to the story of David & Bathsheba in the Bible, which is a story about a king watching a woman bathe and then sending her husband into an unwinnable battle so he could steal her from him.
Mixed with references to Samson and Delilah
But wait! There’s more!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallelujah_(Leonard_Cohen_song)#%3A~%3Atext=11+External+links-%2CHistory%2Cversions+of+the+same+line.
I know this because I love that song and was obsessed with it for a year or two.
Yeah, which was its own level of toxic, but maybe doesn’t have the super gross power imbalance?