Oh, Lord!

   Please deliver me from children's performances of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."   The song is not about praising the lord. It is about sex. Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially in today's raunchy climate.
   But to see a child, in the aura of innocence, stand and sing the song as if it's a religious tribute is just wrong.
    I try to avoid such spectacles, but last night I was more or less forced into viewing one such. I don't know what happened, but the remote to the bedroom TV will not allow the channel to be changed, even with the installation of new batteries. So I'm in bed with the channel stuck on Channel 13, which is fine with  me because I intend to watch the Tonight Show.
    But in the meantime, what show comes on but Little Performers or whatever it's called. I'm now a captive audience. One young boy sang a song and while his voice was pleasant in the lower, softer range, he of course had to shriek to get the audience approval, and it was very hard on the ears. Then came a kid and a dog, dressed alike and out of control when it came to cupcakes.
    A young girl, from Ireland no less, made an appearance to sing, in all her innocence, "Hallelujah."   (Almost beyond belief, she was joined by Pentatonix, but that's another horror story.) Granted, Cohen has changed the lyrics, omitting and adding, editing, as the mood suited him in his many performances. But his Hallelujah is not in praise of the lord, but as one notable singer put it, "A hallelujah to organism."   Not a difficult observation with the lyrics  "Remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was Hallelujah."  And the opening references to Samson and Delilah---what can that mean to a child --maybe relating to cutting her Barbies' hair. We won't even consider, "what was going on below" that's no longer happening or the significance of the flag on the marble arch.
    It's a beautiful and significant song, certainly overdone. But at least could someone please keep it out of the mouths of babes. And don't let them anywhere near Leonard Cohen's tribute song to Janis Joplin.