For about 3 weeks now, I have been trying to solve a constant migraine that has plagued me.  In part of my searching, I went to a chiropractor. I am not going to lay in to whether or not chiropractors are real doctors (which they are not) or whether or not they do a good job (which they don’t).   Suffice it to say that I find it ignorant of a Chiropractor to think that they can move things and help a migraine, but that there is no possibility of them causing harm if they move the same parts the wrong way.  Simple, right?  It never occurred to my chiropractor.

So last thursday I began to enter the largest migraine of my life.  I lost my vision right away.  Before long, I couldn’t remember my daughter’s name, I coudn’t complete a simple sentence to ask my wife to call the doctor (she figured it out anyway).   By the time the ambulance arrived I could hardly speak at all, and certainly with no clarity whatsover.  For the next few hours I couldn’t make out faces, I couldn’t understand what was going on…. It was very much like I was having a stroke.  Needless to say it was a scary time for me. (and my grandma).

At one point in the middle of the haze, my dad was talking with my brother about a new CD he had, and the song on it called “Halleluja”  (yeah, the one from Shrek, etc)  Adam said “Oh yeah.  You know that song, Sam?”  In a kind, brotherly, patronizing sort of way.  From my haze I explained to them that it was written by Leonard Cohen and that it was originally from the seventies.  It was my only coherent thought for hours before or hours later–they were amazed.

What they didn’t know was that I was really frustrated. I was trying to tell Adam and my Dad that while Cohen wrote it, Jeff Buckly has a very popular cover, though my favorite version is by Rufus Wainwright.  But the words were all stuck in.

Besides a funny story, that song is incredible.  I feel it is one of the most perfect pieces of music, like Handel’s Messiah.

“Ive heard it said there was a chord that David played and it pleased the Lord but you dont really care for music do ya”

My favorite thing about it is that when I was first learning it, the chords were baked right into the words, in the second line:

“It goes like this the fourth the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift.  The baffled king composing halleluja”

See?  the IV, the V, the vi, then back to the IV.  Right in the words.  (OK, I just put that in for Adam, or maybe my Mom if she reads this)

A new appreciation for Leonard Cohen every year.  Here is a cheezy version for you to enjoy of the man himself.