Hallelujah!-The Power of the Word

A minister I knew once questioned the depth or “the soul” of a song I wrote because it was “ a song of largely just Hallelujahs”. Today I’d like to take a moment on this issue and look at the word “Hallelujah” in some depth.

Its etymology is from the Hebrew and means “Praise Jah” or “Praise God”. Interestingly enough, it is a word that circumnavigates the globe and spans most languages. When translated, the word “Hallelujah” (or sometimes “Alleluia”) remains the same: In Spanish it’s “Aleluya”, in Finnish and German it’s “Haleluja”, in French it’s “Alleluia”, in Estonian it’s “Haleluuja”, in Icelandic it’s Halleluja, in Slovak it’s “Aleluia” and on and on like that. So it’s a word whose four syllables mean the same thing to most of mankind. Say the word almost anywhere in Africa and they know how you feel. Very few words translate that way. Consider even the word “God”. Even this word changes dramatically in its pronunciation and spelling in translation. “Hallelujah” is truly universal.

I know of no other word in language or song that carries such joy, such celebration, such depth of spirit and soul. With its four open vowels, it is a gorgeous utterance to sing and when sung alone or surrounded by itself and repeated over and over it is the epitome word of celebration in human language. I find that when I’m writing a sacred song and I am most filled with the spirit of God, these are the words that spill out of me over and over as the melodies pour through me from God. Over and over again, “Hallelujah”. It happens so often that I have to rewrite the lyrics into other words, otherwise most of my songs would sing nothing but “Hallelujahs”.

A man named George Fredric Handel used it to musically summarize his penultimate tribute to the birth of Christ in the finale of his “Messiah”. Who has not sat in wonder at the singing of this great gift to mankind as the same word cascaded from the choir?

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

In no way comparing myself to Frederic Handel, I too used these words to great effect in a song that opened the performance of The Jenny Burton Experience which ran to sold out audiences for over seven years here in New York City.

Let’s start with a Hallelujah
Let’s begin with a Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

There is music in our lives
There is music in the air all around us
There’s a spirit in our lives
And the music and the spirit are one

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A simple statement, but with the weight and power of this amazing word you can be sure the audiences knew exactly where we were going with the inspirational intention of the performance. It set the spirit of the evening in stone and launched us cleanly and clearly into the realm of spiritual thought.

What is a word but a symbol for an idea. These sounds that come out of our mouths represent concepts large or small. Say the word “streetcar” and we know exactly what you mean. Say the word “God” and you will have as many definitions of that word as you have listeners. But say the word “Hallelujah” and the world is suddenly all on the same page and in some way feeling and knowing the light that you are experiencing. It is a word that bears repetition, no, in fact, clamors for repetition, for to say it once is not enough. It must be repeated and repeated in the wonder of God’s grace and power, love, soul, and spirit. It is the penultimate word in the human language in praise of God.

When life is at its best, in the moment when no other words suffice, for most of us here on this planet, out pops the word “Hallelujah”. This elegant and universal utterance captures the essence of celebration and is immediately understood deeply in the soul of all.

I Am Free

I was given an assignment (and paid well, I might add) to write a song about being free. When I heard the title assigned to the task by the client, I secretly groaned in disappointment. “This song has already been written a thousand times”, I said to myself. But I took the money and ran with it.

I put off starting the song for days. The clichés coursing through my brain were deadly to the creative process. Finally, with little time left, I reluctantly began the process.

I thought, “Well, what’s the biggest cliché in song?” The answer: “I love you.” And yet those three little words make up one of the world’s most cherished utterances. So what makes a cliché a cliché? No real content, no true meaning, no real stuff behind the words, in short, no truth.

I turned to the fertile ground of imagination. I pulled from the memory of a powerful healing I had as a child. I literally lay on the floor of my studio in the dark and reconstructed this childhood miracle perpetuated by my mother’s healing thought and God’s infinite grace. I re-lived the emotions and grandeur of the experience in my imagination. Moments later I was no longer afraid of the creative experience. I got up and wrote this song.

By the way, Jenny Burton adds to the mix and brings total magic and originality to the vocal on the CD.

I wept last week as the song was sung at a dear friend’s memorial. She requested it before she passed away. Her passing gave a newly layered meaning of depth to the song.

Feelin’ like a river
Rollin’ through this valley of life
Free like a river
A river that’s rollin’ on
On and on
I’m free

Now I wake up in the morning
The suffering is gone from my life
And I am free from the burden
The burden that I had carried
All of those years gone by

Now where there once was pain
There the peace will reign
Now where there once was fear
Hope is not in vain

Because of You
I’m free
Because of the work you’ve done
Because of the battles won
I’m free
Free now to live in my life
The way I choose in my life
Like the west wind blows
As the river flows
The way it was meant to be

For I have been released
And I have been regained
And I am now at peace
I am free

Now where there once was rain
The sun shines down on me

Yes I have been released
And I have been regained
And I am now at peace
I am free
I am free
I am free!!!

You can find a recording of this song on two different CDs: Peter Link’s “Mindfire” and “The Jenny Burton Experience” both on watchfiremusic.com.

On: Faith

Faith…
I sat in my favorite chair. I knew it was time to figure the problem out. I had been struggling with it for over a year and needed to get my arms around it because I knew it was a great idea and great ideas just don’t come along that often.

Flash back one year. Jenny Burton and I have just finished a show in Boca Raton and are driving up the coast of Florida. We get into a long discussion about her career and where it’s going. We have this great idea! We shall put together a group of 9 of our favorite NY studio singers behind her and do a show of Inspirational music.

We’ve been doing very successful industrial shows exploring this Gospel/R&B based genre using 3 singers in the studio and triple tracking them for a particular sound that has really been captivating audiences. We’ve developed this music to a very specific sound behind Jenny and know from years’ experience that we’ve found something that really works. Now we should commercialize it and move it into the mainstream.

And so, determined to see this through, I begin to explore ways of financing and developing this idea. I find it’s not easy. It’s expensive! Ten singers… and we don’t even have a band yet.

In the course of the year, however, four different situations do come up which will provide the means for getting this idea on. Sadly, they all fall through. Bummer.

So here I am sitting in my favorite chair. I do not have the money for this big idea. I know it’s a right idea, but something seems to stop it at every turn. Frustrated…

I have no ideas, I have no money, I have nothing.

I have faith, but what is faith? Yeah, come to think of it, what is faith? I sit and contemplate this word. I realize that in order to have faith one must start with nothing. If you have something, a glimmer, a dollar, a possibility, etc., then you don’t need faith, you just start with a glimmer, a dollar, a possibility, etc. Faith is for when you have nothing.

Then you have to have faith in faith. And since you have nothing, it only makes sense to have a total reliance on faith because what other choice do you have? You have nothing, but faith. So do that. Have nothing but faith.

This means that you can’t have doubt, Pete, I say to myself. You can only have faith. If you have a choice between having nothing or having nothing and faith, what do you choose? Duh.

I saw and understood this simple logic. It made total sense to me. All I had to do was to have faith, but I had to have total faith. That was easy because I had nothing. So I decided then and there to have total faith.

“Faith in what?” you might ask. Faith in a right idea. I believe that God gives a right idea and sees it through? So I must have total faith in this right idea.

I even thought if you have total faith and then it still doesn’t work out, then you don’t have to deal with this word “faith” any more. You can dismiss it as a sham and move on to other things. So let’s find out, Pete. HAVE TOTAL FAITH!

And so I did. At that point I got up from my favorite chair and went to bed, clear that now the idea was going to happen.

The next morning I got up, called the nine singers, explained my great idea, told them I had no money, but was going to do this on faith, invited them to join me and they all said ‘yes’ immediately and we went into rehearsal the next week.

The group, The Jenny Burton Experience, broke all box office records and played to packed houses in their more than seven year run at New York City’s “Don’t Tell Mama” and swept all the major music awards in New York City for best vocal group.

They then performed for tens of thousands of people at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Carnegie Hall, opened for Al Green at Trump Marina, opened for Stevie Wonder at Lincoln Center, and headlined at Resorts International in Atlantic City.

It started on faith and nothing but. The following lyric is to one of the groups closing songs:

FAITH
Music and Lyrics by Peter Link

AS I SIT WITH MY HEAD IN MY HAND
AND FIGHT FOR THE WAY TO BREAK FREE
KNOWING NOTHING AROUND ME
HAS GONE AS PLANNED
AND NOW IT IS ALL UP TO ME

WHEN NOTHING IS LEFT TO HOLD ON TO
AND NOWHERE IS THERE TO TURN
THE FIRE CONSUMING THE SPIRIT WITHIN ME
TILL NOTHING IS LEFT TO BURN

WHEN OUT OF THE DARKENING SHADOWS
A VOICE A WHISPER A SIGN
THE SIMPLEST OF ANSWERS
AT THE HARDEST OF TIMES
A LIGHT CALLING OUT TO THE BLIND

WHEN ALL IS LOST
HAVE FAITH
HAVE FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
FAITH CAN WALK THE SEA
FAITH CAN HEAL THE HEARTACHE
FAITH ALONE CAN COMFORT ME
AND IN YOUR TRIALS OF FIRE
FAITH CAN SEE YOU THROUGH
FAITH REQUIRES
NO MAGIC NO MONEY
NO MIRRORS NO MAYBES
NO MATCHES NO MAKE-UP
NO MANUAL NO MEDICINE
JUST FAITH

SO WHEN NOTHING IS LEFT TO HOLD ON TO
AND NOWHERE IS THERE TO TURN
WHEN THE FIRE’S CONSUMING THE SPIRIT WITHIN YOU
TILL NOTHING IS LEFT TO BURN
WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST
HAVE FAITH
HAVE FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
FAITH CAN WALK THE SEA
FAITH CAN HEAL THE HEARTACHE
FAITH ALONE CAN COMFORT ME
AND IN YOUR TRIALS OF FIRE
FAITH CAN SEE YOU THROUGH
FAITH REQUIRES
NO MAGIC NO MONEY
NO MIRRORS NO MAYBES
NO MATCHES NO MAKE-UP
NO MANUAL NO MEDICINE
JUST FAITH
FAITH

FAITH CAN HEAL YOU
AND FAITH CAN COMFORT YOU
FAITH WILL WALK WITH YOU
THERE’S NO MEDICINE JUST FAITH

FAITH CAN MOVE THE MOUNTAIN
OH YEAH!

So, have faith…

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