First thought was ‘Can’t they leave that song alone!’, but there’s more. How did this admittedly very fetching ditty become some sort of multi-porpose emo-anthem? Has any one actually listened to the words? Are events like this memorial service so detached, so superficial, so glib, that anything will do so long as it sort of hums right? Is it just about some sort of warm, but ultimately meaning-stripped inner glow?.

I mean look at the text:

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

What has that got to do with anything other than Leonard’s love life? If the song choice was that hollow, was does that say about the other sympathetic mouthings?

Good grief. Nothing much means nothing much.

This is just really unhelpful and spiteful. I understand that some of you are frustrated, but blaming and starting the pissing contest over the level of training really does not help anyone

Tensions build as firefighters from each side of the volunteer/MFB firefighrer divide have their say. Spirited post here from ‘CFA volunteer’.