Everybody Knows

By Leonard Cohen

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that its moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Comments : This is the first Leonard Cohen song I heard years ago and it still remains one of my favourite Cohen songs / poems. The cynicism, the sardonic wit, the imagery – all are just amazing. While I cannot read /hear too many Cohen song-poems at a stretch, I think they are just the thing in ones and twos when one is in the right mood to appreciate them. Cohen’s poetry puts words to stark despair and disillusionment – looking into the dark crater and back again – like no one else can. - Zen

Links to information about Leonard Cohen :
Wikipedia, of course. Interestingly, Wikipedia reveals that he underwent five years of seclusion at a Buddhist centre and has been ordained as a Buddhist monk.

This article discloses that Cohen's maternal grandfather was a rabbi who wrote a 700-page thesaurus of Talmudic interpretations. Now we know exactly where the understanding for the poem ‘Who, By Fire’ comes from. The same article also discloses that Cohen has been labelled "the poet laureate of pessimism", "the grocer of despair", "the godfather of gloom" and "the prince of bummers", in addition to 68 other facts about him.

And this is where all the information about Cohen is to be found.

Links to more poems by Leonard Cohen : http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/624.html
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/bird+on+the+wire_20082816.html
(Who could but love these lines – ‘Like a bird on a wire/ Like a drunk in a midnight choir/ I have tried, in my way, to be free’)
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/744.html
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/im+your+man_20082812.html
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/744.html
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/339.html