Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen song)
| "Everybody Knows" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Leonard Cohen from the album I'm Your Man | ||||
| Released | February 1988 | |||
| Genre | Synthpop | |||
| Length | 5:37 | |||
| Label | Columbia Records | |||
| Writer(s) |
Leonard Cohen Sharon Robinson |
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| I'm Your Man track listing | ||||
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"Everybody Knows" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and collaborator Sharon Robinson. It has often been covered and used in soundtracks.
"Everybody Knows" was first released on Cohen's album I'm Your Man, February 1988.
Five minutes, 37 seconds in duration, "Everybody Knows" is known for its somber tone and repetition of the title at the beginning of most verses. Featuring phrases such as "Everybody knows that the dice are loaded" and "Everybody knows that the good guys lost", "Everybody Knows" has been variously described by critics as "bitterly pessimistic" yet funny, or, more strongly, a "bleak prophecy about the end of the world as we know it." The lyrics include references to AIDS, social problems, and relationship and religious issues.
"Everybody Knows" has been widely used in television and film. Allan Moyle's 1990 film Pump Up the Volume featured the song prominently. A favorite of protagonist Mark Hunter (Christian Slater, as the operator of an FM pirate radio station), Cohen's song is played from an on-screen phonograph several times during Mark's clandestine broadcasts. A cover by Concrete Blonde is used at the film's end, and it is this cover version that made it onto the film's soundtrack album rather than Cohen's version.
Cohen's original version was also featured prominently in Atom Egoyan's 1994 film Exotica, as the theme music of exotic dancer Christina (Mia Kirshner) when she performs at the club of the film's title. The soundtrack album for Exotica, featuring music composed by Mychael Danna, does not include Cohen's recording of this song, either.
The song is also used in the film the King of Kong and as theme music for episodes of SexTV. It was used in an episode of the Quebec mystery Fortier. Though the show is entirely in French, the song is played with its original English lyrics.
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