All fingers and thumbs

Everybody Knows

"Barrel of Monkeys"  [E]

Day 8



Leonard Cohen with Everybody Knows, live in London in 2019 and featured on the album I'm Your Man, 1988.

What does this song mean according to The American Songwriter?

"Cohen doesn’t waste any time with tact or restraint, setting the tone in his opening lines: “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.” This generalized overview soon gives way to more specific concerns, as the relentless lyrics touch on greed, racism and drugs. One verse seems to specifically reference the AIDS crisis, then at its height, as Cohen sings of a coming plague, meters to count sexual partners, and how “the naked man and woman/Are just a shining artifact of the past.”

Yet he also brings things down to a personal level with a verse about infidelity between two lovers. “Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful/Ah, give or take a night or two,” he sings. And it wouldn’t be a Cohen song if he didn’t bring spiritual concerns into it, with references to Calvary (juxtaposed ironically with Malibu beaches) and the Sacred Heart. Whether that heart belongs to Jesus or Leonard is never revealed, but, at the song’s end, it’s poised to explode all over the whole sordid scene.

Cohen also makes room for flashes of mischievous wit, like when he implies that the death of a parent and the death of a dog are equally disturbing. Running through this litany of horrors is a subtle criticism of those who ignore it all in favor of their own self-interested pursuits: “Everybody’s talking to their pockets/Everybody wants a box of chocolates/And a long-stemmed rose.”"

A beautiful but critical protest song!

Lyrics
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows 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 Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's 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
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows