Everybody Knows :: Concrete Blonde

“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 is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and collaborator Sharon Robinson. It is a song that 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, thirty-seven 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 religion issues.

Everybody Knows has been widely used in television and film. One of these uses was Allan Moyle’s 1990 film Pump Up the Volume featured the song prominently. A favorite of protagonist Mark Hunter (operator of an FM pirate radio station), plays Cohen’s song from an on-screen phonograph several times during his 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.

Everybody Knows :: Leonard Cohen