Everybody Knows

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016)

Boy, could this guy write. Bob Dylan said Leonard Cohen was his favorite contemporary songwriter. I think he was probably the most literate songwriter in the history of the English language. “Everybody Knows” has been features in two films, 1990’s Pump Up The Volume and, in 1994, Atom Egoyan’s Exotica. My daughter Zoe gave me one of the greatest compliments of my life when I sang her this song and she asked me if I wrote it. Mark Bingham suggested we drop the “without your clothes” verse, and do it in three-fourths time. I almost always find Mark’s suggestions worth following.

I read Cohen’s novel, Beautiful Losers, when it came out in paperback in the ‘60s. My personal historical take is that 1958, when most of the book takes place, was a year of groundbreaking cultural change. During the course of that year, the Beat phenomenon went from being practically unknown to being mainstream, and the counterculture, which changed the modern world, was born. The changes took hold rapidly in the fall of that year. In Beautiful Losers, events come to a climax during the fall and the end of the year finds itself in a new world. Philip K. Dick’s obscure mainstream novel, Confessions Of A Crap Artist, also takes place in 1958. Again, events there come to a climax in the fall, and yet again, the end of the year finds itself in a radically different world. Maybe someday someone will write about those two books as a subject for a degree.