Magical Moment - Reading Leonard Cohen Lyrics Quoted in a Short Fiction Story

"Everybody Knows" Gothenburg Aug/10

June 8, 2012

While sitting in a sombre, well appointed medical waiting room, the kind where people speak in hushed tones, I burst out laughing.

I brought with a recent issue of the New Yorker magazine, figuring this would be a good time to do some catch up reading.  I flipped to the Fiction section and it was there I had such a nice surprise.

The two protagonists, college students William and Bridey, met again in their hometown during a Christmas break. They talked about their experiences at each of their music/performing arts colleges.

William: Do you have friends? 

Bridey:  I do. ...But you know here how the bad kids drink beer from kegs and get in fistfights... 

There, they do Ecstacy and strip to that Leonard Cohen song, Everybody Knows.  And then fall into bed with whoever's there.  It's like they have these fabulous bodies and don't want to waste them.  "There are so many people you just had to meet without your clothes" --- that's the line they like

Reading that was unexpected and it made me laugh.

Here is one of my own favourite videos of Leonard Cohen singing Everybody Knows at the Gothenburg concert in August 2010.  I particularly remember how extra animated he was and it has stayed in mind.

Everybody Knows
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 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 

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

Everybody knows

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• Fiction story: "The Proxy Marriage" by Maile Meloy, The New Yorker, May 21, 2012  
• "Everybody Knows" was first released on Leonard Cohen's album I'm Your Man, February 1988.
• In Gothenburg, LC substituted "Mighty Heart" for "Sacred Heart".  It was always fun at concerts waiting to see how he would vary the lyrics.