Everybody Knows, by Leonard Cohen.
I think I wrote a little about this when I wrote about another Leonard Cohen track, but this song was my route into his music, by way of the Pump Up The Volume soundtrack — or, well, the movie, because I think the soundtrack might have the Concrete Blonde cover? Which is fine. But this is the Leonard Cohen version, all keyboards and synths and pumping beat, like some Wim Wenders 1980s black and white lens. (Why do I associate the I’m Your Man album so strongly with Wings of Desire? Does he use it in there somewhere? Or is it just the whole First We Take Manhattan aesthetic?)
Anyway, it’s a little cynical! “Everybody Knows” was a big part of my worldview as a teenager, and sat neatly along side the U2 Zoo TV tour video screen epigrams like “Everything You Know Is Wrong” when I started writing in my own secret poetry/journals in high school.
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Lots of layers here, including like 4 different drum loops just mashed in there together, and a synth, and a bass synth, and some high sorta bells synth, and the unnecessary guitar, and a few vocals, including a “deep like Leonard” track.
I messed up one of the later verses coming out of the little solo/break thing, and I’m not sure how, but it’s one of those compounding mistakes as I add layers and follow along with my own mess. I just went with it. Nothing like biffing the biblical verse, eh? [extremely nervous laughter]
Also, how the heck is my version like 1:45 longer than the record??