Everybody Knows [Leonard Cohen bleak RE imaginative]
[Intro] (A slow, rhythmic, metallic pulse—like a heavy piston or an anvil striking in the dark. A distorted, swampy bassline crawls in, heavy and menacing.) [Verse 1] (Spoken low, flat, and dripping with absolute, weary contempt) Everybody knows 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. [Verse 2] (The drums start to creep in—heavy, tribal, marching-powder industrial beats) Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows that the captain lied Everybody got this broken feeling Like their dog just died Everybody talks to their pockets Everybody wants a box of chocolates And a long-stem rose Everybody knows. [Chorus / The Mechanical Build] (The guitars step up, adding thick, sludgy distortion that grinds against the beat) 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 step through And everybody knows it's come to pass Everything's going down real fast ...And everybody knows. [Outro / The Heavy Drop] (The music strips down to just that heavy, pounding heartbeat pulse. The delivery drops into a cold, dead-eyed whisper right before the silence cuts in.) Everybody knows it's dark and it's dry... Everybody knows the sun's gonna die. And everybody knows... ...you're out of time. (A single, deafening industrial chord rings out, sustaining into a wall of feedback, and then cuts instantly to dead silence.)
