As a forty-seven year old Gen X-er, I came to know the brilliance of Leonard Cohen later in his career. As it happened though, it was early in my social and existential consciousness, and it came from an unlikely place - the early Gen X film Pump Up the Volume. I was captivated by the voice from the stark opening of the film as Christian Slater/Hard-Harry-Hard-On prepared to broadcast his pirate radio program. And amidst the haunting strings with the staccatto rythm, HHH grooms us for the show, "Down to business: I've got my Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, and I've got my Blackjack gum. I've got that feeling - that familiar feeling that something rank is going down out there."
As several people have noted on social media like Twitter, dying in 2016 shortly after the election of you know who was such a Leonard Cohen thing to do. The rankness that "Everybody Knows" could not be more apparent on a day like November 10, 2016, and the opening lyrics from the soulful Cohen are eerily prescient of the dark epiphany many woke up to this week. We didn't want to believe it was true .... but everybody knows. Rest in peace, solemn prince. It's a mournful time so apropos for you to go. And now he "will speak no more."
Everybody knows that 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 know
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