Everybody Knows

co-written by Sharon Robinson

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 picking 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 going to be a metre 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.

I’m Your Man

If you want a lover

I’ll do anything you ask me to

And if you want another kind of love

I’ll wear a mask for you

If you want a partner

take my hand, or

if you want to strike me

down in anger

here I stand

I’m your man

If you want a boxer

I will step into the ring for you

And if you want a doctor

I’ll examine every inch of you

If you want a driver

climb inside

or if you want to take me

for a ride

you know you can

I’m your man

Ah, the moon’s too bright

the chain’s too tight

the beast won’t go to sleep

I’ve been running through

these promises to you

that I made and I could not keep

Ah but a man never got a woman back

not by begging on his knees

or I’d crawl to you baby

and I’d fall at your feet

and I’d howl at your beauty

like a dog in heat

and I’d claw at your heart

and I’d tear at your sheet

I’d say please, please

I’m your man

And if you’ve got to sleep a moment on the road

I will steer for you

and if you want to work the street alone

I’ll disappear for you

If you want a father

for your child

or only want to walk

with me a while

across the sand

I’m your man

If you want a lover

I’ll do anything you ask me to

And if you want another kind of love

I’ll wear a mask for you

If you want a partner

take my hand, or

if you want to strike me

down in anger

here I stand

I’m your man

Take This Waltz

After Lorca

Now in Vienna there’s ten pretty women.

There’s a shoulder where death comes to cry.

There’s a lobby with nine hundred windows.

There’s a tree where the doves go to die.

There’s a piece that was torn from the morning,

and it hangs in the Gallery of Frost –

Ay, ay ay ay

Take this waltz, take this waltz,

take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws. 

Oh, I want you, I want you, I want you

on a chair with a dead magazine.

In the cave at the tip of the lily,

in some hallways where love’s never been.

On a bed where the moon has been sweating,

in a cry filled with footsteps and sand –

Ay, ay ay ay

Take this waltz, take this waltz,

take its broken waist in your hand.

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz

with its very own breath

of brandy and deat,

dragging its tail in the sea.

There’s a concert hall in Vienna

where your mouth had a thousand reviews.

There’s a bar where the boys have stopped talking,

they’ve been sentenced to death by the blues.

Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture

with a garland of freshly cut tears?

Ay, ay ay ay

Take this waltz, take this waltz,

take this waltz, it’s been dying for years.

There’s an attic where children are playing,

where I’ve got to lie down with you soon,

in a dream of Hungarian lanterns,

in the mist of some sweet afternoon.

And I’ll see what you’ve chained to your sorrow,

all your sheep and your lilies of snow –

Ay, ay ay ay

Take this waltz, take this waltz

with its “I’ll never forget you, you know!”

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz

with its very own breath

of brandy and deat,

dragging its tail in the sea.

And I’ll dance with you in Vienna,

I’ll be wearing a river’s disguise.

The hyacinth wild on my shoulder

my mouth on the dew of your thighs.

And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook,

with the photographs there and the moss.

And I’ll yield to the flood of your beauty,

my cheap violin and my cross.

And you’ll carry me down on your dancing

to the pools that you lift on your wrist –

Oh my love, oh my love

Take this waltz, take this waltz,

it’s yours now. It’s all that there is.

Tower Of Song

Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey.

I ache in the places where I used to play.

And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on.

I’m just paying my rent every day, oh, in the tower of song.

I said to Hank Williams, “How lonely does it get?”

Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet,

but I hear him coughing all night long,

a hundred floors above me in the tower of song.

I was born like this, I had no choice.

I was born with the gift of a golden voice,

and twenty-seven angels from the great beyond,

they tied me to this table right here in the tower of song.

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll

– I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like me at all.

I’m standing by the window where the light is strong.

Ah, they don’t let a woman kill you, not in the tower of song.

Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter, but of this you may be sure:

the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor,

and there’s a mighty judgement coming, but I may be wrong.

You see, you hear these funny voices in the tower of song.

I see you standing on the other side.

I don’t know how the river got so wide.

I loved you, baby, way back when –

And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed,

but I feel so close to everything that we lost –

We’ll never have to lose it again.

Now I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back.

They’re moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track.

But you’ll be hearing from me, baby, long after I’m gone.

I’ll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the tower of song.

Yeah, my friends are gone and my hair is grey.

I ache in the places where I used to play.

And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on.

I’m just paying my rent every day, oh, in the tower of song.

Anthem

The birds they sang

at the break of day

Start again,

I heard them say,

Don’t dwell on what

has passed away

or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will

be fought again

The holy dove

she will be caught again

bought and sold

and bought again;

the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

We asked for signs

the signs were sent:

the birth betrayed,

the marriage spent;

yeah, the widowhood

of every government –

signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more

with that lawless crowd

while the killers in high places

say their prayers out loud.

But they’ve summoned,

they’ve summoned up

a thundercloud

And they’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

You can add up the parts

but you won’t have the sum

You can strike up the march,

there is no drum.

Every heart, every heart

to love will come

but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

That’s how the light gets in.

That’s how the light gets in.

Democracy

It’s coming through a hole in the air,

from those nights in Tiananmen Square.

It’s coming from the feel

that this ain’t exactly real,

or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there.

From the wars against disorder,

from the sirens night and day;

from the fires of the homeless,

from the ashes of the gay:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming through a crack in the wall,

on a visionary flood of alcohol;

from the staggering account

of the Sermon on the Mount

which I don’t pretend to understand at all.

It’s coming from the silence

on the dock of the bay,

from the brave, the bold, the battered

heart of Chevrolet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming from the sorrow in the street,

the holy places where the races meet;

from the homicidal bitchin’

that goes down in every kitchen

to determine who will serve and who will eat.

From the wells of disappointment

where the women kneel to pray

for the grace of G-d in the desert here

and the desert far away:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on

O mighty Ship of State!

To the Shores of Need

past the Reefs of Greed

through the Squalls of Hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on

It’s coming to America first,

the cradle of the best and of the worst.

It’s here they got the range

and the machinery for change

and it’s here they got the spiritual thirst.

It’s here the family’s broken

and it’s here the lonely say

that the heart has got to open

in a fundamental way:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It’s coming from the women and the men.

O baby, we’ll be making love again.

We’ll be going down so deep

that the river’s going to weep,

and the mountain’s going to shout Amen!

It’s coming like the tidal flood

beneath the lunar sway,

imperial, mysterious,

in amorous array:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on

O mighty Ship of State!

To the Shores of Need

past the Reefs of Greed

through the Squalls of Hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on

I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean:

I love the country but I can’t stand the scene.

And I’m neither left or right

I’m just staying home tonight,

getting lost in that hopeless little screen.

But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags

that Time cannot decay,

I’m junk but I’m still holding up

this little wild bouquet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

The Future

Give me back my broken night

my mirrored room, my secret life

It’s lonely here,

there’s no one left to torture

Give me absolute control

over every living soul

And lie beside me, baby,

that’s an order!

Give me crack and anal sex

Take the only tree that’s left

and stuff it up the hole

in your culture

Give me back the Berlin Wall

give me Stalin and St. Paul

I’ve seen the future, brother:

it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

Won’t be nothing

Nothing you can measure anymore

The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

has crossed the threshold

and it has overturned

the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

You don’t know me from the wind

you never will, you never did

I’m the little jew

who wrote the Bible

I’ve seen the nations rise and fall

I’ve heard their stories, heard them all

but love’s the only engine of survival

Your servant here, he has been told

to say it clear, to say it cold:

It’s over, it ain’t going

any further

And now the wheels of heaven stop

you feel the devil’s riding crop

Get ready for the future:

it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

Won’t be nothing

Nothing you can measure anymore

The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

has crossed the threshold

and it has overturned

the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

There’ll be the breaking

of the ancient western code

Your private life will suddenly explode

There’ll be phantoms

there’ll be fires on the road

and the white man dancing

You’ll see your woman

hanging upside down

her features covered by her fallen gown

and all the lousy little poets

coming round

trying to sound like Charlie Manson

and the white man dancin’

Give me back the Berlin Wall

Give me Stalin and St. Paul

Give me Christ

or give me Hiroshima

Destroy another fetus now

We don’t like children anyhow

I’ve seen the future, baby:

it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions

Won’t be nothing

Nothing you can measure anymore

The blizzard, the blizzard of the world

has crossed the threshold

and it has overturned

the order of the soul

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

When they said REPENT REPENT

I wonder what they meant

Closing Time

So we’re drinking and we’re dancing

and the band is really happening

and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high

And my very sweet companion

she’s the Angel of Compassion

she’s rubbing half the world against her thigh

And every drinker, every dancer

lifts a happy face to thank her

the fiddler fiddles something so sublime

All the women tear their blouses off

and the men they dance on the polka-dots

and it’s partner found, it’s partner lost

and it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops

it’s closing time

Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it’s partner found, it’s partner lost
and it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it’s closing time  

Ah we’re lonely, we’re romantic

and the cider’s laced with acid

and the Holy Spirit’s crying, “Where’s the beef?”

And the moon is swimming naked

and the summer night is fragrant

with a mighty expectation of relief

So we struggle and we stagger

down the snakes and up the ladder

to the tower where the blessed hours chime

And I swear it happened just like this:

a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss

the Gates of Love they budged an inch

I can’t say much has happened since

but closing time

I swear it happened just like this:

a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss

the Gates of Love they budged an inch

I can’t say much has happened since

but closing time

I loved you for your beauty

but that doesn’t make a fool of me –

you were in it for your beauty too

And I loved you for your body

there’s a voice that sounds like G-d to me

declaring, declaring, declaring that your body’s really you

And I loved you when our love was blessed

and I love you now there’s nothing left

but sorrow and a sense of overtime

And I miss you since our place got wrecked

and I just don’t care what happens next

looks like freedom but it feels like death

it’s something in between, I guess

it’s closing time

Yeah I miss you since the place got wrecked

by the winds of change and the weeds of sex

looks like freedom but it feels like death

it’s something in between, I guess

it’s closing time

Yeah we’re drinking and we’re dancing

but there’s nothing really happening

and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night

And my very close companion

gets me fumbling, gets me laughing

she’s a hundred but she’s wearing something tight

And I lift my glass to the Awful Truth

which you can’t reveal to the Ears of Youth

except to say it isn’t worth a dime

And the whole damn place goes crazy twice

and it’s once for the Devil and once for Christ

but the Boss don’t like these dizzy heights –

we’re busted in the blinding lights

busted in the blinding lights

of closing time

The whole damn place goes crazy twice

and it’s once for the Devil and once for Christ

but the Boss don’t like these dizzy heights –

we’re busted in the blinding lights

busted in the blinding lights

of closing time

Oh the women tear their blouses off

and the men they dance on the polka-dots

it’s closing time

And it’s partner found, it’s partner lost

and it’s hell to pay when the fiddler stops

it’s closing time

I swear it happened just like this:

a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss

it’s closing time

The Gates of Love they budged an inch

I can’t say much has happened since

but closing time

I loved you when our love was blessed

I love you now there’s nothing left

but closing time

I miss you since the place got wrecked
by the winds of change and the weeds of sex

Dance Me To The End Of Love

La la la la la la...

Dance me to your beauty

with a burning violin

Dance me through the panic

till I’m gathered safely in

Lift me like an olive branch

and be my homeward dove

Dance me to the end of love

Yeah, dance me to the end of love

Let me see your beauty

when the witnesses are gone

Let me feel you moving

like they do in Babylon

Show me slowly what I only

know the limits of

And dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now

dance me on and on

Dance me very tenderly and

dance me very long

We’re both of us beneath our love

both of us above

And dance me to the end of love

Yeah, dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children

who are asking to be born

Dance me through the curtains

that our kisses have outworn

Raise a tent of shelter now

though every thread is torn

And dance me to the end of love

La la la la la la...

Dance me to your beauty
with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic
till I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand
touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

La la la la la la...

Suzanne

Suzanne takes you down

to her place near the river

you can hear the boats go by

you can spend the night beside her

And you know that she’s half crazy

but that’s why you want to be there

and she feeds you tea and oranges

that come all the way from China

And just when you mean to tell her

that you have no love to give her

then she gets you on her wavelength

and she lets the river answer

that you’ve always been her lover

And you want to travel with her

and you want to travel blind

and you know that she will trust you

for you’ve touched her perfect body

with your mind

And Jesus was a sailor

when he walked upon the water

and he spent a long time watching

from his lonely wooden tower

and when he knew for certain

only drowning men could see him

he said “All men will be sailors then

until the sea shall free them”

but he himself was broken

long before the sky would open

forsaken, almost human

he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him

and you want to travel blind

and you think maybe you’ll trust him

for he’s touched your perfect body

with his mind

Now Suzanne takes your hand

and she leads you to the river

she is wearing rags and feathers

from Salvation Army counters

And the sun pours down like honey

on our lady of the harbour

And she shows you where to look

among the garbage and the flowers

There are heroes in the seaweed

there are children in the morning

they are leaning out for love

they will lean that way forever

while Suzanne holds the mirror

And you want to travel with her

and you want to travel blind

and you know that you can trust her

for she’s touched your perfect body

with her mind

Who By Fire

And who by fire? Who by water? Who in the sunshine? Who in the night time? Who by high ordeal? Who by common trial? Who in your merry, merry month of may? Who by very slow decay? And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip? Who by barbiturate? Who in these realms of love? Who by something blunt? And who by avalanche? Who by powder? Who for his greed? Who for his hunger? And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave ascent? Who by accident? Who in solitude? Who in this mirror? Who by his lady’s command? Who by his own hand? Who in mortal chains? Who in power? And who shall I say is calling?

Hallelujah

Baby, I’ve been here before.

I know this room, I’ve walked this floor.

I used to live alone before I knew you.

I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch,

(but listen) love is not some kind of victory march,

no it’s a cold and it’s a very broken Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

(Hallelujah)

There was a time you let me know

what’s really going on below

(ah) but now you never show it to me, do you?

(But) I remember when I moved in you,

And the holy dove (she) was moving too,

[And] every single breath that we drew was Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Now] Maybe there’s a G-d above

As for me, all I’ve ever seemed to learn from love

is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.

But it’s not a complaint that you hear tonight,

It’s not the laughter of someone who claims to have seen the light –

no, it’s a cold and it’s a very lonely Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best; it wasn’t much.

I couldn’t feel, so I learned to touch.

I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come (all this way) to fool you.

[And] Even though it all went wrong

I’ll stand (right here) before the Lord of Song

with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!

 Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Never Any Good

I was never any good at loving you

I was never any good at coming

through for you

You’re going to feel much better

When you cut me loose forever

I was never any good

Never any good

I was never any good at loving you

I was dying when we met

I bet my life on you

But you called me and I folded

like you knew I’d do

You called my ace, my king, my bluff

Okay, you win, enough’s enough

I was never any good

Never any good

I was never any good at loving you

I was pretty good at taking out

the garbage

Pretty good at holding up the wall

Dealing with the fire and the earthquake

But that don’t count

That don’t count

That don’t count for nothing much at all

I was never any good at loving you

I was just a tourist in your bed looking

at the view

But I can’t forget where my lips

have been

Those holy hills, that deep ravine

I was never any good

Never any good

I was never any good at loving you

I was pretty good at taking out the garbage

Pretty good at holding up the wall

I’m sorry for my crimes against

the moonlight

I didn’t think

I didn’t think

I didn’t think the moon would mind at all

I was never any good at loving you

At doing what a woman really wants

a man to do

You’re going to feel much better

When you cut me loose forever

I was never any good

Never any good

I was never any good at loving you

The Great Event

It’s going to happen very soon. The great

event which will end the horror. Which will

end the sorrow. Next Tuesday, when the sun

goes down, I will play the Moonlight Sonata

backwards. This will reverse the effects of

the world’s mad plunge into suffering, for

the last 200 million years. What a lovely

night that would be. What a sigh of relief, as

the senile robins become bright red again,

and the retired nightingales, pick up their

dusty tails, and assert the majesty of creation!

(c) 1997 Leonard Cohen, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Canada Company

“Everybody Knows” (c) by Leonard Cohen, Sony/ ATV Music Publishing Canada Company, MCA-Geffen Music and Robinhill Music (Sharon Robinson)

“Take This Waltz” (c) by Leonard Cohen, Sony/ ATV Music Publishing Canada Company, and EMI Songs España S.R.L.

Courtesy of Menart, exclusive Sony dealer for Croatia

Reprinted here with written permission