A pessimist’s anthem for any era, Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” never loses its gut-punch sense of knowingness, its blunt force wisdom. Everybody really does know, of course, just how this life ends. Still, there’s something in watching Cohen stalking the stage, his hat pulled low, approximating a boxer’s time-worn feint.
Then Cohen goes down on one knee, overcome for a time by the enormity of our certain doom — as certain in 1988, when he released this song on I’m Your Man, as it is more than 25 years later. Some songs are of their moment; others are for the ages. This is, you’re reminded once more, certainly the latter.
Cohen is not laid low for long, though. Soon, he’s standing tall, his hand pointed upward, his eyes closed, his voice filled with a sense of purpose so deep that it makes your bones hum. He may not be here for long — really, none of us is — but he’s got something to say in the meantime.
This take, made complete by the soulful addition of the Webb Sisters, arrives as the closing number on Live in Dublin, a 3CD/1DVD package recorded in September 2013 and due for release on December 2, 2014. Coupled with some of Leonard Cohen’s strongest new music in some time, from 2012’s Old Ideas and 2014’s Popular Problems, “Everybody Knows” serves as a reminder of Leonard Cohen’s lasting legend — and as a road sign to the great work he’s still doing today.
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