“Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen

"Everybody Knows" arrived on Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man in February 1988, co-written with Sharon Robinson, and it's the sound of a prophet who has read the morning papers and decided the game was rigged all along. Cohen and Michel Robidoux produced it and played the keyboards, laying down a cold, clipped synth pulse, while John Bilezikjian's oud curls around the edges like smoke and Jennifer Warnes shadows Cohen on backing vocals.

Nearly every line opens with the title, a somber litany five minutes and 37 seconds long that takes in AIDS, social ills, love and faith. Critics heard it as bitterly pessimistic and funny at the same time, and they weren't wrong. In 1990 Allan Moyle's film Pump Up the Volume made it the signature tune of Christian Slater's pirate radio DJ, who spins it on a record player during his secret broadcasts.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.