The link below to a clip of the 2008 concert performance in London of "Everybody Knows" shows a 73-year-old Leonard Cohen sporting a rakishly tilted black fedora singing with a rare courtliness in a trademark gravelly voice that has been compared to a velvet garrote or the warm feeling that comes from drinking good whisky.[1]  --  Cohen and Sharon Robinson wrote this dark prophetic anthem of the transition to the post-globalization market-state in the era of AIDS toward the end of the Reagan era.  --  "Everybody Knows" was first released as the third track on Cohen's 1988 "I'm Your Man" album.  --  Also posted below:  a clip of his performance at the same concert of "Tower of Song," at the end of which he revealed "the answer to the mysteries" at "the very core of things."[2] ...

1.

EVERYBODY KNOWS
By Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson

YouTube (posted by ilnee)
July 23, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUfS8LyeUyM

[Lyrics as performed by Leonard Cohen at London's O2 Arena on July 17, 2008]

Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows

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 knows

Everybody knows the boat is leaking
Everybody knows the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feelin'
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talkin' 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 you really do
Everybody knows you've been faithful
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
Everybody knows

Everybody knows
Everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows it's me or you
Everybody knows that you live forever
When you've done a little line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the plague is comin'
Everybody knows it's movin' fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's going to be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

Everybody knows you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach at Malibu
Everybody knows it's comin' apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows
Everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows
Everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

All right
Everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

2.

LEONARD COHEN LIVE IN LONDON [2008] -- TOWER OF SONG
By xFaq1987

YouTube
October 8, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmON_0bzUZc&NR=1