LOSERVILLE

I don't like Leonard Cohen. For lack of a better word. But I need a better word. For there ARE people who actually like him. Enough of them to have made him famous, even. But not enough of them, or not well enough, to have prevented him from retiring in a Greek monastery where he will keep his wretched Jewish mouth shut and his truths of absolute desperation roughly to himself at last.

I wonder what people who like Leonard Cohen like about him. Me I’m not afraid of death but I’m afraid of Mr Grim Reaper. His stone face who won’t lighten up, ever, and is not even a mask. His low-fi, bleak, defeated tombstone voice free of anger and free of hope. His useless, unwanted ghosts who can only be persecuted more and endure always further persecution because they tell about a brand of evil so impossible to face that the only way to handle it is to pretend that it’s not evil but something more daily, more ordinary – or just crush it as being the evil itself.

The only way ? No, I don’t think so… Just the Good Germans’ way. The Good Germans were good. They were just not heroes. They were “just men”.

Heroes like Michael Moore grant you the right to be “just a man”. They accept the apologies of the people who once crossed the street to spit on their truthful, lonely self. They accept the redemption of war criminals like Wesley Clark, and they would accept Bush’s or Cheney’s supposing that it was to happen. But sulking kids like Leonard Cohen don’t. When all is said and done, they just move away from the pulsebeat.

“Everybody knows” is about intellectual dishonesty as a means of survival. It must be his grimmest, gloomiest song ever. It tells about the necessity of mental death to face material life for those of us who like to see themselves as “just men”.

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
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

This Casino Royale is the property of the Devil, and this Chiffre is 666. Poker isn’t based on candor. And it’s not true that you play just to be part of. You play to win. But it’s not true that anybody can win. It’s not true that the game is poker. It’s not true that cleverness makes you win. It’s not true that it all can still be called a game. There is no such thing as a game where everybody loses but one in a million. Michael Moore said that the American dream is dead. Bad news bringer.

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

Oh dear what can I do, baby’s in black and I’m feeling blue, tell me oh, what can I do. We know we should avert the disaster, but now the window pane is broken and the water is flooding in. We’re all in mourning of what mattered the most to us and that we collectively killed : our compass and our fidelity. We need love and consolation for having been so stupid, no smart ass accusers, who are they to feel innocent of the mess anyway ? Surely they have to be for something in it. Who knows if it’s not entirely their fault after all, that’s what I say.

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that youve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows youve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Ever wondered how a bunch of cruel, suicidal fools such as us has ever managed to survive over the ages – even if these ages are in fact ridiculously short and should soon meet their end anyway ? Well, it’s because love is real, real is love, love is feeling, feeling love, love is wanting to be loved. In our darkest hour, there’s always someone, somewhere, who loves us tender and loves us true. And the people who can achieve that – have mercy on the Untouchables and love the Untouchable in a worldly moron – are naturally sincere and everybody’s friends. They behave in life as open bridges. Such a shame they sometimes mistake themselves for whores.

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Yeah, but what to do, Grim Smartypants ? Uh ? What to do ?

And everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when youve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

War.

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that its 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 theres gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

This is a song about dying and rising, this is a song about the death and resurrection of Marx and Engels, this is a song about the death of honor and fidelity, this is a song about the rise of fascism and the rise of the prostitution which opens to it a French boulevard, this is a song about Michael Moore who has disclosed what everybody knows.

Who has disclosed
What everybody knows.

And everybody knows that youre in trouble
Everybody knows what youve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows its coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Saint or scumbag, hero or coward, Resistant or Good German, we’re all in the same boat and chew on life’s gristle at the same table. We’re all deep in shit, we’ve all been through more pain than we could ever tell, we’ve all been crucified and we’ve all been baking under the sun. But Christ’s heart is the only one left that still has the pity, and it’s so full of lonely sobs that surely it’ll soon blow.

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Yeah, but what to do, Grim Smartypants ? Uh ? What to do ?

Everybody knows

To accept to know
What everybody knows.