(no subject)

[miko2]

Today's Song: Everybody Knows by Concrete Blonde

Since typographer posted a cover of the Leonard Cohen song Everybody Knows by Rufus Wainwright in his journal yesterday, I thought I'd make this version my song of the day.

Concrete Blonde's version of the song cuts out some of the lyrics and rearranges some of the lyrics, so that the second verse comes third (and comes at the very end since they cut out the other verses):

Everybody knows you love me baby,
Everybody knows you really do,
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Give or take a night or two,
Everybody knows you've been discrete
So many people you've had to meet
Without your clothes, and everybody knows....

What this does is change the song from a kind of laundry-list show tune of sorts that speaks of a lot of different things, to a song very specifically about infidelity. All of the other lines in the song are in this case are just kind of talking about the problem or beating about the bush, before the singer gets around to saying what's really on her mind. It works like a good story -- it gives the last lines a lot of extra punch.

Now, first I have to admit that Concrete Blonde's is the first version of the song that I've ever heard, and of course, once you fall in love with a certain version of a song it's hard to accept a radically different version. But really, I was quite surprised when I finally heard how the original song is supposed to go. Naturally, it's still a very good song -- that's why so many people have covered it. The original has lines that are quite powerful that are left out of the Concrete Blonde version:

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

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

The song does contain some great lines and great imagery. The original version can be interpreted as about something much greater than just a simple betrayal of love... some critics have suggested it's about love in the age of aids, or even about the coming destruction of the world. And yet... it's still a kind of show tune with a laundry list of things that "everybody knows". That the Concrete Blonde version, despite a much narrower focus, has the bigger payoff. It may not make reference any great catastrophe, but it gives the song a very specific focus and point: personal betrayal.

Everybody Knows - Concrete Blonde