Songfacts®:

• "You Know More Than I Know" is a haunting and introspective ballad that grapples with themes of power dynamics, knowledge, and resignation. It hints at one person possessing a deeper understanding or control over a situation than the other. The repetition of the phrase "You know more than I know" suggests a sense of imbalance in a relationship.
• John Cale recorded the song for Fear, the first of his three studio albums for Island Records, all of which were released in a period of just over a year. The Welsh musician produced the record himself and played most of the instruments.
• Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses recorded the song for their 2015 covers album, Sing into My Mouth.
• The song is used in a scene in the 2023 American romantic drama Past Lives. It plays when Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Arthur (John Magaro) are alone with each other in a dimly lit bar with memories of two different versions of Nora (Greta Lee) - Hae Sung is her childhood sweetheart and Arthur her husband.
  
  "They're not friends. But they're not really - you can't really say that they're rivals," director Celine Song told Indiewire . "That's not how they're treating each other. They're kind of an acquaintance, but a little bit deeper than that because they both care for this woman and they know this woman differently."
  
  "That's why the song [in that scene] is John Cale's 'You Know More Than I Know,'" Song continued. "[It's] the perfect song for them because that's what it is. Part of it is the mystery that they have for each other, and they're actually making room for that mystery for each other and in each other."