The Greatest Conversation Ever in the History of the Universe

Laurie Anderson hugged me last night and it was a dream I was in the house where her and Lou lived and I saw some things that he had seen not through his eyes or through his brain or through his years or through his heart or the blood that ran through his veins or his pleasure and pain I saw the Hudson and imagined that maybe the house had remained just as it was until Lou's last days we were there and for 3 or 4 hours and it was so unreal that I forgot my name and Laurie gave me a hug it felt like a dream I'm not the kind of guy who would reveal the details of what caught my eye at their house to random girls and guys with the exception of a birthday gift given to him by Muhammad Ali that was framed and in that moment I was frozen and it was just i and me uninterrupted and I thought oh my god what 2 powerful independent minds if the two of them conversed it would probably be the greatest conversation ever in the history of the universe I thought what two strong brave individual minds and I am nothing but a speck of sand on the beach but so am I if you don't like this song or what i have to say then fuck off and listen to Bye Bye Miss American Pie because it's from my heart and so is this next line i'm a black sheep baby and I'll eat you alive and I'm kind and gentle and I'm good listener and I can read people's eyes and I'm fun to be around and I'm endearing and can sing songs that make grown men cry and if you're down and out i'm not the type to tense up so spill it baby don't be shy Caroline and Laurie shared a love of Rat Terriers but I walked to the Muhammad Ali framed photo and I stared at it at least a few times for it was all too much as Ali had recently died and I couldn't help thinking all of our time will come you you you and you and you too and I tonight I walked around New York all on my own between Broadway and 5th and 28th and 34th I've always loved 32nd street Korean way the women's bodies around there are curvy and wrapped beautifully they look like walking decorative vases and all the wonderful tastes of Bulgogi and Kalbi and the sexy red soup with bean curd and the spicy Kimchi and Madison Square Garden and Joe Louis Plaza and Jack's Dempsey's and Macy's and I'm sentimental about many things in this 6 by 2 by block radius but tonight Lou was still on my mind he had a stunning view of the water as do I back in San Francisco I look at small distant cities and I watch the boats pass it was less than three years ago that I walked on stage in London just as I heard that Lou had died I played Caroline Says and The Kids and I talked for a bit and I wanted to cry 'cause at the Vancouver Olympics I had briefly met Lou and what his album Berlin meant to me I'm not even gonna to try to explain it to you this year has been a strange motherfucker people gettin' killed in America and France and two 12 year old girls are being tried as adults for attempted murder where was their father where was their mother while they were bein' brain washed by Slenderman, brother? and Trump is all over the TV Let's face it we asked for this fuck because we've been surpassed by technology we've have our head sup our asses sending selfies around the planet and getting' run over by cars while we jerk off to Pokeman mon so here's this motherfucker spouting off and if you think you took no part in his place in this world then you're fired because you've not been paying attention and your apprenticeship expired I've digressed but I keep following my path that lead me from first hearing Berlin when I was 19 to The Power Of The Heart where at Lou's tribute concert I sung and I was honored to have taken part and the night was magical and humid and dark Laurie looked for sun Lou looked for rain well she had sun that day and at night Lou had his rain and I did what I came here to do and shared the Lincoln Center stage with all of that talent and those amazing singers and all of those original brains and tonight from 32nd I hear siren's creepin' up and trailin' off and as a walked I saw Sbarro's and thought of my very first trip to New York 1992 all i could afford was Pizza and Dunkin Donuts and I had 20 bucks left over that I spent on a stripper behind a window who reached down and jerked me off I had a cassette Walkman back then and knew a girl who lived in The Bronx we went out one night and saw a movie Glenn Gary Glenn Ross I remembered that just now in this humidity as I turn and I toss thinkin' about Lou and the beautiful things he had not what he had lost friends and poetry the love of his life and his beautiful house and I'm gonna go to sleep now as in this moment there's nothin' more to write thank you Laurie I'm forever grateful for that night -- Music by Justin Broadrick/Words by Mark Kozelek God Forbid Publishing BMI/Mute Publishing