"Dreams" lyrics - LAURIE ANDERSON

LAURIE ANDERSON
"Dreams"

[Spoken:]
Don't you hate it when people tell you their dreams? You know they say
Things like, "I had this dream and there was this man and he was my
Father. Oh no wait wait, he was my uncle! Oh, no no wait he was my father
No. Wait I'm not sure." And you say, "Please don't tell me your dream!"
But they go on anyway, "Yes I think he was my father and he had this
Bloody severed head." They're telling you the dream like it's a movie you
Might want to see sometime and not something that's happening only in
The back of their own head

A while ago, I was in Germany and I walked into a huge recording studio
And in the middle of the studio was a man wearing no clothes playing the
Flute and covered with flies. And there were enormous mics all over the
Room and when I got closer I saw that the flies were actually tiny
Microphones attached all over his body and these mics picked up every
Little sound so the engineers kept saying, "Um... we can hear your shirt
Rustling... can you take it off?" A few minutes later, "Your pants are really
Loud, they'll have to go too-and the shoes are deafening." So he was
Standing there shivering and playing. There were mics inside the flute
Too that recorded the breath as it blew through the tube and turned into
Notes

And in the mix the sounds from all the microphones combined into a
Huge symphony and when you put headphones on the sound was really
So spatial. The breath rushes into one ear and curves around the top of
Your skull in chords and harmonics then turns around and around and
Blows out the other ear. So being in your head was like being in a huge
Drafty barn with the wind blowing through. No it wasn't like being in a
Head filled with brains and blood and teeth but something completely
Light and empty and full of wind and music