It's New Year's Day in New Orleans
And I'm walking to the river with the girl of my dreams
And we're walking, I have thoughts I'm not sure others have
Like how the most underrated actor in the world is Steve Railsback
Who played Manson in Helter Skelter and who played Ed Gein
He's been in a few Rob Zombie films too, I'm pretty sure, I think
Yesterday, we were hanging 'round the swamp and I was thinking about the new year and what I'm gonna do
And I thought about the MOVIE Southern Comfort with Keith Carradine, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote, and Powers Boothe
And the slide guitar soundtrack of Ry Cooder
And how Powers Boothe could've played Vincent Bugliosi in the MOVIE Helter Skelter, Manson's famous prosecutor
I could've pursued acting or maybe been one of those soundtrack guys
But I'm a songwriter, I write songs in my car until the day I die
I write songs that make people laugh, cry, happy
And songs that make grown man shit their pants like little fucking babies
Songs about lazy little cats sleeping on nice, warm porches
'Bout pitbulls howling in cages in police stations while the cops process the pimp dog owner
The first chapter of a book about Maurice Ravel
He's born a few years after my home was built and that's put me in a spell
Thinking about Marx, Freud, and Einstein in the late 19th century
I'll start those off in the afternoon because we were feeling pretty sleepy
From all of that good rich Southern food that we ate
Toasted grit salmon, creme fraiche, and mala shrimp, and fried catfish plates
Last night, we watched fireworks along the Mississippi
I got a call from my friend in Tennessee, it was her grandmother's 97th birthday
She's the closest thing to a grandmother that I've ever had
She makes oyster stuffing every Thanksgiving
But the last time that I had it, I was sleeping in her basement in 1990 reading Riders on the Storm
I was obsessed with the Doors
But didn't care for the perspective of John Densmore
This past Christmas Day, my dad's friend Dan Engelberg died
In a hospital bed at the age of 99
Weeks away from turning 100
The Saturday before, he talked to my dad and said he was ready to go, that he loved my dad and that he was one of the best friends he's ever had
I called my dad Christmas night, he was quiet and said it hadn't quite hit him yet
I talked to my friend last night
She was at home with the shingles
All alone on New Years' Eve
Someone else was watching her children
She's not well enough to handle them by herself these days
She's tuning out watching True Detective on DVD
And right now, me and my girl are gonna go find a place to eat
Try to dodge the drunken fans of the Ohio and Alabama college football teams
Playing at the Superdome right now as I write
It's hard getting out of this big, soft bed tonight
Just back from Saint Charles Tavern where they're blasting the game
She had bread pudding and I had chocolate chip pancakes
She was talking about adopting a dog or a cat
I keep talking about which guitars I'm gonna bring to Japan
When I finally go to sleep, I hope to have a nice dream
About my old kitty cat sniffing at the Christmas tree
Not a nightmare where I'm lost in a Malaysian sea
Snakehead fishes tearing me apart with their nasty teeth
You never know if it's gonna be a good or a bad dream
But nothing beats falling asleep to the sound of the streetcar in New Orleans
And I dreamed that it was 1978
I lived in Central City and it was a warm autumn day
And me and my friends would see Ali/Spinks 2 at the dome
Walked back to someone's house, so excited about the fight of the decade in New Orleans
And we laughed all night on the muggy front porch 'til the sun came up
The dream cut to the back bedroom of a shotgun style house
I was looking around the room and the walls were purple and GOLD
The radio was on, it was January 2nd, I picked up a guitar that I bought at a pawn shop