A very very very fine house

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother's tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep (ah)

Brother's got a date to keep, he can't hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, it has a crowd

There's always something happening
And it's usually quite loud
Our mum she's so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down and a mess is not allowed

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

 (something tells you that you've got to move away from it)

Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss (ah)
She's the one they're going to miss in lots of ways

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
I remember way back then when everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time, such a fine time
Such a happy time

And I remember how we'd play, simply waste the day away
Then we'd say nothing would come between us
Two dreamers

Father wears his Sunday best

Mother's tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister's sighing in her sleep
Brother's got a date to keep, he can't hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, was our castle and our keep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street, our house

I'll light the fire

You place the flowers in the vase

That you bought today

Staring at the fire

For hours and hours

While I listen to you

Play your love songs

All night long for me

Only for me

Come to me now

And rest your head for just five minutes

Everything is good

Such a cosy room

The windows are illuminated

By the evening sunshine through them

Fiery gems for you

Only for you

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

With two cats in the yard

Life used to be so hard

Now everything is easy

'Cause of you

And our la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la...

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

With two cats in the yard

Life used to be so hard

Now everything is easy

'Cause of you

I'll light the fire

While you place the flowers in the vase

That you bought today

Dick Cavett Recounts the Time a Guest Died on His Show

I was happily surprised to see Dick Cavett, whom an alarming number of people seem to think is dead, on Seth Meyers. He must be in his 80s by now, and looks wonderful, with those movie star cheekbones and the canny, knowing eyes. Refreshingly, he does not seem to have messed with his face to look younger, which never works anyway. His deep flat resonant Nebraska voice, so full of irony and skepticism, is just the same.

I always loved his show as a teenager, and some stick out in my mind: one with Crosby, Stills and Nash, along with Joni Mitchell, and Mitchell did a song called "For Free" (about a man on the corner with a clarinet, who was "playing real good for free"). I remember David Crosby looked like a dimpled angel, and somebody (Grace Slick? It couldn't be,  that was another show) said, "You look like a Leo."

j

And here it is, for the love of God, the episode I was just talking about - it WAS on YouTube after all, and it looks like I was right about everything, even Grace Slick. What an incredible guest lineup for one show. I watched it after school while I was still living in Chatham. I was fifteen.

I didn't see the show where the guy died, because NOBODY did - it was on tape and never aired. But I did see an alarming show he did on PBS  in the early '80s, in which several people came on and talked about the pure pleasure and utter lack of danger of snorting cocaine. There was  a user with pinwheel eyes who insisted her life was better in every way (and how would  SHE know, after all?), and a doctor who swore it was all to the good and did no bodily or psychological harm whatsoever. Coke was king back then, but Cavett sat there barely hiding his consternation, trying not to tell them all they were full of crap, as he famously did sometimes in the old days. I also remember - there used to be a video of this, but I can't find it now - the cast of Husbands, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetes, all down on the floor wrestling with each other, while Cavett literally walked off his own show

Or was it Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal?

Anyway, these Late Night snippets seem to be recent, and I hope so, because I think it's good he's in the world. I love his moonwalk, too - he's  still full of surprises and the unlikely. 

And how I love the unlikely! Such as actually finding the clip (below). The good part starts around 7:30.

And here are a couple of gifs I made, at great expense and time!