"Dialogue Between Two Singles"

The 1980s! For me it was a glorious time of youth and accomplishment. But it was also a time when the carefree love of the 1970s came to a frightening end. AIDS. I remember first hearing about AIDS while I was still in high school. It was the subject of jokes: “What do you call a gay on roller-skates?” “Roll-AIDS!” “What do you call a bunch of gay musicians?” “Band-AIDS!” Yikes! Now I’ve had friends die of AIDS. I have friends and at least one ex-lover that I know of who are HIV+. The joke isn’t funny anymore. Vin and I addressed it rather obliquely in “Till I was Gone,” and I touched on it again near the end of this song.

I can’t believe how much talent was taken from the world too soon. Klaus Nomi, Keith Haring, Jobriath, Arthur Russell, and on and on. I remember in the early 1990s, when I was back in Des Moines to do “A Heart Calls Quietly,” seeing a program at the Ingersoll Dinner Theater about AIDS, featuring performers with the disease. The lead spokesman announced to the crowd, “I’m not just HIV+, I have AIDS, the full-blown disease.” At that time, it was a death sentence. He probably didn’t last much longer, and I’ve thought about him often since that night.

Dialogue Between Two Singles

© 1987 Brian Hutzell

He said, "Hello, what are you doing this weekend? Are you free?"

She said, "Yes," She said, "Okay, fine. Friday night is good for me."

He said, "What should we do? Would you like to go out or stay in?"

She said, "Either, it doesn't matter. I easily give in."

He said, "Come on over, we'll have dinner then retire."

She said, "Don't make dessert; instead make love by the fire."

Look around and try to mingle

Take another drink from a tray

Dialogue between two singles

No one has a thing to say

Pick-up lines and body signals

Meaningless but still performed

Dialogue between two singles

Somewhere they've been misinformed

He said, "Tell me about yourself: Do you smoke? What's your sign?"

She said, "I like spaghetti and I'd love a glass of wine."

He said, "What are your hobbies? Mine are golf and racquetball."

She said, "I belong to a health-club. Friends say I'm off-the-wall."

He said, "Fassbinder was my idol; I've seen all his shows."

She said. "I love the theater but seldom ever go."

Look around and try to mingle

Take another drink from a tray

Dialogue between two singles

No one has a thing to say

Pick-up lines and body signals

Meaningless but still performed

Dialogue between two singles

Somewhere they've been misinformed

He said something that offended her

She slapped him

But the sound was silent in the noisy room

Don't you miss the seventies?

The discos and the look of cheesy polyester suits

Oh, to return to the days when the single life was happening and safe

Oh, to the dance floor

Where the beat and the melody kept trouble in its place

Look around and try to mingle

Conversation growing thin

Dialogue between two singles

No one lets a stranger in

Pick-up time, it's not so simple

Number One is staying alive

Monologue for frightened singles

Move with caution through the night

"Shine"

Brian Hutzell