So Long, Dave. Thanks For The Laughter. Watch Your Step.

I confess that I will miss David Letterman even though I have not been anything close to a faithful watcher for many years.

However, there was a stretch of time in the 80's when I was away from home quite a bit. On tour or working in another city and after the show was over and a late night meal was found getting back to the hotel to watch Letterman and wind down the night was what was done.

Laughter before sleep. Better than drugs.

Last night, his penultimate night, I had to watch. I needed to see what Bill Murray would conjure of course but really it was to see Dylan. Bob Dylan. Not that other one.

I wondered what he might do. Would he do "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" perhaps, with a wink and a nod  to the desk? 

Maybe an updated version of License to Kill, which he sang the first time he appeared on the show back in '84.

Nope. He sang a song not even his own, The Night We Called It a Day, off his new album of American jazz and pop standards. He's always been Bob Dylan, of course, and last night he seemed even more so what with the flock of ducks that seemed to inhabit his body when he didn't have a good grip on the mike stand.

Surreal.

I think I'll choose to remember him for other things.

Like this.

I'll watch Letterman's last show tonight too. It will be bittersweet as so much of life so often is. We're the same age now, he and I.

I will miss knowing that I can always tune in to a Letterman show for a laugh. The new guys are just so reverential amid the giggling and fawning.