Hey Ray (commentary) Songtext
von John Cale

Ah, Ray Johnson was the first artist I run into in New York
When I first got there
He was part of the John Cage-Merce Cunningham group
And, uh, I was, I was thinking about all-all the things that went on
When I got there in the ′60s, and And how, um, in New York, they-they
The U.N. hosted Fidel Castro in Harlem
And, um, all these stories about how he used to cook his chicken
On a-, on a-, on a paraffin stove in-in, in his room at the Theresa Hotel


Um, Ray was a young eccentric
Who used the postal service as his canvas
He used to send crazy bits of cuttings drawings, and envelopes
Full of bric-à-brac to people
And he'd never call ya, and you couldn′t call him
Very shy guy, and, um, that was it
And, uh, everybody was worried 'cause the Russians were coming
Which they didn't