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Watch Andrew Bird And The National's Matt Berninger Cover Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day'

This intimate, completely unadorned cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" will warm your heart. Andrew Bird and The National's Matt Berninger recorded the song together in Bird's living room; Bird provided the instrumentation, his trademark whistling and violin gracefully looping together, and Berninger reads the lyrics from a sheet of paper on the floor.

"What do you think happens at the end of the [perfect] day," Berninger asks Bird at the end of the song. Bird says, "I think they go back to Jersey."

The video and performance was filmed live in late August as part of Bird's ongoing "Live From The Great Room" series. The weekly series, streamed live on Facebook, features interviews and cozy performances with Bird and some of his friends. Past guests include Fiona Apple, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and John C. Reilley.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.
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