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The Velvet Underground - Heroin

The Velvet Underground - Heroin Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released: 1967

Heroin Lyrics

I don't know just where I'm going
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I tell you things aren't quite the same

When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son
And I guess that I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know

I have made big decision
I'm gonna try to nullify my life
'Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper's neck
When I'm closing in on death

You can't help me now, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know

I wish that I was born a thousand years ago
I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
On a sailor's suit and cap

Away from the big city
Where a man cannot be free
Of all the evils of this town
And of himself and those around
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know
Oh, and I guess that I just don't know

Heroin, be the death of me
Heroin, it's my wife and it's my life
Because a mainline into my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I'm better off than dead

Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jims in this town
And all the politicians making crazy sounds
And everybody putting everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

'Cause when the smack begins to flow
And I really don't care anymore
Ah, when that heroin is in my blood
And that blood is in my head
Then thank God that I'm as good as dead
And thank your God that I'm not aware
And thank God that I just don't care
And I guess I just don't know
Oh, and I guess I just don't know

Writer/s: LEWIS ALLEN REED, LOU REED
Publisher: SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Heroin

While there are many alternative interpretations of this song, it seems to be the case that Lou Reed was merely describing the effects of the drug, while neither condemning it nor condoning it. It might have been done merely for shock value, or because Reed liked gritty subjects, or as a dark poem of addiction; the beauty of this song is that it works on all of these levels, and many more, at the same time. In many of his songs, we have cases where Lou Reed kept the focus on providing an objective description of the topic without taking a moral stance on the matter.
For the record, Lou Reed spoke of the meaning of some of his songs in a 1971 interview with creem magazine: "I meant those songs to sort of exorcise the darkness, or the self-destructive element in me, and hoped other people would take them the same way. But when I saw how people were responding to them, it was disturbing. Because, like, people would come up and say, 'I shot up to 'Heroin,' things like that. For a while, I was even thinking that some of my songs might have contributed formatively to the consciousness of all these addictions and things going down with the kids today. But I don't think that anymore; it's really too awful a thing to consider."

Lou Reed wrote "Heroin" while attending Syracuse University - he would have been close to the age of 18. During his attendance, he also played guitar with several bar bands and hosted his own radio show on campus, in which he featured the works of various jazz and R&B legends. According to The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side , Reed would amuse himself by using his electric guitar to blast screeches at the marching ROTC cadets on the green outside his dorm window, an act that impressed his new friend Sterling Morrison.

Also according to the above-mentioned biography, an original acetate recording of The Velvet Underground & Nico, including this song, was discovered at a yard sale in 2006. One Warren Hill, street-shopping along Chelsea Street in New York City, spotted the find. It was later verified to be the recording made at their first session at Scepter Studios under producer Norman Dolph. Hill bought the acetate for seventy-five cents. He later sold it on eBay for $25,000.

The unique screeching, droning viola sound in this and other early Velvet Underground songs was produced by bassist John Cale, a classically trained violist, playing an electric viola with 3 guitar strings, a cello bow and plenty of feedback. This preceded The Creation, who were the first to play a guitar with a cello bow in 1966. Few other bands exploited feedback and noise to the same degree as the Velvet Underground until the noise-rock scene developed in the 1980s.

The line, "And I feel just like Jesus' son" provided the title for Denis Johnson's short story collection Jesus' Son , which was made into a movie in 1999.

The song appears in the Oliver Stone movie The Doors.

Weezer's Brian Bell and Patrick Wilson covered this when they portrayed Lou Reed and John Cale, respectively, in the Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl (2006).

The Velvet Underground - Black Angel's Death Song

The Velvet Underground - Black Angel's Death Song Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released: 1967

Black Angel's Death Song Lyrics

The myriad choices of his fate
Set themselves out upon a plate
For him to choose
What had he to lose

Not a ghost bloodied country
All covered with sleep
Where the black angel did weep
Not an old city street in the east
Gone to choose

And wandering's brother
Walked on through the night
With his hair in his face
On a long splintered cut from the knife of g.t.

The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn
Until we said so long
To his skull-shrill yell

Shining brightly red-rimmed and
Red-lined with the time
Infused with the choice of the mind
On ice skates scraping chunks
From the bells

Cut mouth bleeding razor's
Forgetting the pain
Antiseptic remains cool goodbye
So you fly
To the cozy brown snow of the east
Gone to choose, choose again

Sacrificials remains make it hard to forget
Where you come from
The stools of your eyes
Serve to realize fame, choose again

And roverman's refrain of the sacrilege recluse
For the loss of a horse
Went the bowels and a tail of a rat
Come again, choose to go

And if epiphany's terror reduced you to shame
Have your head bobbed and weaved
Choose a side to be on

If the stone glances off
Split didactics in two
Leave the colors of the mouse trails
Don't scream, try between
If you choose, if you choose, try to lose
For the loss of remain come and start

Start the game i che che che che i
Che che ka tak koh
Choose to choose
Choose to choose, choose to go

Writer/s: REED, LOU / CALE, JOHN
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, GARNANT MUSIC, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Black Angel's Death Song

This song covers a variety of topics but the main one has to do with Communism. Lou Reed was and is today an avid supporter of choice, hence all the mentions of choice and choosing. Some of the failed attempts at Communism are mentioned as well. When Reed says, "To the cozy brown snow of the east" and "Not a ghost bloodied country," these are blatant references to Russia and the USSR. Reed was trying to say that Communism will never and should never exist in a modern-day society. (This analysis was completed by Matt Skaroff and Colin Rementer)

According to The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side , this song, written by Lou Reed and John Cale, features Cale on the electric viola, showing his John Cage influence and drone/noise style. Here his dissonant notes weave around the song like a buzzing mosquito, almost harassing it. Those bursts of audio feedback are also provided by Cale, who simply blew into the microphone at punctuated intervals.

"The Black Angel's Death Song" was one of four songs recorded in July 1965 for the still-forming group's first demo tape. They were inspired at the time by recordings which Cale had brought back from a trip to the UK, by groups such as The Who and The Kinks.

The Velvet Underground's original drummer was Angus MacLise, a neighbor of Cale's who sometimes played drums with the Theater of Eternal Music. Shortly after recording the demo session that included this song, MacLise quit the group, who was an idealistic purist who disliked the idea of being paid to play music or of having to keep a schedule. He was replaced by Maureen "Moe" Tucker, and the rest is history.

The The Velvet Underground & Nico album was partly recorded at the run-down Scepter Recording Studio, on West 54th Street, financed by Warhol and bankrolled in part by Columbia Records sales executive Norman Dolph. Dolph also served as engineer, along with John Licata. The rest of the album was recorded in T.T.G. Studios in Hollywood, California with engineer Omi Haden.

The Black Angels, a psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas which formed in 2004, derived their name from this song. This echoes the most famous quote about the Velvet Underground, "Only five thousand people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band."

The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs

The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released: 1967

Venus In Furs Lyrics

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Downy sins of streetlight fancies
Chase the costumes she shall wear
Ermine furs adorn the imperious
Severin, Severin awaits you there
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now plead for me
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girl child in the dark
Severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Writer/s: REED, LOU
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Venus In Furs

"Venus In Furs" is inspired by the novella of the same title, written and published by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in 1870. It tells the story of a man who wishes to be dominated and treated as a slave by the woman he loves. We get the word "masochism" from Sacher-Masoch's last name, and the entire practice of dominance and submission from this and the works of Marquis de Sade, a male author who wrote from the opposite position of dominating women and treating them as slaves.

Today's modern lifestyle knows this song's subject as "BDSM." That's a combined acronym: "B&D" for "Bondage and Discipline," "D&S" for "Dominance and Submission," and "S&M" for "Sadism and Masochism." That last part was originally written "sado-masochism," and in the 1960s was regarded as a mental illness and a deviant behavior, to be treated with electro-shock therapy and abhorred by society.

Even today in the United States, similar to the outdated laws against homosexuality, there are various state laws against practicing any BDSM-associated activity. That is, even using a whip or handcuffs to play with your spouse (even with their full consent!) can land you in jail, or in other states merely selling such paraphernalia (such as a frat paddle or nipple clips) is a heavy offense. This stems from the original association with prostitution - it was thought at the time that no one would be willing to participate in gratifying such "perverted" desires without being paid for it. For this reason, it became yet another consenting-adult, victimless-crime prosecuted by law and thus subsequently embraced by the counter-culture, which explains why it was a popular theme for both underground arthouses and underground bands.

So, with this song and the band's name, was Lou Reed kinky? Probably not, since, as given in The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side , he called the band's namesake book The Velvet Underground "the funniest dirty book he'd ever read." However, it was the association of kink with the sexual revolution and the counter-culture lifestyle that made it an indispensable part of shocking the sensibilities of 1960s audiences.

In the book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, by Punk Magazine co-founder Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil, an interview with Exploding Plastic Inevitable dancer Ronnie Cutrone has this to say about this song's subject: "S&M sex fascinated me even though I knew nothing about it. I had a natural curiosity, so I asked Lou 'What's Venus In Furs about?' Lou said, 'Ah, you know, it's some trash novel.' I said 'Where can you get a copy?' Lou said, 'Ah yeah, just down the block there's a store.' So I went and bought the book. I was still in high school, so I'd go to class with my Venus In Furs and Story of O and Justine, and sit there reading this stuff."

Perhaps as a result of the influence of this song, punk rock and the BDSM lifestyle have been intertwined ever since. Many punk bands have made alternative sexual practices part of their image or made songs about kink, and even Goth rock, which carries over some influence from punk, has made BDSM elements, such as wearing leather collars, part of its culture.

Lest we think that "Venus In Furs" broke new ground here, legendary singing satirist Tom Lehrer sang "The Masochism Tango" on his 1959 album An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer. And for a final hit of surrealism, check out this Dunlop tire commercial using Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs" , created by London director Tony Kaye. Wow.

This was used in Tom Penny's part in the groundbreaking skateboarding video Sorry. (thanks, Josh - Hauula, HI)

The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man

The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico
Released: 1967

I'm Waiting For The Man Lyrics

I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man

Hey, white boy, what you doin' uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin' our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man

Here he comes, he's all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I'm waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody's pinned you, but nobody cares
He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man

Baby don't you holler, darlin' don't you bawl and shout
I'm feeling good, you know I'm gonna work it on out
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time
I'm waiting for my man

Writer/s: REED, LOU
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I'm Waiting For The Man

This is another in the Velvet Underground's canon of songs about drugs. Not only does it fit nicely with "Heroin," it was also on the same album, and was also written by Lou Reed at about the same time as "Heroin," during Reed's attendance at Syracuse University in the early 1960s. It describes a trip to a Harlem brownstone near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street to buy drugs from a dealer, "the man" of the title. Once again, it neither condones nor condemns the experience, but merely describes it.

The song is about scoring 26 dollars worth of heroin in Harlem. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said: "Everything about that song holds true, except the price." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

As described in The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side , songs like "I'm Waiting For The Man," "Heroin," and "Venus In Furs" were what kept The Velvet Underground out of a record contract with Atlantic Records. Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun wouldn't take them unless they dropped these songs, and the Velvets, typically putting ideas ahead of money, just couldn't live with that. So their first album ended up with MGM Records instead. Even after their signing with Atlantic for their fourth album, Loaded, Ahmet specifically told them to tone down controversial material.

Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico, and Maureen Tucker have all recorded solo versions of the song.

This song was a big influence on David Bowie, who explained to Performing Songwriter magazine in 2003: "I actually played 'Waiting for the Man' in Britain with my band before the album was even released in America. Talk about oneupsmanship. A friend of mine came over to the states to do some work with Andy Warhol at The Factory, and as he was leaving, Andy said, 'Oh, I just made this album with some people. Maybe you can take it back to England and see if you can get any interest over there.' And it was still the vinyl test pressing. It hadn't got a company or anything at the time. I still have it. There's a white label on it, and it says 'Warhol.' He signed it. My friend gave it to me and he said, 'This is crap. You like weird stuff, so maybe you'll enjoy it.' I played it and it was like 'Ah, this is the future of music!' I was in awe. It was serious and dangerous and I loved it. And I literally went into a band rehearsal the next day, put the album down and said, 'We're going to learn this song. It is unlike anything I've ever heard.' We learned 'Waiting for the Man' right then and there, and we were playing it on stage within a week. I told Lou that, and he loved it. I must have been the first person in the world to cover a Velvet Underground song."

David Bowie covered the song in 1972, and included it on his album BBC Sessions. Lou Reed sang it in a duet with Bowie during Bowie's 50th birthday concert, known as "Live at 50." Bowie's version is on the soundtrack of the movie Almost Famous. (thanks, Br17is - pisa, Italy)

Besides David Bowie, amongst the many acts to cover "I'm Waiting For The Man," the most notable are Cheap Trick, Bauhaus, and the U.K. Subs. It shares credit with the Ramones' "53rd & 3rd" for being a famous song related to drugs (the Ramones one is about turning a trick for drug money) pinned to a specific New York intersection.