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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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It's about a guy who THINKS he's wild and ASSUMES the girl is tame because he's a clueless, arrogant, misogynistic prick. He thinks of himself as an independent thinker when in fact he's the biggest cliche that ever was. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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And Klathatten, the idea that SHE'S a "product of her surroundings" and HE'S not is absolutely classic. Perfect. Bravo. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[rosalyre:2634] Dear Klathatten: So he's judging her for wearing high heels? He, a guy, who has no idea what it's like to be a girl in this world, is sneering down his nose at a girl for not being enough of a FEMINIST? Really? That is absolutely the height of male arrogance. Most men find high heels attractive on women, and she wants to be attractive to men because she's a human being with instincts. So she's a bimbo for having instincts? But he has instincts too, presumably. I bet if women found high heels attractive on men, he would wear them too. Or maybe not - maybe he doesn't care about being attractive because he's not a very sexual person, that doesn't make him less "tame" - quite the contrary. Also, men aren't judged on the basis of looks the way women are. He can go around looking scruffy and it's a thousand times more socially acceptable than when a girl does, so he has NO business judging her when he has never walked a mile in her shoes, so to speak. No business whatsoever. I may have gotten a detail or two wrong in my original reply from two years ago (I don't know why I pictured him as dressed expensively - some punks in the 80s spent a lot on accessories, but not all) but my general instinct was correct: I sensed an overweening, clueless male arrogance. The punk scene back then was dominated by white males who were totally oblivious to how easy they had it, in certain ways, compared to other people. Middle class white boys who couldn't stop pissing and moaning about how tough they had it, and putting other people down for not being exactly like them. So contradictory and ridiculous. Sneering at some girl for not wearing the uniform of the so-called nonconformist. And better yet, a GUY putting down a girl for not defying patriarchal authority in quite the "right" way - ha! He's a conformist within his little subculture, and in fact, if anything, he's MORE narrow-minded than some ordinary working person who's just trying to survive. |
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| Lou Reed – My Old Man Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Just noticed that this song is included in his book, Between Thought and Expression. He added a footnote: "I wrote this for my father." |
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| The Velvet Underground – There She Goes Again Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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It's anyone's guess really, but my personal take is that she left an abusive/domineering boyfriend or husband who was supporting her financially, and now she's out on the street supporting herself as a prostitute (down on her knees) but at least she's in charge of her own life now. |
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| Lou Reed – Good Evening Mr. Waldheim Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Others have covered it, I'll just add that in Reed's short film, "Red Shirley," he interviews a cousin whose parents were killed in the Holocaust, and ends with her reminiscing about the civil rights march on Washington. There were a lot of Jewish civil rights activists, probably because someone like Shirley would have been in a good position to sympathize with any oppressed group. So to see a black civil rights leader making antisemitic remarks must have struck Reed as bitterly ironic. I think that's what he meant by "what about people right here right now who fought for you not so long ago?" |
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| Lou Reed – Beginning of a Great Adventure Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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As someone who never had children, I love this. It's a refreshing break from the usual "childless adult as tragic figure, boo hoo" stuff. I think I read somewhere that his wife actually left him because she wanted children, which goes to show how strongly he felt about not having them. People who don't have children are often characterized as selfish, which is ridiculous. Reproduction is about instinct, it's not an altruistic thing; if it were, all those "selfless" parents would adopt disabled or emotionally troubled, hard-to-place foster children rather than create little copies of themselves. Also, not everyone is cut out to be a parent, some of us are too messed up, and the unselfish act is to forego the pleasures of parenthood for the sake of that would-be child. Belated thanks for this, Lou. |
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| Lou Reed – Endless Cycle Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Yeah, these are good lyrics, very straightforward and unpretentious, the language is very very simple and the insights are very true. He always said his lyrics weren't autobiographical, but he said a lot of things. When you think of songs like "My Old Man" and his own history of violence and fascination with S&M, it seems likely that he knew what he was writing about. "A coward and a bleeder" - ha! That's so rude and yet there's a brutal truth to it. |
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| Lou Reed – Dirty Blvd. Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I confess I used to find this song vaguely embarrassing. Not because it wasn't realistic, empathetic, or well-meant. I just felt there was something patronizing about it, the rich white rock star crying over the problems of little Pedro. Later I realized I was having a modern-day, PC reaction which was out of context. Reed grew up in the 1950's, when some people could tell their stories and be heard and some could not. In those days, the ghetto kid needed Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men to stick up for him, he needed someone else to romanticize his plight in West Side Story, etc. And of course Jewish writers were in an especially good position to empathize with victims of bigotry. Reed is from that tradition, and it's an honorable one. |
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| Lou Reed – Romeo Had Juliette Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Yes, the ending saves it. But it's still awfully corny. West Side Story was really big when Reed was growing up and he never got over wanting to be like Tony. |
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| Lou Reed – Betrayed Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I'm tempted to say, "Way to make it all about you, Lou," but I won't. Instead I'll say this is an interesting take on what it's like to be in a relationship with an incest survivor. The father is always there, between them - so to the husband, I suppose it could feel like he's being cheated on, in a way. The second stanza saves it from being totally self-centered, by showing empathy and respect for her. |
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| Lou Reed – Heavenly Arms Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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"Only a woman can love a man"? Not true, obviously. He was repudiating the side of himself that loved men - which makes this song unwittingly heartbreaking in a way. |
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| Lou Reed – The Day John Kennedy Died Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Interesting that this song came out in 1982, just a year after the assassination attempt on Reagan. Of course one could hate Reagan's politics and still not want him to be murdered - and the shooting probably triggered memories of Kennedy's death for a lot of people. |
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| Lou Reed – The Gun Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Well, yeah, the narrative is clear, but that's not the same as the meaning. My take on this is that he's criticizing the mentality of the gunman, the way he relies on the gun to feel powerful and manly, because without it he's pathetic. |
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| Lou Reed – You Wear It So Well Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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This could be about Nico, or any number of people he knew who'd had rough lives but didn’t go around crying about it. He’s clearly a great admirer of people like that. He certainly never hid his pain, he made a living writing about it - which is kind of a luxury, in a way. Women are expected to put on a happy face all the time. This song is probably about a woman. |
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| Lou Reed – Dirt Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Great comments...but I wonder about this line (not shown above):
"Dirt...that's the only word that hurt."
Makes me think the song might actually be about being judged, and called dirt, by other people.
It would be just like him to subtly turn it around like that...like in Perfect Day, how he throws in that chilling line right at the end ("You're gonna reap just what you sow") that puts a whole different spin on everything that came before. |
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| Lou Reed – I Wanna Be Black Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I wish we could edit our comments. I should have said "angry note" rather than "serious note" above. Also, that "fuck up the Jews" line shows how people tend to oversimplify. Black people aren't perfect, black people aren't immune from prejudice, any more than white people are; but stereotypes and nuance don't mix, and that's why that line is funny, because it comes as a surprise. |
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| Lou Reed – I Wanna Be Black Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Yes, this is clearly a send-up of an embarrassing aspect of white American culture in the 1970s, but I don't think Reed is just putting down other people's unwitting racism; I think he's also poking fun at his younger self. In some of those early recordings he was obviously trying to sound black. And when he says "I don't wanna be a fucked up middle-class college student anymore" I think he has some sympathy for that foolish student, because he was that person once. The "fuck up the Jews" line adds both a serious note -- he's taking a big risk there, acknowledging an uncomfortable truth about guys like Farrakhan -- and a rather heartbreaking, poignant note, because Reed was Jewish himself, and I think that in his youth he was a little ashamed of that. Antisemitism was so pervasive in American culture that he couldn't help but internalize it to some degree. His own father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed, downplaying his Jewishness in order to fit in. Anyway, this is the kind of song that could so easily be misconstrued, and I think he knew that, but he had to write it anyway, because it was the truth, and no artist worth his salt avoids telling the truth just because it's risky. |
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| Lou Reed – My Old Man Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Reed claimed that his songs weren't autobiographical, and denied that his father ever laid a hand on his mother. Then again, he also denied being gay after having a relationship with another man for years. |
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| The Velvet Underground – New Age Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Apparently someone changed the Wikipedia entry since tinafeygirl posted, because now it says the song is considered "a sarcastic homage to actress Shelley Winters." I wonder if it was really intended to be "sarcastic" or if that's just a rather narrow-minded assumption on the part of the Wikipedia author, as in, "It's about someone admiring a fat woman, therefore it MUST be sarcastic." What I hear is, on the other hand, is a touching story about a lonely, aging woman who finds consolation with one of her fans. Sad but sweet. Also, according to at least one of his biographies, Reed dated a few "big" women in his youth, and if that's true, then obviously he didn't find the very idea of liking a fat woman utterly ridiculous. |
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| The Velvet Underground – Oh! Sweet Nuthin Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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p.s. "Sweet nothing" is just an expression that's been around for years. It's not meant to be taken literally. I'm sure Reed is using it ironically here. Having nothing is not "sweet." |
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| The Velvet Underground – Oh! Sweet Nuthin Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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"Sweet nothing" is just an expression that's been around for ages. It's not meant to be taken literally. Does anyone really believe that having nothing is "sweet"? On what planet is this? Surely the phrase is being used ironically here. |
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| The Velvet Underground – Oh! Sweet Nuthin Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Obviously it's about poverty and homelessness; the reasons for the poverty and homelessness are left to the imagination. Yes, there were a lot of young people drifting around in the sixties, and a lot of drugs; but it was also standard practice in the sixties for parents to disown their gay kids, and their unwed pregnant daughters, and just kick them out of the house before they were even of age. In any case, it's a very sad song about people in need, and to say that it's about having nothing and "being okay with it" is, imo, to trivialize their suffering. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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p.s. In case it's not clear, I think class is an issue here as well as gender. The "bad shoes" for example. The speaker is so superficial he looks down on the girl because what she's wearing isn't what he thinks of as cool. As a punk, his whole existence is nothing but fashion. It's all a pose. And he thinks that if a person is wearing unfashionable shoes, he knows all there is to know about that person...because a pair of Doc Martens is all there is to him. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Fascinating song. It's disturbing, I feel almost personally shamed by it, in a retroactive way. It's like seeing my former self through the eyes of a misogynist. In his mind, he's a badass, a wild thing, and this girl he's trying to pick up is a "tame" bourgeois idiot. She's somehow ridiculous and foolish just because she's a girl, and attractive, and attracted to him. I picture him all dressed up in a thousand dollars' worth of expensively grungy college-boy punk fashion, and her attire as more "middle of the road" (because, duh, not everyone has the option of being a musician and having that lifestyle, and some people have to support themselves with regular jobs and can't afford to spend all their money on leather and piercings). He despises her banal chatter. As if strangers flirting in a bar are supposed to talk about deep things. What's she supposed to do, give a lecture on French existentialism? Or maybe he thinks she's a fool for spending time with him: he thinks he's duping her.
What he doesn't realize (and here I'm stepping outside of the actual song and talking back to the songwriter) is that he doesn't know her at all. He doesn't know what she's after, or what goes on in her mind. The fact is, she's probably looking for the same thing he is, a good time. And if he could see inside her mind, the darkness he would see in there would have him pissing his pretentious college-boy pants. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Fascinating song. It's disturbing, I feel almost personally shamed by it, in a retroactive way. It's like seeing my former self through the eyes of a misogynist. In his mind, he's a badass, a wild thing, and this girl he's trying to pick up is a "tame" bourgeois idiot. She's somehow ridiculous and foolish just because she's a girl, and attractive, and attracted to him. I picture him all dressed up in a thousand dollars' worth of expensively grungy college-boy punk fashion, and her attire as more "middle of the road" (because, duh, not everyone has the option of being a musician and having that lifestyle, and some people have to support themselves with regular jobs and can't afford to spend all their money on leather and piercings). He despises her banal chatter. As if strangers flirting in a bar are supposed to talk about deep things. What's she supposed to do, give a lecture on French existentialism? Or maybe he thinks she's a fool for spending time with him: he thinks he's duping her.
What he doesn't realize (and here I'm stepping outside of the actual song and talking back to the songwriter) is that he doesn't know her at all. He doesn't know what she's after, or what goes on in her mind. The fact is, she's probably looking for the same thing he is, a good time. And if he could see inside her mind, the darkness he would see in there would have him pissing his pretentious college-boy pants. |
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| Pixies – Tame Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I hate to burst your bubble, but being a misogynist doesn't mean you have balls. If anything, it just makes you sound like a guy with something to prove, i.e. a pussy. But I shouldn't pick on you...you're probably 14. Have a good life.
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| The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Yes, but even as he acknowledges the silliness of those stereotypes, he's ultimately affirming life, I think. He's not sneering down his nose at Jack and Jane like they're stupid; he can see that they're on to something, because they're still having a good time after all those years, despite being old and square and middle-class. Remember, when he wrote this, he was living in NYC among some very shallow, cynical, snobby, filthy-rich people, the type who would definitely look down on Jack and Jane and dismiss them as boring, middlebrow fools. I think LR is sticking up for them, in a very knowing, roundabout way. |
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| The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Yes! Those lines you quoted are brilliant, the way they add just enough subtle irony to show that the narrator is looking at the world with open eyes. After all, it's true that women don't faint and that villains blink their eyes, but even knowing this, even seeing the flaws in these people's corny, romantic view of life, despite all that, the narrator is making a knowing, deliberate choice not to be cynical. And that, to me, is what makes this song convincing and truly moving as opposed to merely sentimental. The narrator is not naive, he knows life is not a corny movie, and yet he's choosing to believe in love anyway. Only someone as savvy and in touch with the dark side as LR could have pulled this off. Bravo. |
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| Lou Reed – HanginRound Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Just a guess, but this song came out in 1972, the year LR turned 30...time to grow up, right? By that time he'd probably lost quite a few friends to drugs (e.g., Edie Sedgwick OD'd in 1971). The song is probably meant to be ambiguous: you can take it simply and literally, as a complaint about living people from his past, or more sadly, as a sort of mock complaint about the ghosts of those people who won't leave him alone; maybe he found those people silly and annoying when they were alive, and yet he still finds himself thinking about them from time to time and even missing them. It's that little bit of complexity that makes his lyrics so good. |
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| Lou Reed – HanginRound Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Just a guess, but this song came out in 1972, the year LR turned 30...time to grow up, right? By that time he'd probably lost quite a few friends to drugs (e.g., Edie Sedgwick OD'd in 1971). The song is probably meant to be ambiguous: you can take it simply and literally, as a complaint about living people from his past, or more sadly, as a sort of mock complaint about the ghosts of those people who won't leave him alone; maybe he found those people silly and annoying when they were alive, and yet he still finds himself thinking about them from time to time and even missing them. It's that little bit of complexity that makes his lyrics so good. |
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