This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
When she walked on down the street
She was like a child staring at her feet
But when she passed the bar
And she heard the music play
She had to go in and sing
It had to be that way
She had to go in and sing
It had to be that way
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
After the applause had died down
And the people drifted away
She climbed down the bar
And went out the door
To the hotel
That she called home
It had greenish walls
A bathroom in the hall
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
She was like a child staring at her feet
But when she passed the bar
And she heard the music play
She had to go in and sing
It had to be that way
She had to go in and sing
It had to be that way
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
After the applause had died down
And the people drifted away
She climbed down the bar
And went out the door
To the hotel
That she called home
It had greenish walls
A bathroom in the hall
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
And I said no, no, no
Oh, Lady Day
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar, edited by warpigscliff
Lady Day Lyrics as written by Lou Reed
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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This is my favorite track from Berlin, and one of the most telling. The song is told from the perspective of Jim, one of the three characters in Berlin (the others being Caroline, and The Waterboy, who is probably an alter ego of Jim), and it describes the downfall of Caroline. "thebodiesobtained"'s analysis was good: the song does indeed describe how Caroline is sucked in to the downward spiral that is the album's central focus. Throughout the album, Reed asserts that Caroline is insecure and damaged, seeking out external validation, first from Jim, and later from her "two-bit friends," as Jim calls them. Here, she walks down the street, meekly ("a child starin' at her feet"). The warm allure of a bar, which Reed sets up in the noisy and tragic opening sequence "Berlin", draws her in. It starts out innocently enough, as she goes in merely to sing, but by the second stanza, we see her exhibitionist side coming out, as "she climbed down off the bar". This is the side that Jim objects to: that Caroline finds affirmation in people other than himself. While he correctly identifies and is rightly concerned by Caroline's problems, it is not her that he is truly concerned about, but rather him losing control over her. The song ends with one of the most brief and yet affecting four lines in the album: "...to the hotel that she called home. It had greenish walls, a bathroom in the hall." In less than twenty lines, Reed has painted an indelible and perfect image of the squalor that Caroline lives in. One of the great songs in the album, by how much it conveys versus how much is actually says. Songwriters should study the paucity of words here in comparison to the richness in images. Perfect.
Landfillpoet: You are the master! thanks for all the posts
Great analysis landfillpoet. With the passing of Lou I needed to listen to Berlin again, which I first found about 15 years ago. Brilliant album - every time I listen I hear or feel a new thought/feeling. On Lady Day, the we have the young attractive woman who wants attention and can find easily at the local bar "it had to be that way". The contrast where older lonely men are sitting at the bar watching this pretty younger woman (and wanting more) that turns "To the hotel, that she calls home" and further describes " It had greenish walls, a bathroom in the hall". To show how crappy her life is, is just brilliant.
@landfillpoet I wasn’t aware that Berlin was a concept album. That’s awesome, makes it even better.
@landfillpoet I wasn’t aware that Berlin was a concept album. That’s awesome, makes it even better.
Lady Day was the nickname for Billie Holiday back in the day
It gives me this feeling that life is this pathetic drama that we are inevitably sucked into. Lady Day is like innocence (she was like a child staring at her feet) and he is mourning the loss of innocence and the fact that things start out good but then they are corrupted and perverted.
Can't help thinking that Caroline was based on Edie Sedgwick, a party girl screwed up by drugs and men that used and abused her. I also see Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. when "She climbs down off the bar and went out the door to hotel that she called home"