This is one of my favorite songs. "Doin' the things that we want to" is such a simple line but it means a lot. It's a happy celebration of life and being free and having opportunities but at the same time it's saying everything is so subjective it borders on meaninglessness if the only thing we have to guide us is our preferences which are so petty and are changing all the time. I think it's basically about watching a play and noticing that life is like a play. It just goes on and it's kind of ridiculous because nobody is really aware they are just caught up in their small mindedness. I think "Doin' the things that we want to" is also a comment on art because he says Sam was doing what he wanted to with the play and in art pretty much anything goes and that can be liberating but maybe it gets self-indulgent after a little while. I think "Doing the things that we want to" was like the whole attitude behind the Velvet Underground and they transcended a lot of boundaries of expression but they actually did have substance, it wasn't just doing whatever you felt like for it's own sake, like a lot of people in music have been doing since then and it is getting old. Hence "There's not much you hear on the radio today." "In a way you guys the best friends I ever had" could be saying people that understand his music are his best friends which is kinda sad if you think about it. It's like people who think their best friends are like Thoreau or something. I like the way this song starts to rock out like halfway through. Ok, I'll shut up now.
This is one of my favorite songs. "Doin' the things that we want to" is such a simple line but it means a lot. It's a happy celebration of life and being free and having opportunities but at the same time it's saying everything is so subjective it borders on meaninglessness if the only thing we have to guide us is our preferences which are so petty and are changing all the time. I think it's basically about watching a play and noticing that life is like a play. It just goes on and it's kind of ridiculous because nobody is really aware they are just caught up in their small mindedness. I think "Doin' the things that we want to" is also a comment on art because he says Sam was doing what he wanted to with the play and in art pretty much anything goes and that can be liberating but maybe it gets self-indulgent after a little while. I think "Doing the things that we want to" was like the whole attitude behind the Velvet Underground and they transcended a lot of boundaries of expression but they actually did have substance, it wasn't just doing whatever you felt like for it's own sake, like a lot of people in music have been doing since then and it is getting old. Hence "There's not much you hear on the radio today." "In a way you guys the best friends I ever had" could be saying people that understand his music are his best friends which is kinda sad if you think about it. It's like people who think their best friends are like Thoreau or something. I like the way this song starts to rock out like halfway through. Ok, I'll shut up now.