Lou Reed - Heroin

[@ngel]

Heroin (Lou Reed - Velvet Underground and Nico - 1967)

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'll tell ya, 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 the 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
And you can't help me not, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet silly talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess that 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 sail the darkened seas
On a great big clipper ship
Going from this land here to that
In a sailor's suit and cap
Away from the big city
Where a man can not be free
Of all of 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 mainer to my vein
Leads to a center in my head
And then I'm better off and dead
Because when the smack begins to flow
I really don't care anymore
About all the Jim-Jim's in this town
And all the politicians makin' crazy sounds
And everybody puttin' everybody else down
And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds

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

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Any junkie can tell you this song pretty much explains it all and for the non junkies out there they can get a peek into a place they probably wouldn't want to go.

[enquirewithin]

The really funny thing about this was that Reed wasn't really into heroin very much. He was a speedfreak. He was good at getting into roles however.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Yup he did do alot of h when the Velvets first started but later on he moved to speed.White Light White Heat was about methamphetamine.It's cool that there is other Lou Reed fans here.

[enquirewithin]

I wish I could find the reference, but Lou said in an interview, referring to "I'm Waiting for the Man", as I remember it, that he had not taken heroin many times before he got hepatitis which was 'pathetic.'

Everyone at Warhol's factory was speed (heroin is not a very productive drug). Lou Reed, according to Victor Bockris's biography, carried on injecting speed for years. He would take any kind and was always talking about how you must shoot up speed because otherwise you didn't know speed! He and his friends would even IV dexedrine pills, which sometimes made them go into seizures, which sounds appalling. There is a liner note on Metal Machine Music: "For those for whom the needle is no more than a toothbrush. No sniffers please."

[Orchid_Suspiria]

The Warhol factory would have been a very interesting and awesome place to hang out for sure with a huge plethora of interesting substances to ingest.

[_caesar_]

A lot of Lou Reed songs are in reference to Heroin:

Heroin
I'm waiting for my man
Perfect Day

Check out this version of Heroin
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...=2715&catid=61

[enquirewithin]

Heroin and I'm Waiting for the/my Man are certainly songs about heroin. They are both early songs.

I have heard people say that Perfect Day is about heroin but I don't see it. I think the idea came from the scene in Trainspotting. To me it sounds like an ordinary love song.

Just a perfect day
Drink sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark, we'll go home
Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later a movie too, and then home

[Chorus:]
Oh it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on x2

Just a perfect day
Problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
It's such fun

Just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good

[Chorus]

You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow

Do you drink sangria in the park, feed the animals in the zoo with heroin?

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Swim sees it and yes swim does do those kinds of things with h.When you've done h or any opiate long enough it doesn't make you high it just makes it so you are normal and you can go out and face the world in peace and happiness and do the things normal people do.

[_caesar_]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Day

[Orchid_Suspiria]

"You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good"

Heroin certainly does that.One of the things that makes it so appealing to swim or anyone with issues of guilt or self hatered.

[enquirewithin]

Some commentators have further seen the lyrics as displaying Reed's romanticised attitude towards a period of his own addiction to heroin. Critics of this view assert that Reed never tried to conceal his drug use, so the song does not have concealed meanings of this nature.

Why would someone who will call a song "Heroin" have to disguise another one as love song? Reed has written a of conventional love songs, some fairly hackneyed. Still, I have to admit that the idea of Pavarotti and Sir Thomas Allen singing a song about heroin is funny.

Most people didn't seem to understand the lyrics of Walk on the Wild Side-- a song about drugged transvestites.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Swim doesn't think Pavarotti and Sir Thomas Allen actually performed with Lou Reed or sang any Lou Reed songs they were just at that benefit concert.Swim wishes Lou Reed was like he was in his younger days,frightening to the masses and a symbol of drug addiction.Now he is just uh,not quite the same.Still he is one of swims favorites.

[_caesar_]

To answer your first question, its down to artistic talent and his ability as a lyricist or poet.

Lou doesn’t usually mask his drug use in songs, that doesn’t mean that a song written by him was designed so as it could be interpreted in different more abstract ways.

I personally believe this song is actually about his 'relationship' with Heroin (you just keep me hanging on). Not just what it contributes to him but knowing what it will result to in the future. (reap what you sow). Its not really a happy love song if you listen to it.

Secondly to say that Walk on the Wild Side is a song about drugged out transvestites is a very broad and inexact depiction.
It’s inspired by the various characters Lou had met at parties and other social interactions while hanging out with Warhol during the factory days.

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

Why would someone who will call a song "Heroin" have to disguise another one as love song? Reed has written a of conventional love songs, some fairly hackneyed. Still, I have to admit that the idea of Pavarotti and Sir Thomas Allen singing a song about heroin is funny.

Most people didn't seem to understand the lyrics of Walk on the Wild Side-- a song about drugged transvestites.

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by _caesar_

To answer your first question, its down to artistic talent and his ability as a lyricist or poet.

Lou doesn’t usually mask his drug use in songs, that doesn’t mean that a song written by him was designed so as it could be interpreted in different more abstract ways.

I personally believe this song is actually about his 'relationship' with Heroin (you just keep me hanging on). Not just what it contributes to him but knowing what it will result to in the future. (reap what you sow). Its not really a happy love song if you listen to it.

Secondly to say that Walk on the Wild Side is a song about drugged out transvestites is a very broad and inexact depiction.
It’s inspired by the various characters Lou had met at parties and other social interactions while hanging out with Warhol during the factory days.

Yes, Walk on the Wild Side was about the characters in Warhol's circus, including Candy Darling. How could you know what Lou Reed was thinking when he wrote the Perfect Day? The words could be about heroin, if you assume that's what Reed always thought about, but the words sound very much like a love song. In a relationship, you do reap what you sow. Your lover can make you forget yourself, etc. I could well be wrong, but Reed writes very straightforward lyrics most of the time-- that's his strength.

According to Victor Bockris's Lou Reed: The Biography (Bockris was also associated with Warhol), Reed was far more involved with amphetamines than with heroin anyway.

[_caesar_]

Well all art is open to interperitation so debating it is fine. SWIM likes to believe what perfect day is about...

and nothing will change that.... ever.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

And to swim Perfect Day is about heroin/opiates,even if Lou Reed didn't write it about that the song symbolizes that to swim.

Reputation Comments on this post:

glad you agree

[enquirewithin]

I guess that's the thing about great music, poetry or art. It evokes different feeling and thoughts in different people, often by association, and so has wide appeal. It doesn't really matter what the artist meant. (Perfect Day is still a charming love song to me, but is it about a woman or transvestite?)

Reputation Comments on this post:

well we'll agree onthat. Tranny hahaha

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Perfect Day is really pretty but is really sad to swim.It makes him think of those few perfect days you get when you are a junkie.

[Ethyl]

Originally Posted by Orchid_Suspiria

Perfect Day is really pretty but is really sad to swim.It makes him think of those few perfect days you get when you are a junkie.

Oh, bring back those good old days.. Life was simpler when he was a full time junkie.