Black Cow

This is cut and dry. Imagine NYC in the mid-late '70s - before Giuliani "cleaned it up" . Studio 54. Lou Reed. Guy has a Black Cow drinking girlfriend who is a drunk/drug addict. She's a waste of space. He sees here in Rudy's - a dive in Hell's Kitchen. She's wasted, as always. She works tricks "down on Greene St" but is too unravelled to even be a good hooker - He finds out that's what she's up to because she's not smart enough to change her name when she's doing tricks. These are all mid '70s NYC references. Greene St. is in Tribeca/West Village/Meatpacking district (lots of clubs) - in the '70s that area was full of hookers. Today your'e more likely to see Beyonce or Amy Poehler - that entire area is now one of the most expensive places in the USA to live - it's been completely gentrified. But back in the day.. Anyway - every tiime she screws up once again - she staggers home to her "precious one" - the narrator - who has to try to "make everything right" and put the pieces back together. He's sick of it- so tells her to "Drink her big Black Cow" (from Rudy's) and "GetOuttaHere". We all know women like this - screwed up emotional vampires. That's what the song is all about folks.

The Black Cow can be a candy-like mixed "high-powered" beverage or it can be indeed a rootbeer float. Our Hero is telling The Lady that he is INDEED through being this lady's sounding board every time one of her relationships with unsuitable fellows goes sour and she comes running back to him. In the cocktail context, a "black cow" is considered a frou-frou party-girl drink. Or, in the context of an ice-cream parlor kiddie beverage, Our Hero is telling the lady that she is acting like a twelve-year-old

The man and woman are just friends. He is stable and conscientious. She is reckless and irresponsible. The song is his internal-monologue. He can never actually say these things to her. He is in love.

I'm through being your crying towell and punching bag, you coked up party girl. See ya!

I think it's cool how he says "on the counter, by your keys, was a book of numbers, and your remedies."

This references back to the ambiguity in "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" about whether a "number" refers to a phone number or a joint. It could be either: a phone number for a friend or a joint can "screen out the sorrow." But the fact that the "numbers" are near the "remedies" definitely suggests a joint, although again, it's ambiguous.

I love how they are referencing themselves, and especially a lyric from the past that was itself ambiguous. And now the same lyric is ambiguous in the same way, many albums later! This band is incredible.

I've been to Rudy's many times, it's in Hell's Kitchen on 9th Avenue in New York, and it is indeed the kind of place where such things are likely to occur. It's got a big plastic pig outside. Stop by and have a hotdog if you get the chance, it'll put hair on your chest.

The song Black Cow is about Walter Becker’s drug habit, and Fagen wrote the song to his friend, Becker. It’s widely known that Fagan and Becker brought in expensive session musicians for meticulous creative jams on their LPs. Becker would show up stoned, and Fagen would try to make things right. The song Gaucho is also written about Becker by Donald Fagen. “Just when I say boy we can’t miss. You are golden. Then you do this.” (Becker showed up stoned while they were paying “heavy roller session musicians.”) Who is the gaucho? It’s Walter Becker on heroin, of course. (“Just as your ‘friend’’ will never be welcome here, high (on drugs) in the Custerdome (the building that housed their recording studios.)

I always thought she was an alcoholic/druggie and he is just tired of her drunken ways and running around so he is telling her to move on so he can.

To me, this is about a man who is hopelessly in love with a hooker who, although not happy, can't stop her trade or the drugs.

"Was a book of numbers/And your remedies/One of these Surely will screen out the sorrow But where are you tomorrow"

This section seals it for me: "Down to Greene Street There you go Lookin' so outrageous And they tell you so You should know How all the pros play the game You change your name "

He must "make everything right " when she comes home.

I think the "Black cow' is just a sideline to the story.

This is about a guy and the girl he's just broken up with. She's a drug addict and alcoholic and had trouble being faithful. She's become a hooker now to feed her drug habit. She drifts into an old hangout -- Rudy's -- where they serve a New York soda fountain drink, made with root beer, vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. He's with his friends, and they all see her. She knows she's an outcast with the group. The speaker thinks back about how he always came back to her after being gone for a few days. He thinks she's come back to try to hook up with him, and reconfirms in his own mind that he's done with her and doesn't care if he never sees her again because she caused him too much pain.