Lyrics for Heroin as interpreted by capitol76

Heroin Lyrics
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 now, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet 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

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  • 88 Comments
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m2bow+de
06-27-2008

Rated 0 
im not sure what this song is about....HEROIN (DUH)

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anniairplane
06-30-2008

Rated +2 
this song makes me cry..it's so beautifully done, and speaks everything i never dare to say out loud.


i love it.

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Linger0n
07-18-2008

Rated +2 
i love the drumming. to me it represents the heartbeat. it makes mine beat like hell. easy song to play. great voice

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Lucifer Sam!
08-21-2008

Rated 0 
Oh man this song kicks ass. I wonder what it is about though? HMMMMM oh i got it its about HEROIN YAYYYYY
one of my favorite line "i guess that i just dont know"

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lucaswysocki
09-22-2008

Rated +1 
"I like how the song progresses. It becomes more disorderly until it snaps. The style parallels a heroin trip. "

my thoughts exactly.

I love how he wishes he was alive a thousand years a go before heroin addiction was possible. Life could have been different. We are all children of circumstance.

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fishfry
10-28-2008

Rated 0 
the best song in the world.
and a kick in the pants.

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Opium.Doll
12-26-2008

Rated +1 
Brilliant song.
What I love about The Velvet Underground is how soothing they are, yet hold deep, meaningful lyrics.

The song meaning is pretty much self explanitory.

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thirsty_thursday
02-12-2009

Rated 0 
Ha, soothing is the last word that some people would use to describe VU's music...

Those people are also douchebags.

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montresor
08-20-2009

Rated 0 
What a powerful existential song about the nature of addiction. The drug takes over his entire life, it becomes his reason for living. The music really adds to the personal emptiness, the sadness that no one who hasn't been there can ever express, the desperate feeling you can never escape - feelings of weakness and self-doubt, the desire for meaning or at least significance in a meaningless world.

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owennnnnnnnnn
09-10-2009

Rated 0 
I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet, but in John Cale's autobiography he talks about how the first line was originally, "I know just where I'm going." Lou Reed eventually changed the line to "I DON'T know just where I'm going," against Cale's advice. He was furious, because it changed the whole point of the song (to him): anyone who has been addicted to heroin can tell you that it is not really a matter of decision but compulsion. Yet the narrator of the song has CHOSEN to nullify his life, has chosen to become a junkie, because the void is better than the world. And this makes him brave, and principled, and possibly an utter retard. But he knows just where he's going, so don't feel pity for him. Cale can't listen to the song anymore the way it is because the first line renders the whole sentiment of the song unreliable.

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carolee
11-16-2009

Rated 0 
The drum's beat is supposed to be the druggie's heartbeat; the guitar and percussion represent his state of mind.
I LOVE this song. It is so true, and it never loses its intensity no matter how many times I listen to it.

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Itali
11-25-2009

Rated 0 
This song is about sadness and the plight of human life. It's about addiction, and about the fact that it will kill you. The euphoria being a fallacy, and about saying goodbye. "and i guess that i just don't know" . no one does

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kamalmanzukie
12-06-2009

Rated +1 
Ever notice how on the first album, most of the instrumentation seem to try to metaphorically symbolize the theme/subject of the song? With heroin, with its the flow from the rush and the nod, slowly building up, and increasingly strung out (care of cale's screeching viola). I'm Waiting for the Man sounds angular and repetitive and full of motion, just like the city it describes. Venus in Furs sounds like some viking slave ship beat, perfect for its account depravity in antiquity. In There She Goes Again, at the end of the verse, when lou says, "you'd better hit her", the band answers back with a sharp "bum bum bum bum" in agreement. And then my all time favorite, The Black Angel's Death Song, has Cale's viola providing that eerie, ghostly shriek in perfect counterpoint to Reed's rambling lyrics about death and choice and fate. The whole album is completely sublime. If you yearn to start a band whose ideals are originality and expression, this album is almost a prerequisite.

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