Lyrics for Pale Blue Eyes as interpreted by capitol76

Pale Blue Eyes Lyrics
Sometimes I feel so happy,
Sometimes I feel so sad.
Sometimes I feel so happy,
But mostly you just make me mad.
Baby, you just make me mad.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

Thought of you as my mountain top,
Thought of you as my peak.
Thought of you as everything,
I've had but couldn't keep.
I've had but couldn't keep.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

If I could make the world as pure and strange as what I see,
I'd put you in the mirror,
I put in front of me.
I put in front of me.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

Skip a life completely.
Stuff it in a cup.
She said, Money is like us in time,
It lies, but can't stand up.
Down for you is up."
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

It was good what we did yesterday.
And I'd do it once again.
The fact that you are married,
Only proves, you're my best friend.
But it's truly, truly a sin.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.
Linger on, your pale blue eyes.

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averice
04-19-2002

Rated 0 
this song is about a relationship duh , i haven't yet decided if its about a guy or a girl cause lou did of both. i just find the tone of the song to be beautiful. and i can relate to the first verse im sure everyone can

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Rich_M
05-27-2002

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I have a theory that this song is about Maureen 'Mo' Tucker, the Velvets' drummer. I don't think it's necessarily a love song, or at least a romantic-type love song. It always felt to me like 'I love you as a friend' kind of thing - "The fact that you are married / Only proves, you're my best friend" so Lou is still in touch with the girl from the song. I know that Mo was having a baby at the time of Loaded (fourth album, this was from the third) and I think she was actually married.

I originally had the idea watching the Velvet Redux video, and noticing how the camera lingered on Mo during this song. The meaning seemed to fit the lyrics, and more importantly the tone. I like the extra layer my theory adds too.

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carms
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
Good song. The VU rocks everything...

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KILBY
03-11-2003

Rated 0 
Read the book Transformer, it's about Lou Reed. It talks about the meaning of this song. This song was about an ex of his which got married after her and Lou broke up. He continued going out with her but she broke off the affair.

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Gratefate
03-18-2003

Rated 0 
I have to agree with Rich M on this one. It seems to be that friendship in this song, not sex, or an afair. Beautiful, melodic song, and as with most of Lou reads songs, the real/full/total meanings are only known to him. I love it.

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carms
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
This song is perfect.

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Mandy Says
05-12-2004

Rated 0 
I read that the person who it was written about had hazel eyes..... like me!

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1 Reply
ZinbobDan
05-30-2004

Rated 0 
ok, so it could be about a best friend, but it kinda has to be about sex too..."it was good wat we did yesterday and i'd do it again...it's truly, truly a sin"...i guess the sin could just be liking her even tho she's married, coveting thy neighbor's wife...but sure sounds like something more serious

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sean56a
10-24-2004

Rated 0 
i'm curious about this line:

She said, Money is like us in time,
It lies, but can't stand up.
Down for you is up."

money is impermanent, like humans in time. it decieves you (lies) about what it can do... but it can't (stand up)

down for you is up?? that's where the confusion is. great song; i think it's about a friend also

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swallowedthefly
11-12-2004

Rated 0 
I was spending the night with a girl I'm unfortunately destined to be friends with, even though i'd prefer more and i'm pretty sure she would too, and this song came on. she just looked at me and smiled. its that one person you love more than anything life can offer, but it just won't ever happen. someday she moves on and gets married, "but it's truly, truly a sin"

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Greyshoes
12-11-2004

Rated 0 
"Down for you is up"
This is the inscription across R.E.M.'s UP album, the second best after New Adventures in Hi-Fi. R.E.M.'s strong influence by the Velvet Underground

ack. fragmented thought.
Anyway, it's all good. I don't have the Loded album, so all I have to go on is REM's cover. Good stuff, tell y'what.

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venus in furs 28
02-09-2005

Rated 0 
i think its about a love that runs so deep that it doesnt really matter whether they're together or not - if you don't get this song go cry in a corner. it could not be clearer.

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confinedinsanity
04-03-2005

Rated 0 
"It was good what we did yesterday, and I'd do it once again.
The fact that you are married only proves you're my best friend.
But it's truly, truly a sin." ..Scandalous!

This song is so hauntingly beautiful.

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doda
07-31-2005

Rated 0 
If I could make the world as pure and strange as what I see,
I'd put you in the mirror,
I put in front of me...

Skip a life completely.
Stuff it in a cup.
She said, Money is like us in time,
It lies, but can't stand up.
Down for you is up."

venus in furs- I don't really think this song is that clear or striaight forward at all. Maybe the sentiment- sadness over a relationship that is ending- is. But not the nature of the relationship, or the lines I quoted. It is so much more than a sad break-up song.

That said, the lines about the mirror really intrigue me. I think he's saying that, if he were not biased towards her, and did not place her on a pedastal above himself- if he were able to understand and judge her objectively, as he does himself when looking in the mirror- their relatioship/ affair ending would be easier.

I still haven't figured out a reasonable explanation of the lines "Skip a life completely... it lies but can't stand up."

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thefatlady
09-15-2005

Rated 0 
i once listened to a patti-smith-cover of that song (some 70's bootleg) where she says it's about a swedish boy that lou reed once met

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couldBanyone
10-03-2005

Rated 0 
The "money is like us in time" is a wonderful play on double meanings. Here's my interpretation:

Money, in time, cannot hold give us true happiness "cant stand up." Money often holds false sentiments (bribery, hollow materialism) therefore it "lies." However, the part where humans come in is in the fact that in time, humans also lie (lay down), as in they die, they do not stand up after death. He is saying that this girl reverses these thoughts for him, she makes him think of death in a positive light, "down for you is up"

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TaytorTot
01-20-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is bittersweet. He loves the girl but can't have her. That's how I take it, at least. I love this song a lot.

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River Wolf
01-21-2006

Rated 0 
Kilby is right about the meaning of this song. This song has such a good tone and is a great listen

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Coney_island_baby
02-12-2006

Rated 0 
on the 'Live with Lou Reed 1969' version of this song, towards the end Lou says; 'linger on, babe' and the way he says it like he's about to cry just breaks your heart! incredibly beautiful + powerful song!

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SpineofaJellyFish
07-01-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with venus in furs. This song seems to be that he loves someone so much that it doesnt matter if he's with her or not. Especially in the beginning of the song, no matter how mad she makes him or how sad he is, he's okay as long as he can still linger on her pale blue eyes. This song makes me feel like I'm following a lifetime in a way. "Skip a life completely" I can't really explain it, but it feels the listener of the song is being taken through years of love and heartbreak, sort of. Like the love is so deep and so is the heartache that it lasts a whole life time. Anyone else feel this way? Anyway, I think the love and the lives gets to a point where they both give into the temptation and have an affair. Even though it's "truly, truly a sin."

And, ya know, it could very well be about a boy or a girl.

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lou_reed
08-05-2006

Rated 0 
This song is about his his first proper girlfriend from college Shelly (VU fans will remember 'I Can't Stand It' and the lines 'If Shelly would just come back it'll be alright'.) He cared for her but didn't always treat her the best. After college, they met up again and had a brief affair but she called it off as she still knew that Lou could hurt her. KIBLY was pretty much right

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HoboTed
01-07-2007

Rated 0 
I always see this as a continuation of "I'll Be Your Mirror" IBYM, probably comes from the woman's perspective about how she will always by the man's side, but here, the man expresses how he wants more, but he knows that they will be fated to only being friends.

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bagism
01-11-2007

Rated 0 
"she said money is like us in time
it lies but can't stand up
down for you is up."

these lines, to me, always seem to be referring to not being able to face up to something. there is, of course, a play on words in reference to the money, as others have pointed out, namely the physical (it literally lies but cannot stand up) and the more symbolic (that money lies is a common notion, and it further cannot own up to the destruction it causes in people). i think, however, that the reference to money being "like us" refers to the secret or otherwise complicated relationship between the two in the song. they are able to lie, both to others and to themselves, but cannot truly face up to what is between them, or perhaps, even though they know it is wrong, they cannot bring themselves to "stand up" to the fact that they want to be together and do the right thing, which would be to end what is between them. the "down for you is up", then, simply seems to refer to the notion that because of this, everything in their world is upside down, and the usually clear lines between what is good and bad are being blurred because of their emotions and their connection to each other.

that's how i've always felt about those lines.

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thebodiesobtained
04-18-2008

Rated 0 
On the Live at Cole Ave version Lou says, "This is a song about a relationship that didn't work out...which is not what most of our songs are about." It's the same version on Live 1969 with the "Linger on darling." Great version.

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ghost_of_freud
05-17-2008

Rated 0 
The opening lines:

"Sometimes I feel so happy,
Sometimes I feel so sad.
Sometimes I feel so happy,
But mostly you just make me mad.
Baby, you just make me mad."

Are almost unbearably poignant to me. The idea that this is more about friendship than love just seems bafflingly vacuous. You would really have to seriously misread this song (or have very odd friendships indeed) to see it that way.

To me, this is a song about love, and the capacity for cruelty people have towards the ones they 'love'. IMO, the lines

"Thought of you as my mountain top,
Thought of you as my peak.
Thought of you as everything,
I've had but couldn't keep."

Relate to the way that people often fall more in love with a fantasy version of someone than with the actual individual themselves. The process of putting someone on a pedestal actually involves dehumanising them, turning them into a symbol or a prize to be won.

And Doda:

"That said, the lines about the mirror really intrigue me. I think he's saying that, if he were not biased towards her, and did not place her on a pedastal above himself- if he were able to understand and judge her objectively, as he does himself when looking in the mirror- their relatioship/ affair ending would be easier."

I think this is absoloutely spot on, and really insightful. Thanks, you've made a wonderful song even more fascinating.

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