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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 mountaintop
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
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 mountaintop
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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Great discussion. I can't say I have much more to add, but I can't help comment and put in my 2 cents.
I love ghost of freud's and confinedinsanity's descriptions - "hauntingly beautiful" and "unbearably pogniant". One of the Velvet's greatest. I've been thinking I should try to pick up the guitar again so I can play this song.
A number people (swallowedthefly, ioioio,swing2xlani) have discussed unrequited love aspect of the song - loving a best friend, loving someone that can't return the love. I think that's a big part of the song- but my full interpretation is follows KILBY's and lou reed's interpretation (which seem to be supported by Lou) - that they broke up, he wants toget back together, but she has married.
I like bagism's interpretation of the money line, and tcobo's description of why he is "mad"
I first heard this song on the Live'69 once. The first version I owned was on a Patti Smith bootleg. Unlike thefatlady's bootleg, Patti introduces the song as "about Hank William who died of a drug overdose in a hammock in the back of a limosine..." great poetry on Patti's part, but hard to believe that is what was on Lou's mind (along with incorrect facts of Hank's death).
I do have a bootleg version of the song by the Velvets with a few more verses. If I get my act together I'll try to write them down and submit them here (no promises I'll get around to it).
The lines I do like : "The fact that you are married<br /> Only proves you're my best friend'<br /> <br /> To me these lines are the key and explaines his unrequited love. She is the one who is married. They are having an afair and he wants her to leave her husband to prove her love for him. Probably she is not willing to leave her husband and he complaines that she 'only proves she's his friend and nothing more' ..... This is wat hurts him most.... (i've been there)