It's very much about heroin. Besides Lou saying so. If you've had a habit for long enough,
it's obvious who "you" is, who he spends all his days with. The "I thought I was someone else, someone
good" literally happens. You can forget yourself, for a few hours, on good enough gear.
Heroin turns off much of the ego. Stops your worries just like that. The world doesn't actually get better, but you don't mind. Life doesn't hurt. The purer you, the happy you when you were a kid,
without all the social garbage you learn thru life, is free to come through. If you've had a lot of pain in life, it's a blessing.
A lot of addicted people I know are still stuck in their teens, even tho they're in their 30s. Emotionally retarded. They don't live the life other people live, and happiness and satisfaction are easy to find.
Taking heroin's a lot of fun for the first few years, and even after it's still some fun. What do you
think people with habits do all day? It's not just scoreing after scoreing. I imagine being Lou Reed,
he could afford all he needed, so had a lot of time to spend.
It's just a song about being on heroin, having a pleasant day, spending your time, doing stuff. The darker elements show that he's aware it's not just a bed of roses. And that the whole happy feeling, while very precious if you need happiness, is really false, and not going to last. Whether it's in days time or years time, even most of your lifetime. And then you reap what you sow! Which you're aware of, too, even as you're happily sowing.
What amuses the hell out of me, is the BBC got a load of singers together to record this song for charity, nothing drug-related. And they played the hell out of it on TV and it got to number one! The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA!
"The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA! "
And it was for the children! (Orphans, if I remember correctly.)
"The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA! "
And it was for the children! (Orphans, if I remember correctly.)
re. the Beeb recording --- you forget to mention the genius little ps. at the end where the composer touches his nose in a gesture of complicity to anyone in the know, other junkies mainly, to say " these goons have no idea what they're singing --- taking their vainglorious form-over-content little ride on my song --- and me and you we get to laugh last ". The whole set-up playing straight into confirming the junkie's cool sense of superiority, bought with his supposed degradation.
re. the Beeb recording --- you forget to mention the genius little ps. at the end where the composer touches his nose in a gesture of complicity to anyone in the know, other junkies mainly, to say " these goons have no idea what they're singing --- taking their vainglorious form-over-content little ride on my song --- and me and you we get to laugh last ". The whole set-up playing straight into confirming the junkie's cool sense of superiority, bought with his supposed degradation.
It's very much about heroin. Besides Lou saying so. If you've had a habit for long enough, it's obvious who "you" is, who he spends all his days with. The "I thought I was someone else, someone good" literally happens. You can forget yourself, for a few hours, on good enough gear.
Heroin turns off much of the ego. Stops your worries just like that. The world doesn't actually get better, but you don't mind. Life doesn't hurt. The purer you, the happy you when you were a kid, without all the social garbage you learn thru life, is free to come through. If you've had a lot of pain in life, it's a blessing.
A lot of addicted people I know are still stuck in their teens, even tho they're in their 30s. Emotionally retarded. They don't live the life other people live, and happiness and satisfaction are easy to find.
Taking heroin's a lot of fun for the first few years, and even after it's still some fun. What do you think people with habits do all day? It's not just scoreing after scoreing. I imagine being Lou Reed, he could afford all he needed, so had a lot of time to spend.
It's just a song about being on heroin, having a pleasant day, spending your time, doing stuff. The darker elements show that he's aware it's not just a bed of roses. And that the whole happy feeling, while very precious if you need happiness, is really false, and not going to last. Whether it's in days time or years time, even most of your lifetime. And then you reap what you sow! Which you're aware of, too, even as you're happily sowing.
What amuses the hell out of me, is the BBC got a load of singers together to record this song for charity, nothing drug-related. And they played the hell out of it on TV and it got to number one! The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA!
"The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA! " And it was for the children! (Orphans, if I remember correctly.)
"The whole country sang along with some addled smackhead, wandering round the park. HA! " And it was for the children! (Orphans, if I remember correctly.)
Yeah, the BBC using it a commercial just tickles me pink! I wonder if any of the suits there had any idea the song was an ode to heroin? Lol.
Yeah, the BBC using it a commercial just tickles me pink! I wonder if any of the suits there had any idea the song was an ode to heroin? Lol.
re. the Beeb recording --- you forget to mention the genius little ps. at the end where the composer touches his nose in a gesture of complicity to anyone in the know, other junkies mainly, to say " these goons have no idea what they're singing --- taking their vainglorious form-over-content little ride on my song --- and me and you we get to laugh last ". The whole set-up playing straight into confirming the junkie's cool sense of superiority, bought with his supposed degradation.
re. the Beeb recording --- you forget to mention the genius little ps. at the end where the composer touches his nose in a gesture of complicity to anyone in the know, other junkies mainly, to say " these goons have no idea what they're singing --- taking their vainglorious form-over-content little ride on my song --- and me and you we get to laugh last ". The whole set-up playing straight into confirming the junkie's cool sense of superiority, bought with his supposed degradation.
The BBC recording (and nose touching, a la Guarrandango's comment) is here:
The BBC recording (and nose touching, a la Guarrandango's comment) is here:
youtube.com/watch
youtube.com/watch