The Possibility of Contradiction in the Velvet Underground's Lyrics

"Just as it is possible to be very big in rock without having any

lasting influence, it is also possible to have tremendous influence without

being terribly big. Lou Reed, the songwriter and rock musician and a

member of the Velvet Underground, never sold well even at his commercial

peak, but his music, lyrics and created personae have strong influence on

the rock generation that followed. His approach to treating extremes of

human emotion and behavior with a magnificent poetic detachment was virtually

unseen in rock & roll songwriting before he introduced it." (Edroso, Roy

http://www.roughguides.com /RG_WWW/rock/final_rock_entries/Lou_Reed.html).

 

The Velvet Underground had a short career between 1965 and 1970.

Even though they failed commercially in those days, they are regarded as one

of the most influential bands in rock and roll history. Many rock bands

coming after them acknowledge the Velvet Underground as their major

influence.

Bands such as the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, the

Talking Heads,U2, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth (McGovern, Gerry http://www.addict/

issues/1.06/velvet underground.html).

 

Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker formed the

band in 1965. In the next year, Andy Warhol, an artist, discovered the band

at Cafe Bizarre and later the band played in the "Exploding Plastic

Inevitable" show and at Warhol's studio. In 1968, Cale quit the band and

was replaced by Doug Yule. In its life span the Velvet Underground released

four albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat

(1968), The Velvet Underground (1969), and Loaded (1970). Finally, the

band broke up in 1970 (Moritz, Charles Current Biography.July 7, 1989 p.

29-30). After breaking up, Reed released several solo albums (Baker's

Biographical Dictionary of Musicians p.1468). In 1993, the Velvet Underground

reformed briefly for a successful reunion tour. Recently, January 17, 1996,

the Velvet Underground got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

(http://www.addict/issues/1.06/ velvet underground.html).

 

As Reed was the main songwriter for the Velvet Underground, it is

essential to know his background and writing influences. Charles Moritz notes

that Reed was born on March 2, 1942 and grew up in Freeport ,New York. He

was intellectually precocious, devoting his energies to writing

poems,stories, and songs ,studying classical music on the piano, playing

three-chord guitar, and listening to rock and roll and R&B. At the age of

17, Reed was subjected to electroshock therapy because his parents wanted

to "cure the rebellious teenage of homosexual feelings and alarming mood

swings" (http://www.addict.com-issues.1.11.sections-in-print-heart of darkness).

 

In 1960, Reed attended Syracuse University and majored in English with

a minor in modern philosophy. It was here that Reed met a poet and critic,

Delmore Schwartz, who inspired Reed and encouraged his creativity in writing

lyrics as a pop artist.Schwartz taught Reed the true beauty and expressive

possibility of written language (http:/www.media.phillips.com/vu). Although

Schwartz did not pay much attention to Reed's idea of writing, Reed can

still express human feelings and emotions through many different points

of view of his personae.

 

In addition to writing influence, Reed applied the lessons of his

favorite writers ,such as, Hubert Selby Jr., Raymond Chandler, and William

Burroughs to his songwriting (http://www.media.phillips.com/vu).Once, Reed

protrayed the theme of drug taking experience which he got from Burroughs'

novel "Junkie".According to Reed's interview by Michael Goldberg about his

songwriting, Reed said:

I had my dream about what you could do with this music , with lyrics

and sound of the guitar..., a person who has been in bar bands since

he's 14. But graduated honors in English...who's reading Hubert Selby

and William Burroughs ans really likes it. And some of the stuff that

Delmore Schwartz did...You mix that all up together...I land in with

Andy Warhol. What an amazing boulliabass of influences if going on

there. And it stays that way from my very first record on up..."

(http://www.addict.com.issues-2.03-cover story Lou Reed).

 

Also, Charles Moritz points out that "trying to voice adult concerns,

Reed borrowed from such diverse idioms as the Berlin cabaret songs of

Bert Brecht and Kurt Weill, the narrative expansiveness of Bob Dylan, and

the subversively dark literary themes explored by Jean Genet and William

Burroughs (29).

 

In writing lyrics,Reed gets inspiration from the people and things

around him and responds and expresses his reaction to them. Reed

once admitted that:

I have no idea what prompts me to write any song ever other than

things going on around me and I react to it. And certainly this stuff

has been going on around for awhile so I guess, for whatever reason,

it set me off in a writing mode about this...It is just an expression

of something. It'd be nice if it could become a theme song for

something as far as I'm concerned...

(http://www.addict.com-issues-2.03-cover story Lou Reed)

 

Charles Moritz also quotes that "I want to put adult things in it

(rock and roll songs), real life as it was going on all around us. Drug,

violence, New York all this stuff," Reed (29).

 

Reed presents personae in his lyrics by transforming himself into

other people and telling the stories of those people. Reed said in one

interview to John Walker that:

 

I'm always studying people I know, and then when I think I've got them

worked, I go away and write a song about them. When I sing the song

I became them...I'm kind of empty when I'm not doing anything.I don't

have a personality of my own. I just pick up other people's

(http://www.addict.com-issues-1.11.section in print heart of darkness)

 

Also, Reed presents some part of himself through his lyrics, as he

said, "Lou Reed is my protagonist. Sometimes he's 20, sometimes 80

percent me, but never 100. He's a vehicle to go places I wouldn't

go or say things I don't go along with" (Current Biography p.32).

 

As Reed observes people around him, he transforms himself into those

people to express the complex emotions and feelings within them. It seems

that Reed views things external to himself and carefully views them like a

man observing other people's lives and responding to what he sees from an

outsider's perspective. In other words, Reed's view is objective in that he

reports what he sees and he lets listeners interpret themselves, the

meaning and expression he portrays . In this way, there are two

perspectives: the persona's and Reed's . The personae's perspective shows

the way they think about their lives as well as how they feel. Although,

Reed disguises himself to be those personae, the listeners can still

distinguish Reed's opinion of those personae's lives.

 

Reed presents the possibility of contradiction in human life such

as complex emotions which simultaneously contras and clash with one another,

drug taking experience, state of living and even rock and roll. This paper

will focus on ten lyrics taken from the Velvet Underground's four albums

except White Light/White Heat and add some lyrics from the period 1968/1969

which were not included in their studio albums.

 

Most of Reed's lyrics are ballads about love which represents

confusion in the mind of personae. The conflict of emotions and

feelings can be seen in the mind of people who are in love.

"Pale Blue Eyes" which is about a man having an affair with a married

woman, reflects how the man gets mixed feelings about the woman, ranging

from happy, sad, crazy, despaired, guilty and hurtful. As Reed studies

people he writes lyrics about them, these lyrics are based on one of his

friends, "Shelby Albin, the striking blonde art student who would become

Reed's female muse for years to come, and for whom he would pen the classic

ballad "Pale Blue Eyes" John Walker further explains that from this

person and otherrs, Reed would sift through and collects various fragment

of personae (http://www.addict.com.issues-1.11 sections-in print-heart of

darkness.html).

 

In the analysis of "Pale Blue Eyes" the man begins to show his

complex feelings toward the woman "Sometimes I feel so happy/Sometimes I

feel so sad...But mostly you just make me mad"

The persona as a man knows well that the relationship between them won't be

satisfying to sustain in a happy way. From this, the man gets intense

emotions such as confusion, anger, and frustration with himself when he

ponders about their relationship. He begins to be angry with himself that

he cannot keep the woman with him "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". Here he blames himself for being unable to keep the

woman for he is not her true husband. He realizes that he does not possess

her completely. Still, he yearns for the woman as he looks into her pale

blue eyes which intensifies his pain and desire "Linger on your pale

blue eyes".

 

No matter how much he loves this married woman, he still has a moral

conscience and he knows that it is a sin to commit adultery so he is

burdened by guilt. "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 sin" Here, the man is self-doubting and condemning himself

for committing an immoral deed so he just bitterly accepts the woman as his

"best friend" which suggests the most positive legitimate relationship

between a man and a married woman.

Although he realizes that it is a sin, he cannot resist his desire

for the woman, he keeps on committing adultery. The contradiction in these

lyrics can be seen between a man's desire and the morality of the life he

leads. Indeed, he lets himself plunge into sin for his love.

 

As a result of Reed's objective point of view in presenting human's

emotions and desire, he does not say directly what the man does is right or

wrong ,but definitely listeners consider will him wrong and immoral. Also,

listeners can determine that morality declines as humans choose physical

pleasure over the issue of morality.

 

Apart from a male speaker, Reed takes the role of a female

personae in "so-and-so says" songs like "Candy Says", "Stephanie Says", and

"Lisa Says". Reed depicts the states of mind of these women who choose to

deal with troubles in their lives differently, both in confronting and

escaping reality.

 

"Candy Says" is the portrait of a suicidal chaotic woman who chooses

to escape real life by hating herself as a means to release herself from

the world. Her monologue shows the repression of her conflict in confronting

the world. When she cannot face it, she therefore transforms it into self

hatred "I've come to hate my body/And all that it requires in this

world." She thinks that she is worthless and does not want to live in

this world. Then she becomes doubtful and suspicious of other people, "I'd

like to know completely/What others so discreetly talk about." This

suggests that she has no self-confidence which is a result of her mind being

so full of anxiety and desperation to be someone other than herself.

As a result, she cannot make up her mind "I hate the big decisions that

cause endless revisions in my minds." This clearly shows that she is on

the edge, and madness is very close. The way she criticizes her life over

and over again makes her even worse, she seems to be closed to others,

keeping all her troubles and tension within herself alone.

 

Finally, she cannot deal with her confusion except by escaping

reality and the people around her. Chaos still remains in her mind .She

then finds the way to be free by living quietly with herself and in tune

with nature, "I'm gonna watch the blue birds fly/Over my shoulder/I'm

gonna watch them pass me by/ Maybe when I'm older/What do you think I

see/If I could walk away from me". It seems that she does not want to

return back to herself or her body and she wishes to walk away from her life

which she associates with the people and the world to whom which she is

dissatisfied with.

 

Like Candy, Stephanie also escapes her troubles by keeping all her

tension and desperation within her mind.The contradiction in these lyrics

is the distance between reality and appearance. Stephanie also represses

her emotions and does not show her true feelings much so that people

call her "Alaska" - ( To represent the cold and distant person they

perceive her to be )-

yet her mind is full of distress that can destroy her "She's not

afraid to die" From the beginning, she keeps all bad emotions within her

mind and she doubts herself and wants to know why "she's given half her

life to people she hates now" She gets contrasting emotions of

bitterness and sweetness. On one hand , it's bitter poignant pain

after she devoted her life to love those people, but now she turns to

hate them. On the other hand, she still has warm feelings of love when

thinking about them.Her love of them still lingers and it makes her feel

like the poles of both love and hate at the same time.

 

In addition, she suppresses her tensions and emotions in her mind so

as to escape the world "she's not afraid to die/The people all call her

Alaska/...'Cause it's all in her mind" Apart from repression, she tends

to destroy herself to escape from all her confusions. Even though, people

feel that she is so cold that she does not express what she really

feels, ironically, the reality is that in her mind she is confused and

suicidal. It is self-destructive that she controls her emotions and does

not reveal her true feelings. All the confusion still remains to destroy

her mental state.

 

Unlike both Candy and Stephanie who escape their problems, Lisa,another

woman who is desperate, alternately confronts and escapes reality in

"Lisa Says".Lisa leads her life freely that she seeks pleasure in

sexual relationship with many men. She is looking for a true lover whom she

wants to settle down with but she still has not found him. At least Lisa

does what she wants such as "She has her fun and she'll do it with just

about anyone."

This shows that she chooses to fulfill her desire and face the reality that

she is open to the world and people around her. However sometimes she wants

to be with herself to escape from reality for awhile "Lisa says that it's

all right when she needs to be alone at night." This is ordinary because

everybody wants to spend time with themselves. Lisa seems to be a normal

woman in

that she is both open to people and has time for herself. She is not on the

edge like Candy or Stephanie suppress everything within their minds

and do not show their true feelings. Lisa seems to be a realistic character

that

she has mixed feelings although she can express what she wants to the world.

Sometimes

she is angry and hurt by other people but she is conscious of what she is

doing.

"Everytime she makes it straight/She knows your heart will break" This seems

to be a contradiction in that she actually desires friends or a boyfriend

but she will hurt them because of the type of person she is. However, she

still is looking for "a party, some action/Gonna make it

feel okay" This suggests that Lisa still goes on searching for a good

time, but she seems to know that what she is doing is not the true happiness

she really needs "But what do you find when the time has come undone/Look at

it run" Actually, Lisa doesn't really take the relationship with any man

seriously as she continues to be promiscuous. She just finds some small

pleasures and meaningless satisfaction, but as time passes by, she finds

that her life is not worthwhile.

 

Another contradiction of emotions are presented in "Sunday Morning",

which is mainly to do with the fear of the inevitable, fear of the future

of a speaker. Ironically, the people around enhance his sense of

hopelessness forcing him to face the uncertain future alone. The speaker

experiences insecurity, fearfulness and a reluctance to encounter the

world and embrace it to him, "Sunday morning/It's just a restless feeling

by my side...It's just the wasted years so close behind/Watch out, the world

's behind you" A frightening and looming future is what he perceives and

the fear he feels is a fear of the inevitable confrontation that he

can neither control nor escape from.

 

The title "Sunday Morning" is an irony in itself referring to the

unpleasant, unknown time for him. Traditionally, morning represents hope

and a fresh beginning but in these lyrics it is portrayed as a dreaded

and unwanted occurrence.

Sunday morning is the time for Christians to go to church to pray to

God for peace, but the speaker is full of fear and uneasiness to face the

world.

 

Ironically, the people around him make him feel even worse. "There's

always someone around you who will call it's nothing at all" Nobody feels

sympathetic or understands his distress, and they ignore him. The speaker

loses the hope that others around him are his salvation and that there is

no offer of any consolation anywhere. In this way, the speaker is alienated

and has to encounter the fearful world alone because he cannot expect

help or any support from other people.

 

In addition, all people around him have their own cares and

individuality

and they prefer to live in their own private worlds and thus simply

forsaking the speaker leaving him to struggle on all by himself despite

the fact that they could actually help if the showed a small amount of

concern and sympathy for their fellow man. What is worse is that the people

become the

world in which the speaker wants to be wary of. The speakers life

becomes despairing as he must bear the burden of the heartless nature of

people in the world around him.

As Charles Moritz reports that one critic called this song "complexly

gorgeous odes to love and life" (30).

 

Apart from ballads, Reed composes lyrics about a drug taking experience

which presents complex human feelings which are contradictory to one

another for example : fear vs joy , life vs death , back and forth in

"Heroin". These lyrics were written during the year of Syracuse University

with a "confessional defiance and bone-dry wit echoing Burroughs'

dry-noir autobiography Junkie (http://www.media.phillips.com/vu)

As Reed received strong influences from William Burroughs he therefore

explored the dark and stark experiences of taking heroin

and it is likely that this itself is an expressiona and confession of

Reeds own drug addiction.

According to the Oxford English Reference Dictionary, Junkie deals in a unique,

surreal style with life as a drug addict (196).

 

Reed carefully observes the state of emotions and life of the heroin

addict by explaining the injecting of drugs into the vein as a means to

attain the stark depth of the human soul. From the beginning, the speaker

seeks for freedom to explor his real

existence as a man "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". He gradually gets

into the new world when heroin begins to take effect and he experiences

intense feelings in his own distorted personal world. Little by

little, he turns from the

delight of living to the dark depth of his soul and then he feels

alternately joyful and frightened. At first he feels spiritually happy, full

of ecstacy "just like Jesus son". He approaches the state of bliss like

a man blessed by God. Concurrently his soul is filled with as much energy

and power as humanly possible. He seems to be conscious and feels the

complexity of his body

and soul. Certainly, he knows well that he is taking a chance with death,

risking his life "I'm gonna try to nullify my life...I'm closing in on

death and nobody can help me" suggests that he is inwardly terrified by

these extreme experiences of joy, horror and self-destruction. At this

point he escapes to an imaginary world where the image of a man sailing

a ship to escape from "the big city where a man cannot be free/Of all the

evils of this town/And of himself and those around". This can refer to

his life in the world where he feels that he is a prisoner. By taking

heroin, he is able to reach a level of of spirituality and really gain

the extreme awareness of his own existence.

 

Later on, he reaches the peak of his life and he experiences various

feelings such as bliss and fear, fear that he is not certain

whether he is dead or alive.

"Heroin, be the death of me/It's my wife and it's my life /Because a mainer

to my vein/Leads to a center in my head /And I'm better off dead" Now

herion becomes part of his body and soul and takes over his life. On one

hand, he is celebrating his happy state of life from which he gains

pleasure and excitement. On the other hand, he has been destroyed by heroin

leading him to his death. It destroys him physically. For example, it

causes anxiety,drowsiness,panic,tremors,depression reflexes and increased

sweating.(source)

 

After the peak in his life and his recognition of his doom,he seems to

indulge himself and does not care about anything around him "because when

the smack begins to flow/I really don't care anymore/All the politicians

making' crazy sound/ And everybody puttin' every body else down/And all the

dead bodies piled up in mounds. Finally he is "as good as dead" which

represents that he is no longer in the real state of life. He is physically

alive but he is dead figuratively. His life becomes meaningless. Finally

he falls into a trance in which he does not perceive things around him

"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".

 

It seems that Reed looks for and finds contradiction in everything as he

observes people's lives and he begins to gain an insight into the state of

life. He discovers the poles of life; such as living and death happy and

sad , up and down. He emphasizes what he finds out about life and how to

deal with it. The phrase "it is all right" seems to suggest both

the positive and negative aspects on Reed's views to life. Despite all the

kinds of trouble that everybody encounters , everything is all right. Here

are three lyrics by which Reed claims that people can lead their lives and

can accept the state of living for the way it is.

 

"I Can't Stand It" depicts an unpleasant life yet the speaker can accept

his situation when he thinks that his girlfriend will come back. The speaker

begins describing how bad the place he inhabits is and how cruelly people

treat him so he is unable to stand all these bad things."It's hard being

a man/Living in garbage pail/My landlady called me up/She tries to hit me

with a mop...I live with thirteen dead cats/A purple dog that wears spats".

While he is dissatisfied with the unpleasant environment,and people around

him, at once he feels better when thinking that everything will be all right

for him if his girlfriend will come back "But if Sherry would just come

back , it'd be all right" Here, he seems to console himself. At one

point he kept

saying that he couldn't stand it. However he has to cope with it in

order to overcome his sadness and to give himself hope to continue living

because he cannot do anything better, so he must accept the bad situation

as it is. So his claim of it'd be all right means both positive that it

can help him to feel a little better yet it is negative that he has no

choice in this harsh situation so all he could do was to think about the

nice people and when Sherry will be there to accompany him and share

his life again.Then he won't be left alone.

 

In "What Goes on", Reed uses opposing possibilities of life to show

uncertainty of life and suggests a way to deal with life appropriately. It

is as if Reed advises the confused Candy of the previous track "Lady be good

do what you should" The speaker "I" in the lyrics represents an ordinary

person who encounters lifes difficulties and some of its problems. After

observing this state of life, he comes up with an idea of coping with

life at one's best.

 

Reed uses opposite qualities to depict the truth of life that can change

or turn upside down. For example,"I'm going up I'm going down" means that

life has both poles either happy and sad. "One minute up one minute down"

represents life can turn in opposite or unexpected ways. As well as "One

minute born one minute doomed" suggests that there is no certainty in

life, except life and death. In order to deal with the uncertainty of life,

Reed simply suggests to everybody that

"be good and do what you should/It'll work all right" which means that we

should be sensible, resourceful in leading our lives as happily as we can

despite all the kinds of uncertainty. Reed appears to be optimistic that

we, at least. should be satisfied with our lives. Though there are some

troubles for everyone, we can sort them out and that would make

everything okay.

 

To some extent, Reed 's phrase is satirical in tone that humans

have to accept and take responsibility that their lives will turn or

change. They cannot control everything in their lives.So the way he suggests

"do what you should" is ironic and negative that we have to do what you

should in lives not, perhaps, what we want.

 

The concept of being happy with life as it is , continues in "Beginning

To See the Light" that Reed keeps emphasizing that everything is all right.

Reed observes other people 's lives and shows that people have tough lives.

For example "people work very hard but they never get it right" Sometimes

they "play the fool again, acting hard again" He expands upon the

problems that

everyone has to face and how to solve them. Reed realizes the way of

life when he begins to see the light and he tells people what he has

found is that "everything was all right" which is both positive and

optimistic.

 

However Reed shows he can be negative yet playful when pointing

out some difficult decisions like "Here comes two of you/which one will you

choose?/One is black one is blue/Don't know just what to do". Here, Reed uses

the color symbol to represent negative dark sides of life. Black represents

gloomy , hopeless , unpleasant, and all pessimistic aspect of life. As well

as blue which represents sadness. Indeed, Reed sees life in a distressing

way despite his optimistism.

 

In addition, Reed insists that it depends on people themselves to

count what troubles are, "There are problems in these times ,but none of

them are mine" Again, Reed claims that we can be happy and there is no

need to worry about things which may not be real problems. This seems to be

real escapism in that he does not choose to accept the problems in life

but tries to exclude himself from all troubles. Finally, he ends the

lyrics playfully "I thought that you were my friend/How does it feel to be

loved?", this seems to be delightful at least , we all are friends who have

their own lives to lead and loved by someone around us, and he questions

how it feels to be loved.

 

In summary, Reed carefully observes life in general like he is

looking from outside and to see through the people around him. Then he

declares what he has found out, that life can be all right for everybody and

more or less it is the responsibility of the people to deal with their

lives as best they can and try to be happy and satisfied with their own

existaence no matter how much their lives are tough and uncontrollable. All

that people can do is just to accept their own lives for what they are.

 

So, Reed points out the many contradictions in human emotions

feelings and lives which he observes from his perception of the insides

of people's minds, feelings and lives. Now as a rock musician, he finds

contradiction in the rock music in which he is involved with. He

expresses the opposition to rock as real art and the way in which rock

music is presented to the public. In "Rock and Roll", Reed presents this

contrast that rock songs are censored before broadcasting but people can

still enjoy themselves with rock music and that is all right, like Jenny,

the girl who is telling her story. She used to be depressed but now she

becomes happy after discovering rock music on a New York station. Reed

seems to satirize censoring rock music for commercial reasons. For example

the removal of some part which is rude, too long, not suited to the

public's ears or just to make it match for the time of broadcasting.

"Despite all the computation/amputation you could just dance

to a rock and roll station and it was all right" Reed strongly attacks

censoring rock music for all the commercial reasons with his sharp poetic

and sarcastic tone. Rock music is therefore distorted to be more

marketable, it is passed through many processes of analyzing and is fed

to the music market and it is under control of other people who are not

artists. A listener is the last person to hear the amputated and computated

rock, yet they can still appreciate music with joy but the original taste is

distorted. Then rock is not for the sake of the art but, for the sake

of the money.

 

It seems that Reed's creativity in performing personae telling many

stories is effective. We can see that Jenny is happy with her rock music

and she is saved by rock. Furthermore, Reed astutely presents the reality

of rock music .This can be concluded that his creative wit in writing lyrics is

poetic and heartfelt that he shows all aspects of feelings of his

personae so complexly and profoundly that he can presents the reality

in the modern life so sincerely, faithfully and realistically.

 

In conclusion, Reed portrays the possibility of contradiction in human

life in many aspects ranging from love, emotions and feelings , personal

drug taking experience, state of life and even rock and roll music. His

skill in transforming himself into anothers life to express the range of

human emotions is so admirable, and yet at the same time, colored by his

own experiences he can contrast the many emotions with each other.