1Unterberg Adam Unterberg Ms.

Olding English 200 October 6 2013 Lou Reed Song Analysis

Lou Reed, a musical artist that excelled during the pre- punk movement, had many songs that are known to change the way music has impacted people that followed in his footsteps. In his early career, he was the lead singer of the band the Velvet Underground and Rolling Stone said, Lou Reed helped invent punk rock and while writing about femme fatales, black angels and heroin. In the process, he also brought a stormy dissonance to the foreground, helping to expand the vocabulary of the electric guitar. For the next 40 years, during periods both inspired and hollow, Reed tried his hand all sorts of artsy and evocative music. (Wenner, rollingstone) This quote shows that he did not like relying one type of music but strived to become well rounded and trying different genres, making it his own. He was an interesting man with a lot of unique qualities that one can directly relate to the music that he produced. When he was with the Velvet Underground, he was described as bitter; he did not even stay to complete their fourth album, Loaded, though songs from that project. He left the band for two years and continued to further his career as a single artist in 1972. (Wenner). From then on, he would work by himself and produce the music that he wanted. There are two songs that could be carefully looked at when studying Lou Reeds career and helped him become the well-known artist that he is. Perfect Day and Coney Island Baby showed his true talents as a musician and had themes like drug and sexual

2Unterberg exploration. These themes could be related to any song but are very visible and popular topics for his tracks. This analysis will study these lyrics of these two songs and find greater understanding and meaning within them. The song Perfect Day, is one that could have many different underlying meanings when first listening to it. Two themes of sex and drugs could both be looked at as a positive influence to the message of the song but, in my opinion, I think that it is relating more towards sex and less towards drugs. The first two stanzas explain having everyday experiences with this other being and the way that they make him feel. It could be looked at as a drug dependency that he has, but it seems to be more of a song about love towards another person. A quote from the song, Just a perfect day feed animals in the zoo. Then later a movie, too, and then home(Reed, Perfect Day) does not seem to tie together with drugs but with sex and relationships. It is a very relaxing song that emphasizes the simplicity of his relationship. But, when the refrain plays, it makes one think about how strong his relationship really is. Another aspect of the song that seemed interesting was the mellow verse instrumentation and strong refrain vocals. I feel that he is talking about these common experiences as if he is going through a tough relationship. When the refrain roles around time after time, it seems that he is giving it one last effort to save what he loves so much and tell the person how he really feels. I truly believe that this is a love song rather than a song about drug exploration because in the refrain of the song, Oh, it's such a perfect day. I'm glad I spend it with you Oh, such a perfect day. You just keep me hanging on. You just keep me hanging on,( Reed, Perfect Day). This signifies that nothing else

3Unterberg matters as long as he is accompanied by this significant other because of the tone of his voice and the escalation of the tempo as chorus plays. The next song created by Lou Reed is called Coney Island Baby. When listening to the song and studying its lyrics, there are a lot of themes that seem to be possible for this song. It could be about love because of the refrain and the lines glory of love, about drugs because of the constant setting changes and different ideas that seem to change throughout the song, or about the self because of the beginning having to do with the want to play on the football team and life experiences. But, unlike the previous song, I think that Coney Island Baby is in direct correlation with selfexploration (Reed, Coney Island Baby) Reed spends a lot of time talking about the city and how it has impacted him in the song. The lyric, You gotta stand up straight unless youre going to fall, then your gone to die (Reed, Coney Island Baby) is a very powerful line in this song. No matter what comes about in life, one cannot rely on multiple chances. Being courageous and strong when dealing with situations is something that I think Lou Reed wanted people to get out of this song when he wrote it. Reed had a lot going on in his life and this quote seems to stress this, had the story of a violent drug addict and his prostitute girlfriend. Not exactly the stuff of Top of the Pops. Reed told his fans at the time that it would "totally destroy them. This one will show them I'm not kidding (Pilkingon, theguardian) He related this quote, in my opinion, to his past life and what he is doing to better himself. An interesting aspect of the song was the very slow, mellow tempo beat throughout the song but seemed to get more powerful when the chorus of the song started

4Unterberg to play. In both songs that were studied, it seemed that Reed would rely more on his voice and the actual message of the song rather than overpowering the lyrics with loud and repetitive instrument solos. He would try and capture the audiences by his lyrical presence rather other things. In a life performance video of this song, he wore a simple, black shirt and did not move around a lot on stage and seemed to be singing from the heart. He let the music enter his body and that showed when he was on stage performing. He used the electric guitar throughout the song but did not it overpower the underlying meaning that it presented (YouTube, Coney Island Baby) Through the analysis essay, I think that Lou Reed had some reoccurring themes in his lyrics. Although drugs were a large part of his life and is reinforced with his time as a part of the Velvet Underground, the songs that were analyzed gives a better understanding about the life after drugs. Perfect Day and Coney Island Baby seemed to explain sex exploration and exploration of the self. The musical tempo and noise was very similar within both songs with meaningful verses and refrains. The exploration of drugs, sex, and the self are themes that were relatively obvious to depict in Reeds songs and his music definitely positively influenced the rise of the glam and punk movements around the world.

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Work Cited Coney Island. Perf. Lou Reed. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-5V3PJ90E>. "Lou Reed Coney Island Baby Lyrics." Lyrics Freak. LyricsFreak, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lou+reed/coney+island+baby_20085123.html>. "Lou Reed Perfect Day Lyrics." Lyrics Freak. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lou+reed/perfect+day_20085316.html>. Pilkingon, Ed. "The Day the Wall Came down." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 5 June 2007. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jun/06/popandrock.manchesterfestival 2007>. Wenner, Jann S., ed. "Lou Reed Biography." Rolling Stone. Jann S. Wenner, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/lou-reed/biography>.