Songs For Drella
Produced by Lou Reed and John Cale
Written by Lou Reed and John Cale
Small Town 2:03 ; Open House 4:16 ; Style It Takes 2:54 ; Work 2:36 ; Trouble With Classicists 3:40 ; Starlight 3:26 ; Faces And Names 4:11 ; Images 3:28 ; Slip Away ( A Warning ) 3:04 ; It Wasn't Me 3:29 ; I Believe 3:17 ; Nobody But You 3:44 ; A Dream 6:33 ; Forever Changed 4:49 ;Hello It's Me 3:03
When you're growing up in a small town
When you're growing up in a small
town
You say no one famous ever came from here
When you're growing up in
a small town
and you're having a nervous breakdown
and you think that
you'll never escape it
Yourself or the place that you live
Where did
Picasso came from
There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh
If art
is the tip of the iceberg
I'm the part sinking below
When you're growing
up in a small town
Bad skin, bad eyes - gay and fatty
People look at you
funny
When you're in a small town
My father worked in construction
It's
not something for which I am suited
Oh - what is something for which you are
suited?
Getting out of there
I hate being odd in a small town
If
there stare let they stare in New York City
at this pink eyed painting
albino
How far can my fantasy go?
I'm no Dali coming from Pittsburgh
No
adorable lisping Capote
My hero - Oh do you think I could meet him?
I'd
camp out of his front door
There's only one good thing about a small town
There's
only one good use for a small town
There's only one good thing about a small
town
You know that you want to get out
When you're growing up in a small
town
You know you'll grow down in a small town
There's only one good
use for a small town
You hate it and you know you'll have to leave
Please
Come over to 81st street I'm in the apartment above bar
You
know you can't miss it, it's across from the subway
and the tacky store with
the mylar scarves
My skin's as pale as the outdoor moon
My hair's silver
like a Tiffany watch
I like lots of people around me but don't kiss hello
and
please don't touch
It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me
The
way to make friends Andy is invite them up for tea
Open house, open house
I've
got a lot of cars, here's my favorite
she's a lady called Sam
I made a
paper doll of her - you can have it
That's what I did when I had St.Vitus
dance
It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me
Give
people little presents so they'll remember you
Open house, open house
Someone
bring the vegetables, someone please bring heat
My mother showed up
yesterday, we need something to eat
I think I got a job today they want me
to draw shoes
The ones I drew were old and used
They told me to draw
something new
Open house, open house
Fly me to the moon, fly me to a
star
But there are no stars in the New York sky
They're all on the
ground
You scared yourself with music, I scared myself with paint
I drew
550 different shoes today
It almost made me faint
Open house, open house
You've got the money, I've got the time
You want your freedom, make your
freedom mine
'Cause I've got the style it takes
You've got the
connections and I've got the art
You like the style it takes
Why don't
you sit right over there, we'll do a movie portrait
I'll turn the camera on
and I won't even be there
A portrait that moves, you look great I think
I'll
put the Empire State Building on your wall
For 24 hours glowing on your wall
Watch
the sun rise above it in your room
Wallpaper art, a great view
I've got
a Brillo box and I say it's art
It's the same one you can buy at any
supermarket
'Cause I've got the style it takes
And you've got the people
it takes
This is a rock group called The Velvet Underground
I show movie
on them
Do you like their sound
'Cause they have a style that grates and
I have art to make
Let's do a movie here next week
We don't have sound
but you're so great
You don't have to speak
You've got the style it
takes ( Kiss )
You've got the style it takes ( Eat )
I've got the style
it takes ( Couch )
We've got the style it takes ( Kiss )
Andy was a Catholic, the ethic ran through his bones
He lived alone with
his mother, collecting gossip and toys
Every Sunday when he went to Church
He's
kneel in his pew and say, " It's just work,
all that matters is work. "
Andy
was a lot of things, what I remember most
He'd say, " I've got to bring
home the bacon, someone's
got to bring home the roast."
He'd get to
the factory early
If you'd ask him he'd tell you straight out
It's just
work, the most important thing is work
No matter what I did it never seemed
enough
He said I was lazy, I said I was young
He said, " How many
songs did you write?"
I'd written zero, I lied and said , "Ten."
"
You won't be young forever
You should have written fifteen "
It's
work, the most important thing is work
It's work, the most important thing
is work
" You ought to make things big
People like it that way
And
the songs with the dirty words - record them that way "
Andy like to
stir up trouble, he was funny that way
He said, " It's just work, all
that matters is work "
Andy sat down to talk one day
He said decide
what you want
Do you want to expand your parameters
Or play museums like
some dilettante
I fired him on the spot, he got red and called me a rat
It
was the worst word that he could think of
And I've never seen him like that
It's
just work, I thought he said it's just work
Work, he'd said it's just work
Andy
said a lot of things , I stored them all away in my head
Sometimes when I
can't decide what I should do
I think what would Andy have said
He's
probably say you think too much
That's 'cause there's work that you don't
want to do
It's work, the most important thing is work
Work, the most
important thing is work
The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree
That's all he sees, he
paint a tree
The trouble with a classicist, he looks at the sky
He
doesn't ask why, he just paints a sky
The trouble with an impressionist, he
looks at a log
And he doesn't know who he is, standing , staring, at this
log
And surrealist memories are too amorphous and proud
While those
downtown macho painters are just alcoholic
The trouble with impressionist is
The trouble with impressionist is
The trouble with personalities,
they're too wrapped up in style
It's too personal, they're in love with
their own guile
They're like illegal aliens trying to make a buck
They're
driving gypsy cabs but they're thinking like a truck
The trouble with
personalities is
The trouble with personalities is
I like the druggy
downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains
I like their lack of
training, their primitive technique
I think sometimes it hurts you when you
stay too long in school
I think sometimes it hurts you when you're afraid to
be called a fool
The trouble with classicists is
The trouble with
classicists is
Starlight open wide
This is New York calling with movies from the street
Movies
with real people, what you get is what you see
Starlight open wide, Andy's
Cecil B. DeMille
Come on L.A. give us a call
We've got superstars who
talk, they'll do anything at all
Ingrid, Viva, Little Joe, Baby Jane, and
Edie S.
But you better call us soon before we talk ourselves to death
Starlight
open wide everybody is a star
Split screen 8-hour movie
We've got color
we've got sound
Won't you recognize us, we're everything you hate
Andy
loves old Hollywood movie, he'll scare you hypocrites to death
You know that
shooting up's for real
That person who's screaming, that's the way he really
feels
We're all improvising, five movies in a week
if Hollywood doesn't
call us - we'll be sick
Starlight open wide
Do to movies what you did to
art
Can you see beauty in ugliness, or is it playing in the dirt
There
are stars out on the New York streets
We want to capture them on film
But
if no one wants to see them
We'll make another and another
Starlight let
us in that magic room
We've all dreams of Hollywood, it can't happen too
soon
Won't you give us a million dollars the rent is due
Andy will give
you 2 movies and a painting
Starlight open wide
Faces and names, I wish they were the same
Faces and names only cause
trouble for me
Faces and names
If we all looked the same and we all had
the same name
I wouldn't be jealous of you or you jealous of me
Faces
and names
I always fall in love with someone who looks
the way I wish
that I could be
I'm always staring at someone who hurts
And the one they
hurt is me
Faces and names , to me they're all the same
If I looked like
you and you looked like me
There's be less trouble you see
Faces and
names I wished they'd go away
I'd disappear into that wall and never talk
Faces
and names
I wish I was a robot or a machine
Without a feeling or a
thought
People who want to meet the name I have
Are always disappointed
when they meet me
Faces and names I wish they were the same
Faces and
names only cause troubles for me
Faces and names
I'd rather be a hole in
the wall - looking out on the other side
I'd rather look and listen, listen
and not talk
To faces and names
I had a breakdown when I was a kid
I
lost my hair when I was young
If you dress older when you are not, as you
really age
you look the same
If we all looked the same, we wouldn't play
these games
Me dressing for you and you dressing for me - undressing for me
Faces
and names if they all were the same
You wouldn't be jealous of me or me
jealous of you
Me jealous of you - I'm jealous of you
Your faces and
your name
Your faces and your name
Faces and names
I think images are worth repeating
Images repeated from a painting
Images
taken from a painting
From a photo worth re-seeing
I love images worth
repeating , project them upon the ceiling
Multiply them with silk screening
See
them with a different feeling
Images / Images / Images / Images
Some
say images have no feeling, I think there's a
deeper meaning
Mechanical
precision or so it's seeming
Instigates a cooler feeling
I love
multiplicity of screenings
Things born anew display new meanings
I think
images are worth repeating and repeating
and repeating
I'm no urban
idiot savant spewing paint without any order
I'm no sphinx, no mystery
enigma
What I paint is very ordinary
I don't think I'm old or modern, I
don't think I think
I'm thinking
It doesn't matter what I am thinking
It's
the images that are worth repeating
Images / Images / Images / Images
If
you're looking for a deeper meaning, I'm as deep as this
high ceiling
If
you think technique is meaning, you might find me
very simple
You might
think the images boring
Cars and cans and chairs and flowers
You might
find me personally boring
Hammer, sickle, Mao Tse Tung, Mao Tse Tung -
I
think that it bears repeating the images upon the ceiling
I love images
worth repeating and repeating and repeating
Images / Images / Images /
Images
People said to lock the door and have an open house no more
People said
to lock the door and have an open house no more
They said the Factory must
change and slowly slip away
But if I have to live in fear, where will I get
my ideas
With all those crazy people gone, will I slowly slip away
Still
there's no more Billy Name, and Ondine is not the same
Wonton and the Turtle
gone
Slowly slip away ... slowly slip away
If I close the Factory door
and don't see those
people anymore
If I give in to infamy ... I'll
slowly slip away
I know it seems that friends are right
Hello daylight,
goodbye night
But starlight is so quiet here, think I'll slowly slip away
What
can I do by myself, it's good to hear from someone else
It's good to hear a
crazy voice that will not slip away
Will not slip away
If I have to live
in fear my ideas will slowly slip away
If I have to live in fear I'm afraid
my life will slip away
If you can't see me past my door
Why your thought
could slowly slip away
If I have to lock the door, another life exists no
more
Slip away
Friends have said to lock the door
Watch out for who
comes through that door
They said the Factory must change
But I don't
It wasn't me who shamed you, it's not fair to say that
You wanted to
work I gave you a chance at that
It wasn't me who hurt you, that's more
credit than I'm worth
Don't threaten me with the things you'll do to you
It
wasn't me who shamed you, it wasn't me who brought you down
You did it to
yourself without any help from me
It wasn't me who hurt you, I showed you
possibilities
The problems you had were there before you met me
I didn't
say this had to be
You can't blame these things on me
It wasn't me, it
wasn't me, it wasn't me
I know she's dead, it wasn't me
It wasn't me who
changed you, you did it yourself
I'm not an excuse for the hole that you
dropped in
I'm not simple minded but I'm no father to you at all
Death
exists but you do things to yourself
I never said give up control
I
never said stick a needle in your arm and die
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it
wasn't me
I know she's dead but it wasn't me
It wasn't me who shamed
you, who covered you with mud
You did it to yourself without any help from
me
You act as if I could've told you or stopped you like some god
But
people never listen and you know that that's a fact
I never said slit your
wrists and die
I never said throw your life away
It wasn't me, it wasn't
me, it wasn't me
You're killing yourself - you can't blame me
Valerie Solanis took the elevator got off at the 4th floor
She pointed
the gun at Andy saying you
cannot control me anymore
And I believe
there's got to be some retribution
And I believe an eye for an eye is
elemental
And I believe that something's wrong if she's alive right now
Valerie
Solanis took three steps pointing at the floor
From inside her idiot madness
spoke and bang
Andy fell onto the floor
And I believe life's serious
enough for retribution
I believe being sick is no excuse and
I believe
I would've pulled the switch on her myself
When they got him to the hospital
his pulse was gone
they thought that he was dead
His guts were pouring
from his wounds onto the floor
they thought that he was dead
Not until
years later would the hospital do to him what she
could not
Andy said, "
Where were you, you didn't come to see me"
Andy said, " I think I
died, why didn't you come to see me"
Andy said, " It hurt so much,
they took blood from my hand"
I believe there's got to be some
retribution
I believe there's got to be some retribution
I believe we
are all the poorer for it now
Visit me, why didn't you visit me
Visit
me, why didn't you visit me
I really care a lot although I look like I do not
Since I was shot
there's nobody but you
I know I look blasé, party Andy's what the
papers say
At dinner I'm the one who pays - for a nobody like you
Nobody
but you, a nobody like you
Since I was shot there's nobody but you
Won't
you decorate my house
I'll sit there quiet as a mouse
You know me like
to look a lot - at nobody like you
I'll hold your hand and slap my face
I'll
tickle you to your disgrace
Won't you put me in my proper place - a nobody
like you
Sundays I pray a lot, I'd like to wind you up
and paint your
clock
I want to be what I am not - for a nobody like you
The bullet
split my spleen and lung, the doctors said
I was gone
Inside I've got
some shattered bone for nobody but you
I'm still not sure I didn't die
And
if I'm dreaming I still have bad pains inside
I know I'll never be a bride -
to nobody like you
I wish I had a stronger chin, my skin was good, my nose
was thin
This is no movie I'd ask to be in - with a nobody like you
Nobody
like you, a nobody like you, all my life -
It's been nobodies like you
Train entering the city - I lost myself and never came back
Took a trip
around the world and never came back
Black silhouettes, crisscrossed tracks
never came back
Forever changed, forever changed
You might think I'm
frivolous, uncaring and cold
You might think I'm frivolous - depends on your
point of view
Society Andy who paints and records them - the high and the
low
I left my old life behind me and never went back
Forever changed,
forever changed
Got to get to the city - get a job
Got to get some work
to see me through
My old life's disappearing from view
Hong Kong - and
I was changed
Burma and India - and I was changed
Only art to see me
through
Only heart to see me through
The whole thing quickly receding
My
life disappearing - disappearing from view
Forever changed , forever changed
I
left my old life behind and was forever changed
Forever changed
Andy it's me, haven't seen you for a while
I wished I talked to you more
when you were alive
I thought you were self-assured when you acted shy
Hello
it's me
I really miss you, I really miss your mind
I haven't heard ideas
like that in such a long, long time
I loved to watch you draw and watch you
paint
But when I saw you last I turned away
When Billy Name was sick and
locked up in his room
You ask me for some speed, I thought it was for you
I'm
sorry that I doubted your good heart
Things always seem to end before they
start
Hello it's me, that was a great gallery show
Your cow wallpaper
and your floating silver pillows
I wish I paid more attention when they
laughed at you
Hello it's me
" Pop goes pop artists," the
headline said
" Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead?"
You
get less time to stealing a car
I remember thinking as I heard my own record
in a bar
They really hated you, now all that's changed
But I have some
resentments that can never be unmade
You hit me when it hurt I didn't laugh
Your
Diaries are not a worthy epitaph
Oh well now Andy - guess we've got to go
I
hope someway somehow you like this little show
I know it's late in coming
but it's the only way I know
Hello it's me - goodnight Andy ...
Goodbye,
Andy