Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

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• Myriad had choice of his fate
  Set themselves out upon a plate for him to choose
  What had he to lose?
  Not a ghost bloodied country all covered with sleep
  Where the Black Angel did weep, not an old city street in the east
  Gone to choose
  
  And wandering's brother walked on through the night
  With his hair in his face on a long splintered cut from the knife
  Of GT
  The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn
  Until we said, "So long" to his skull
  Shrill yell
  Shining brightly red-rimmed and red-lined with the time
  Infused with the choice of the mind on ice skates scraping chunks
  From the bells
  
  Cut mouth bleeding razors, forgetting the pain
  Antiseptic remains cool, good buy
  So you fly to the cozy brown snow of the east
  Gonna choose, choose again
  
  Sacrificials remain make it hard to forget
  Where you come from, the stools of your eyes serve to realize fame
  Choose again
  And Rovermans' refrain of the sacrilege recluse
  For the loss of a horse
  With the bowels and a tail of a rat
  Come again, choose to go
  
  And if Epiphany's terror reduced you to shame
  Have your head bobbed and weaved
  Choose a side to be on
  And if the stone glances off, split didactics in two
  Leave the color of the mouse trails, don't scream, try between
  If you choose
  If you choose, try to lose
  For the loss of remain come and start
  Start the game
  
  I-che-che
  Che-che-I
  Che-che-che
  Ka-tah-ko
  Choose to choose
  Choose to choose
  Choose to go Writer/s: John Davies Cale, Lou A. Reed
  Publisher: GARNANT MUSIC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 10

• Subs from Nyc"To the cozy brown snow of the east" is a reference to heroin. Not communism. Come on.
• Arlette from Corona, CaG.T. is the brand of the knife.
• Chloe from St. Louis, MoSlightly Bob Dylan-y.
• Erik from Bloomfield Hills, MiReed says that this song wasn't really supposed to be about anything, just words put together for the way they sound.
• Edward from London, EnglandJust for Steve, I stumbled on G.T. as well. Gran Turismo? To be honest I have never understood the song either but I find the connection to Communism a rather clumsy one.
• Paul from Cincinnati, OhThis song has a very cinematic feel and seems to kind of cement the epic sweep of the album since it's near the end. This is one of several songs on the album that constructively (as opposed to simply abusively) uses noise. There's a sort of brief white noise sound that occurs several times throughout the song. This is definitely the most lyrically obscure song on an album whose lyrics are mostly easily understood. It's interesting that this is interpreted to be about Russia. I just assumed that he meant the east coast of America when he said the east, but I'll defer to the likely more knowledgable opinion of the SongFacts contributers.
• Steve from -----, Padoes any one know what he means by g.t. "On a long splintered cut from the knife of G.T."
• Erik from Bloomfield Hills, MiThe lyrics sound like they're about something extremely cryptic, and this song has an overall sound that's spooky as hell. When I first heard this song, it scared the $h!t out of me in the coolest way. I love it!
• Spencer from Rhode Islandthis is a great song. some people might say it's hard to listen to, but i love it.
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScI've seen the title written as "The Black Angel's Death Song." Which one is correct. Btw, the viola in this is cool. it adds to the mood I think.

More Songfacts:

Feed The TreeBelly (US)

In the Belly song "Feed The Tree," the title is a reference to bodies buried under a large tree, thus feeding it. The song is about death, and also respect - take your hat off for those feeding the tree!

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The Squeeze song "Tempted" is one of their few with lead vocals by Paul Carrack, who sang the Ace song "How Long" and was in Mike + The Mechanics.

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Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" contains passages from letters a stalker sent her. He sued her for using them but died by suicide before the trial.

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"How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You" by Marvin Gaye was inspired by Jackie Gleason's saying, "How Sweet It Is!"

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Heart Of GlassBlondie

"Heart of Glass" was Blondie's first foray into disco, which turned off some fans. Debbie Harry said they did it because they "wanted to be uncool."

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