Album: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

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• The myriad choices 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 g.t.
  
  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 razor's
  Forgetting the pain
  Antiseptic remains cool goodbye
  So you fly
  To the cozy brown snow of the east
  Gone to choose, choose again
  
  Sacrificials remains make it hard to forget
  Where you come from
  The stools of your eyes
  Serve to realize fame, choose again
  
  And roverman's refrain of the sacrilege recluse
  For the loss of a horse
  Went 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
  
  If the stone glances off
  Split didactics in two
  Leave the colors 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 ka tak koh
  Choose to choose
  Choose to choose, choose to go 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.

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