From
Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) by
Lou Reed
Egg Cream (Reed) - 5:18
When I was a young man - no bigger than this
A chocolate egg cream was not to be missed
Some U Bet's Chocolate Syrup, seltzer water mixed with milk
Stir it up into a heady fro - tasted just like silk
You scream, I steam We all want Egg Cream ...
Now you can go to Junior's, Dave's on Canal St.
And I think there's Ken's in Boston
There must be something in L.A.
But Becky's on Kings Highway
Was the Egg Cream of choice
And if you don't believe me
Go ask any of the boys
You scream, I steam We all want Egg Cream ...
The only good thing I remember about P.S.92
Was the Egg Cream served at Becky's
It was a fearsome brew
For fifty cents you got a shot - chocolate bubbles up your nose
That made it easier to deal with knife flights
And kids pissing in the street
You scream, I steam We all want Egg Cream ...
So the next time you're in Brooklyn - Please say hello for me
At Totonno's for Pizza and ice cream at Al and Shirley's
But mostly you go to Becky's - sit in a booth and say hello
And have two chocolate Egg Cream - one to stay and go
You scream, I steam We all want Egg Cream ...
NYC Man (Reed) - 4:56
It can only lead to trouble if you break my heart
If you accidentally crush it on the ides of March
I'd prefer you were straight forward
You don't have to go through all of that
I'm a New York city man, baby
Say "go" and that is that
New York city man, you just say "go" and that is that
I'm a New York city man, you just say "go" and that is that
It's far too complicated to make up a lie
That you'd have to remember and really why
I wouldn't want to be around you
If you don't want to have me around
I'm a M-A-N-N man
Slink your eyes and I'll gone
I'm a M-A-N-N man, slink your eyes, honey, I love you, and I'll gone
New York city man, slink your eyes and I'll gone
Brutus made a pretty speech but Caesar was betrayed
Lady Macbeth went crazy but Macbeth ended slain
Ophelia and Desdamona dead leaving Hamlet in a play
But I'm no Lear with blinded eyes
Say " go " and I am gone
The stars have shut their eyes up tight
The earth has changed it's course
A Kingdom sits on a black knight's back
As he tries to mount a white jeweled horse
While a clock full of butterflies on the hour
Releases a thousand moths
You say " leave" and I'll be gone
Without any remorse
No letters faxes phones or tears
There's a difference between
Bad and worse
I'm a New York city man, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
New York city - man, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
New York city, I love you, New York city man
New York city, I love you, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
Just a little grain of sand
New York city, ooohhh, I love you
New York city, baby, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
I love you ...
Finish Line (Reed) - 3:93
Wind blows snow outside my windows
Crowd below runs wild in the streets
Two rented brothers race down two separate alleys
Heading for the finish line
Down in the train yard out by the stockyard
Butchers with aprons hack meat in the snow
Blood has the brothers pulsing with envy
Heading for the finish line
Two rented brothers. Their faces keep changing
Just like these feelings I have for you
And nothing's forever not even five minutes
When you're headed for the finish line
Down in the depot out by the meat rack
Down by the tunnels surrounding the jail
Prisoners are marching in squares and in circles
They're heading for the finish line
They're lining up for Noah's Ark
They're stabbing each other in the dark
Saluting a flag made of some rich guy's socks
Heading for the finish line
Close to the line the ice is cracking
Two rented feelings sitting in the stands
Two mothers, two fathers and both of them are paid for
All of a sudden it comes back to me
Just up ahead is the finish line
Two rented referees and two checkered rags
Out of the corner of my eye comes a
Dark horse with black wings
Headed for the finish line
I'm five years old the room is fuzzy
I think there's also a very young girl
It's hard to remember what happened exactly
As I'm staring at the finish line
First came fire then came light
Then came feeling then cane sight
Trade in (Reed) - 4:59
I met a new me at 8 am
The other one got lost
This was not a trade in
Although I wouldn't believe the cost
I woke up crying as we said goodbye
Me an my old self
Each day he vanished more and more
As I became someone else
He actually was murdered I had taken him apart
But when I put him back together
I couldn't find his heart
It was resting underneath a chair
In a bed of bright tin foil
If I pulled back the flaps
I could still see it beat
I could still hear his voice uncoil
As I said :
I want a trade in
A 14th chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife
How could I have been so mistaken
How could I think that it was true
A child that is raised by an idiot
And that idiot then becomes you
How could I believe in a movie
How could I believe in a book
But most of all how could I listen to you
Such an obvious schmuck
A life spent listening to assholes
It's funny but it's true
So get rid of them I said to myself
But first I'm getting rid of you
I want a trade in
A 14th chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife
Take me over to the window
My heart said to my head
Please set me on fine
So we can start again
I was so wrong that it's funny
And I can't apologize/ but instead,
You can be everything that I'm not
The second that I die
I want a trade in
The second chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife
Hang on to Your Emotions (Reed) - 3:46
When your imagination has too much to say
When the chill of the night meets the sweat of the day
And you have trouble understanding what other people have to say
You'd better
Hang on to your emotions ...
When a demagogue inside your head has taken charge
And by default what you say or do is criticized
And this litany of failures is recited a thousand times
You'd better
Hang on to your emotions ...
Could it be you've never felt like that
That your mind's a cage - inside the cage a cat
That spits and scratches all it can get at
And that's you
And your emotions
Could it be you've never felt like that
Your mind's a cage - inside the cage a rat
Rabidly trying to get it
You
And your emotions
You and your emotions
When your imagination has too much to say
When that facile voice inside your head says give your life away
You might think to ask - how it got that way
What books it has read - that make it that way
And where it got the right - to speak to anyone that way
You'd better
Hold on to your emotions
Hold on to your emotions
When a night city's breeze blows across the room
And a 5 am moon and sun start their swoon
You hear your lover's breath
And not a moment too soon
You get to
Release all your emotions ...
Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker), Pt. II (Live) (Reed) - 3:37
I was thinking of things that I hate to do, -sex with your parents
Things you do to me or I do to you, baby, -sex with your parents
Something fatter or uglier than Rush Rambo
Something more disgusting than Robert Dole
Something pink that climbs out of a hole
And there it was - sex with your parents
I was getting so sick of this right wing republican shit
These ugly old man scared of young tit and dick
So I try to think of something that made me sick
And there it was - sex with your parents
Now these old fucks can steal all they want
And they can go and pass laws saying you can't say what you want
And you can't look at this and you can't look at that
And you can't smoke this and you can't snort that
And me baby - I got statistics - I got stats
These people have been to bed with their parents
Now I know you're shocked but hang and have a brew
If you think about it for a minute you know that it's true
They're ashamed and repelled and they don't know what to do
They've had sex with their parents
When they looked into their lovers eyes they saw - mom
In the name of the family values we must ask whose family
In the name of the family values we must ask
Senator
It's has been reported that you have had
Illegal congress with your mother, - sex with your parents
Senator
An illegal congress by proxy is a
Pigeon by any other name, - sex with your parents
Senators you polish a turd
Here in the big city we got a word
For those who would bed their beloved big bird
And make a mockery of our freedoms
Without even using a condom
Without even saying " no "
By god we have a name for people like that
It's - hey motherfucker
Hookywooky (Reed) - 4:19
I'm standing with you on your roof
Looking at the chemical sky
All purple blue and oranges, some pigeons flying by
The traffic on canal street so noisy it's a shock
And someone's shooting fireworks
Or a gun on the next block
Ah-ah-ah, I wanna hookywooky with you ...
Traffic's so noisy it's a shock
Sounds like fireworks or a gun on the next block
A hookywooky with you
Your ex-lover Satchel is here from France
Yet another ex
They gather about you like a mother superior
All of you still friends, ah-ah-ah
None of my old flames ever talk to me
When things end for me they end
They take your pants your money your name
But the song still remains
Ah-ah-ah, I wanna hookywooky with you ...
They take your pants your money your name
But the song still remains
I wanna hookywooky with you
You're so civilized it hurts
I guess I could learn a lot
About people plants and relationships
And how not to get hurt a lot
And each lover I meet up your roof
I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky
Down into the streets to die
Under the wheels of a car on Canal Streets
And each lover I meet up on your roof
I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky
Under the wheels of a car to die on Canal streets
Ah-ah- I, I wanna hookywooky with you ...
I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky, down into the streets to die
Under the wheels of a car on Canal streets
Under the wheels of a car on Canal Streets ...
The Proposition (Reed) - 3:27
You can't have the flower without the root
You can't have the fire without the soot
Even a stripper needs her red tasseled suit
And we were meant to be
In every war the North needs the south
And everyone knows all assholes have a mouth
Without mystery what would writers talk about
And we were meant to be
An apple needs pits the way melons need seed
Your foot needs your arm and your arm needs your knee
And one of these days I know you will need me
We were meant to be ...
You're mother's an ogre your father's a scamp
You won't see my parents honored on any stamp
But just like a bulb screws into a lamp
We were meant to be
The way the AIDS needs a vaccine
Somewhere a vaccine needs AIDS
The way a victim needs life
A life needs to be saved
And out of all of this
Will come a better way
We were meant to be
So you can go to Europe , Los Angeles or Mars
You can stand on a building throwing cinder blocks on cars
You can practice deep voodoo
But like me you'll see
We were meant to be ...
We were meant to be ...
Adventurer (Reed) - 4:18
You're an adventurer
You sail across the oceans
You climb the Himalayas
Seeking truth and beauty as a natural state
You're a queen reborn
Worshipped from above afar
Some see you as an elixir
An elemental natural seeking perfect grace
In a catacomb
Or cave of endless drawings
Prehistoric or religious
Your accomplishments prodigious
Seeking out the perfect tone
Your language so clear
Your voice perfectly turning
As in the city I sit yearning
Blowing rings of smoke from thin cigars
Or driving fast in foreign cars
To capture your remains
You're an adventurer
A turban wet wrapped round your head
On the mountainside they predict your death
Oh how you fooled them all
But subjects are a poor excuse
When what you really want's a muse
An inspirating knowledge of what comes before
Speeds of light
The momentary flicker of a candle in its wicker basket
Smoking wax - Facts!
Did you find that superior knowledge that eluded you in college
Did you find that super vortex that could cause your cerebral cortex
To lose its grip
You're an adventurer
You were out looking for meaning
While the rest of us were steaming in an inspirating urban pit
An adventurer
You enter as I'm dreaming
I wish I'd never wake up
Differentiating scheming from my one true love
You're an adventurer
You love the angles and the cherries
The height and width of levies
The natural bridge and tunnels of the human race
You're an adventurer
Nothing seem to scare you and if it does it won't dissuade you
You just will not think about it
You dismiss it and defocus
You redefine the locus of your time in space - Race!
As you move further from me and though I understand the thinking
And have often done the sane thing I find parts of me gone
You're an adventurer
And though I'll surely miss you
And of course I'll survive without you and maybe good will come of that
But at this point I anticipate some grieving
And although I know your leaving
Is a necessary adjunct to what we both do
An adventurer
Splitting up the atom
Splitting up the once was
Splitting up the essence
Of our star-crossed fate
None who meet you do forget you
My adventurer, my adventurer ...
My adventuress
Riptide (Reed) - 7:46
She's out of her mind, like the wind in the storm
Like the ocean in the dawn as it disappears, with the riptide
She's out of her mind, she's pulled away by the moon
She's ripped from her sleep ... As the cold luna sweep gains control
What you gonna do ... With your emotions
Ones you barely recognize
In your sleep I heard your screaming
"This is not voluntary! This is not voluntary !
If this is life I'd rather die !"
In the riptide ...
She's out of her mind, riptide
Like a muscle that swells
You know when you trip
Whether you're well or sick
Your body aches
She's out with the tide
Gone to a prisoner's dance
Where a monkey's her date
Eating limbs off a plate with a spoon
What you gonna do with your emotions
Said the seagull to the loon
What you gonna do with your emotions
She said " Please wake me up"
She said " Don't touch me now"
She said " I wish I was dead"
In the riptide
She's out of her mind riptide ... You always win
It happens over and over again rip tide
She's out of her mind like a hurricane's rain
She does not stand a chance at this luna dance riptide
I was thinking of Van Gogh's last painting
The wheatfields and the crows
Is that perhaps what you've been feeling
When you see the ground
As you fall from the shy
As the floors disappears
From beneath your feet riptide
She's going out of her mind ...
With the riptide ...
Set the Twilight Reeling (Reed) - 5:04
Take me for what I am ... a star newly emerging
Long simmering explodes ... inside the self is reeling
In the pocket of the heart, in the rushing of the blood
In the muscle of my sex, in the mindful mindless love
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling
At 5 am the moon and the sun ... sit set before my window
Light glances off the blue glass we set ... right before the window
And you who accept ... in your soul and your head
What was misunderstood ... what was thought of with dread
A new self is born ... the other self dead
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling
A soul singer stands on the stage ... the spotlight shows him sweating
He sinks to one knee ... Seems to cry ... the horn are unrelenting
But as the drums beats he finds himself growing hard
In the microphone's face he sees her face growing large
And the swelling crescendo no longer retards
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling
As the twilight sunburst gleams
As the chromium moon it sets
As I lose all my regrets and set the twilight reeling
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling