Like “Pale Blue Eyes,” the song “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is a short, tender love song. With nothing more than the soft strumming of a guitar and the ringing of a tambourine in the background, Nico’s restrained vocals make the song so much more gentle.
This song was apparently inspired by Nico herself, who once came up to Lou and told him, “Oh, Lou, I’ll be your mirror.”
As ever, Lou could extrapolate from that simple sentence and create a full-fledged character whose thoughts and emotions are expressed in the lyrics. Then he could add some perfectly fitting music to create a beautiful tune.
While “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is clearly a love song, its phrases and expressions are somewhat atypical of any love song. In the standard love songs since the creation of pop music, there are probably very few that come close to saying anything like “I’ll be the wind, the rain, and the sunset.” Many pop songs will refer to sunrise, sunshine, and … well, more sun. Lou chose the opposite.
And there’s definitely never been another song that said anything remotely similar to “I’ll be … the light on your door to show that you’re home.” That’s because there was only one poet who could put those words together so evocatively.
I’ll Be Your Mirror, Velvet Underground …
Lou Reed, Anthology of Memorable Lyrics.
Images sourced from Google Images.
"When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind..."
Beautiful, isn't it?!
Any Lou Reed solo album you’d recommend to someone whose only heard two velvet underground albums? Which is your favorite?
New Sensations or Growing Up in Public might be a good place to start. They're quite accessible for the new listener, and a good intro to his music. Also, New York had great reviews, and was generally seen to be a great album. I did not like it as much as I liked some of his earlier albums.
I love Berlin and Street Hassle, but both of those albums are a bit dark and gloomy. In fact, VERY dark and gloomy in certain parts.
I do NOT recommend Metal Machine Music. At all ... Ever ... To anybody. So ... do NOT – I repeat, DO NOT!!! – listen to that album until you've heard a lot of Lou's other music, and NOT until you think you can tolerate an album that "No one has listened to (it) the whole way through." ☺
Is it that bad!? Hahahahaha the way you describe it is hilarious, is it like the matrix 2 and 3?
The first time I heard Tom Waits (I started with Rain Dogs) it was really hard for me to understand, but that was 13 years ago. I’m a totally different person now.
I’ll go check out the others.
Have you listened to Tom Waits' albums Small Change, and Blue Valentine? Early stuff, for the late 70s, but classic Waits music. And great intros to his work. Also, Heartattack and Vine and The Heart of Saturday Night are good. Among others ...
Of course! Since then I’ve become we’ll acquainted with his music. Rain dogs, small change and real gone are my favorites but there are great songs on almost every album.
I just put on lou reed to explore his stuff! I was tempted to check out metal machine music but I resisted....for now...
**Great song. Special thanks for the video with subtitles. I really enjoyed listening to the song, and see what words in it. So, I improve my English. Good luck to you and Kind.
againn amazing post whose only heard two velvet underground albums?
You copy-pasted the phrase "whose only heard two velvet underground albums?" from the above comment. That's plagiarism. You will be flagged.
You are lucky. @ahmermalik suggested that I give you one warning. Since I see that you joined Steemit only last month, I have unflagged this plagiarism. Don't do it again.
good sir you have a eye on every bit of work but you should give one warning to those because someone are new and need some time to understand the whole things so kindly uflag hi with a warning
OK, but I see plagiarism every now and then, and it's annoying. (I've unflagged it, but will issue a stern warning.)
i hope so he will not do it again
Loved the post as it is so interesting and loved the music and poetry...Glad to see it..@majes.tytyty
Nice and good post
Great music video. I enjoy it
Good post
Congrats...
Nice one @majes.tytyty.