Heroin (The Velvet Underground song)

"Heroin" is a song by the Velvet Underground, released on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. Written by Lou Reed in 1964, the song, which overtly depicts heroin use and abuse, is one of the band's most celebrated compositions. Critic Mark Deming of Allmusic writes, "While 'Heroin' hardly endorses drug use, it doesn't clearly condemn it, either, which made it all the more troubling in the eyes of many listeners."[2]

"Heroin"
Song by the Velvet Underground
from the album The Velvet Underground & Nico
ReleasedMarch 12, 1967 (1967-03-12)
RecordedMay 1966
StudioTTG Studios, Hollywood, California
GenreExperimental rock[1]
Length7:12
LabelVerve
Songwriter(s)Lou Reed
Producer(s)Andy Warhol
Audio sample
"Heroin"
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Writing and recording

In an interview with WLIR in 1972, Reed said he wrote the lyrics while working for a record company.

I was working for a record company as a songwriter, where they'd lock me in a room and they'd say write ten surfing songs, ya know, and I wrote "Heroin" and I said "Hey I got something for ya." They said, "Never gonna happen, never gonna happen."[3]

"Heroin" was among a three-song set to be re-recorded, in May 1966 at TTG Studios in Hollywood, before being included on the final release of The Velvet Underground & Nico (along with "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Venus in Furs"). This recording of the song is the album's second longest track on the album at 7 minutes and 12 seconds; "European Son" is 30 seconds longer.

"Heroin" begins slowly with Reed's quiet, melodic guitar, Sterling Morrison's rhythm guitar and drum patterns by Maureen Tucker, soon joined by John Cale's droning electric viola. The tempo increases gradually, until a crescendo, punctuated by Cale's viola and the more punctuated guitar strumming of Reed and Morrison. Tucker's drumming becomes faster and louder. The song then slows to the original tempo, and repeats the same pattern before ending.

The song is based on D♭ and G♭ major chords. Like "Sister Ray", it features no bass guitar; Reed and Morrison use chords and arpeggios to create the song's trademark sound. Rolling Stone said "It doesn't take much to make a great song," alluding to the song's use of merely two chords.

Tucker stopped drumming for several seconds at the 5:17 mark, before picking up the beat again. She explains:

As soon as it got loud and fast, I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't hear anybody, so I stopped, assuming, well, they'll stop too and say "what's the matter, Moe?" [laughs] But nobody stopped. And then, you know, so I came back in.[4]

Personnel

Alternative versions

Ludlow Street Loft, July 1965

The earliest recorded version of "Heroin" was with Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale at the band's Ludlow Street loft in July 1965. Unlike songs such as "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Venus in Furs" which sound drastically different from their corresponding 1966 recordings on The Velvet Underground & Nico, the '65 version of "Heroin" is nearly identical to the album version in structure. On the recording, Reed performs the song on an acoustic guitar. This version of the song can be found on the 1995 compilation album, Peel Slowly and See.

Scepter Studios, April 1966

The original take of "Heroin" that was intended for release on The Velvet Underground & Nico was at Scepter Studios in New York City, April 1966. This version of the song features slightly different lyrics and a more contained, less chaotic performance. Overall, the tempo of the song is at a steadier, quicker pace. It is about a minute shorter.

One notable difference in the lyrics is Lou Reed's opening — he sings "I know just where I'm going" rather than "I don't know just where I'm going" as on the final album recording. Reed was known to do this during subsequent performances of the song as well.[5]

The Velvet Underground and drugs

"Heroin" (along with songs like "I'm Waiting for the Man" which dealt with similar subject matter) tied the Velvet Underground with drug use in the media. Some critics declared the band were glorifying the use of drugs such as heroin.[6] However, members of the band (Reed, in particular) frequently denied any claims that the song was advocating use of the drug. Reed's lyrics, such as they are on the majority of The Velvet Underground & Nico, were more meant to focus on providing an objective description of the topic without taking a moral stance.[2][7] Critics were not the only ones who misunderstood the song's neutral tone; fans would sometimes approach the band members after a live performance and tell them they "shot up to 'Heroin'",[8] a phenomenon that deeply disturbed Reed. As a result, Reed was somewhat hesitant to play the song with the band through much of the band's later career.[6]

Billy Idol version
"Heroin"
Single by Billy Idol
from the album Cyberpunk
ReleasedMay 4, 1993 (1993-05-04) (U.S.)
Recorded1992, Los Angeles
GenreElectronic rock, techno
LabelChrysalis
Songwriter(s)Lou Reed
Producer(s)Robin Hancock
Billy Idol singles chronology
"Prodigal Blues"
(1990)		 "Heroin"
(1993)		 "Shock to the System"
(1993)
Audio sample
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Billy Idol covered the song on his 1993 album Cyberpunk. Billy Idol's cover interpreted the song as a fast-tempo dance track, which made use of sampling and techno beats. It also included the lyric "Jesus died for somebody's sins / But not mine", from Patti Smith's introduction to "Gloria", used under license from Linda Music Corporation. Idol mixed eleven versions of "Heroin", releasing them on various singles with some containing previous hits.

Charts
Chart (1993) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[9] 16

Reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "one of the worst covers ever recorded" in his review of Cyberpunk.[10]

Other cover versions

References
  1. Zak, Albin (2000). The Velvet Underground Companion: Four Decades of Commentary. Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0028646275. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  2. "Heroin" at AllMusic
  3. san sa (2 April 2015). "Lou Reed - Interview BEST LIVE (NYC '72)". YouTube. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  4. The Velvet Underground: Under Review (Motion picture). 2006.
  5. Cannon, Geoffrey (March 1971). "The Insects of Someone Else's Thoughts". Zigzag (18).
  6. Heylin, Clinton, ed. (2005). All Yesterday's Parties: The Velvet Underground in Print 1966–1971 (first ed.). United States: Da Capo Press. p. / 138. ISBN 0-306-81477-3.
  7. Harvard, Joe (2007) [2004]. The Velvet Underground & Nico. 33⅓. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1550-9.
  8. Bangs, Lester (May 1971). "Dead Lie The Velvets, Underground". Creem. 3 (2). I meant those songs to sort of exorcise the darkness, or the self-destructive element in me, and hoped other people would take them the same way. But when I saw how people were responding to them it was disturbing. Because like people would come up and say, 'I shot up to "Heroin,'" things like that. For a while, I was even thinking that some of my songs might have contributed formatively to the consciousness of all these addictions and things going down with the kids today. But I don't think that anymore; it's really too awful a thing to consider. (Lou Reed)
  9. singles chart
  10. Allmusic review
  11. "Full Albums: The Velvet Underground & Nico » Cover Me". Covermesongs.com. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  12. "Fiction Book Review: Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson". Retrieved 26 May 2017.
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