Songs For Drella

I think images are worth repeating
Images repeated from a painting
Images taken from a painting
From a photo worth re-seeing

I love images worth repeating
Project them upon the ceiling
Multiply them with silk screening
See them with a different feeling

Images, oh, images
Images, oh, images

Some say images have no feeling
I think there's a deeper meaning
Mechanical precision or so it's seeming
Instigates a cooler feeling

I love multiplicity of screenings
Things born anew display new meanings
I think images are worth repeating
And repeating and repeating

Images, oh, images
Images, images

I'm no urban idiot savant
Spewing paint without any order
I'm no sphinx, no mystery enigma
What i paint is very ordinary

I don't think i'm old or modern
I don't think i think i'm thinking
It doesn't matter what i'm thinking
It's the images that are worth repeating

And repeating, oh, images
Images

If you're looking for a deeper meaning
I'm as deep as this high ceiling
If you think technique is meaning
You might find me very simple

You might think that images boring
Cars and cans and chairs and flowers
You might find me personally boring
Hammer, sickle, mao tse tong

Mao tse tong
Ooohhh, images, images
Images

I think that it bears repeating
The images upon the ceiling
I love images worth repeating
And repeating and repeating

Images, images
Oh, images, oh, images

Andy was a catholic
The ethic ran through his bones
He lived alone with his mother
Collecting gossip and toys

Every sunday when he went to church
He'd kneel in his pew and say
It's work
All that matters is work

He was a lot of things
What i remember most he'd say
I've got to bring home the bacon
Someone's got to bring home the roast

He'd get to the factory early
If you'd ask him he'd tell you straight out
It's work

No matter what i did it never seemed enough
He said i was lazy, i said i was young
He said, how many songs did you write
I'd written zero, i'd lied and said, ten

You won't be young forever
You should have written fifteen
It's work

You ought to make things big
People like it that way
And the songs with the dirty words
Make sure your record them that way

Andy liked to stir up trouble
He was funny that way
He said, it's just work

Andy sat down to talk one day
He said decide what you want
Do you want to expand your parameters
Or play museums like some dilettante

I fired him on the spot
He got red and called me a rat
It was the worst word that he could think of
And i've never seen him like that
It's work
I thought he said it's just work

Andy said a lot of things
I stored them all away in my head
Sometimes when i can't decide what i should do
I think what would andy have said

He'd probably say you think too much
That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do
It's work
The most important thing is work
It's work
The most important thing is work

Faces and names, i wish they were the same
Faces and names only cause trouble for me
Faces and names

If we all looked the same and we all had the same name
I wouldn't be jealous of you or you jealous of me
Faces and names

I always fall in love with someone who looks
The way i wish that i could be
I'm always staring at someone who hurts
And the one they hurt is me

Faces and names, to me they're all the same
If i looked like you and you looked like me
There'd be less trouble you see

Faces and names, i wish they'd go away
I'd disappear into that wall and never talk
Talk, not talk

I wish i was a robot or a machine
Without a feeling or a thought
People who want to meet the name i have
Are always disappointed when they meet me

Faces and names, i wish they were the same
Faces and names only cause problems for me
Faces and names

I'd rather be a hole in the wall
Looking out on the other side
I'd rather look and listen, listen and not talk
To faces and names

If i had a breakdown when i was a kid
I lost my hair when i was young
If you dress older when you're not
As your really age you look the same

If we all looked the same, we wouldn't play these games
Me dressing for you and you dressing for me
Undressing for me

Faces and names, if they all were the same
You wouldn't be jealous of me or me jealous of you
Me jealous of you, me jealous of you

Your face and your name
Your face and your name
Faces and names
Faces and names

You've got the money, i've got the time
You want your freedom, make your freedom mine
'cause i've got the style it takes
And money is all that it takes

You've got connections, i've got the art
You like attention and i like your looks
And i have the style it takes
And you know the people it takes

Why don't you sit right over there
We'll do a movie portrait
I'll turn the camera on
And i won't even be there
A portrait that moves, you look great i think

I'll put the empire state building on your wall
For 24 hours glowing on your wall
Watch the sun rise above it in your room
Wallpaper art, a great view

I've got a brillo box and i say it's art
It's the same one you can buy at any supermarket
'cause i've got the style it takes
And you've got the people it takes

This is a rock group called the velvet underground
I show movies on them, do you like their sound
'cause they have a style that grates
And i have art to make

Let's do a movie here next week
We don't have sound but you're so great
You don't have to speak

You've got the style it takes, kiss
You've got the style it takes, eat
You've got the style it takes, couch
You've got the style it takes, kiss

It wasn't me who shamed you
It's not fair to say that
You wanted to work i gave you a chance at that
It wasn't me who hurt you
That's more credit that i'm worth
Don't threaten me with the things you'll do to you

It wasn't me who shamed you
It wasn't me who brought you down
You did it to yourself without any help from me
It wasn't me who hurt you
I showed you possibilities
The problems you had were there before you met me

I didn't say this had to be
You can't blame these things on me
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
I know she's dead, it wasn't me

It wasn't me who changed you
You did it to yourself
I'm not an excuse for the hole you dropped in
I'm not simple minded
But i'm not father to you at all
Death exists but you do things to yourself

I never said give up control
I never said stick a needle in your arm and die
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
I know he's dead but it wasn't me

It wasn't me who shamed you
Who covered you with mud
You did it to yourself without any help from me
You act as i could've told you
Or stopped you like some god
But people never listen and you know that that's a fact

I never said slit your wrists and die
I never said throw your life away
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
You're killing yourself, you can't blame me

It was a very cold clear fall night
I had a terrible dream
Billy name and brigid were playing under my stair case
On the second floor about two o'clock in the morning

I woke up
Because amos and archie had started barking
That made me very angry
Because i wasn't feeling well and i told them
I was very cross the real me
That they just better remember
What happened to sam the bad cat
That was left at home and got sick and went pussy heaven

It was a very cold clear fall night
Some snowflakes were falling
Gee, it was so beautiful
And so i went to get my camera to take some pictures
And then i was taking the pictures
But the exposure thing wasn't right
And i was going to call fred or gerry
To find out how to get set it
I was too late
And then i remembered they were still probably at dinner
And anyway
I felt really bad and didn't want to talk to anybody
But the snowflakes were so beautiful and real looking
And i really wanted to hold them
And that's when i heard the voices
From down the hall near the stairs
So i got a flashlight
And i was scared and i went out into the hallway
There's been all kinds of troubles
Lately in the neighborhood
And someone's got to bring home the bacon and anyway
There were brigid and billy playing

And under the stair case
Was a little meadow sort of like the park at 23rd street
Where all the young kids go and play frisbee
Gee, that must be fun
Maybe we should do an article on that in the magazine
But they'll just tell me i'm stupid and it won't sell
But i'll just hold my ground this time, i mean
It's my magazine, isn't it?

So i was thinking that as the snowflakes fell
And i heard those voices having so much fun
Gee, it would be so great to have some fun
So i called billy
But either he didn't hear me or he didn't want to answer
Which was so strange
Because
Even if i don't like reunions i've always loved billy
I'm so glad he's working
I mean it's different than ondine
He keeps touring with those movies
And he doesn't even pay us and the film
I mean the film's just going to disintegrate and then what
I mean he's so normal off of drugs
I just don't get it

And then i saw john cale
He's been looking really great
He's been coming by the office to exercise with me
Ronnie said i have a muscle
But he's been really mean since he went to aa
I mean what does it mean
When you give up drinking and then you're still so mean
He says i'm being lazy but i'm not
I'm just can't find any ideas
I mean i'm just not
Let's face it
Going to get any ideas up at the office

And seeing john made me think of the velvets
And i had been thinking about them
When i was on st. marks place
Going to that new gallery those sweet new kids have opened
But the thought i was old
And then i saw the old dom
The old club where we did our first shows
It was so great
And i don't understand about that velvet's first album
I mean i did the cover
I was the producer
And i always see it repackaged
And i've never gotten a penny from it
How could that be
I should call henry
But it was good seeing john
I did a cover for him
But i did in black and white and he change it to color
It would have been worth more if he'd left it my way
But you can never tell any body anything i've leaned that

I tried calling again to billy and john
They wouldn't recognize me it was like i wasn't there
Why won't they let me in

And then i saw lou
I'm so mad at him
Lou reed got married and didn't invite me
I mean is it because he thought i'd bring too many people
I don't get it
Could have at least called
I mean he's doing so great
Why doesn't he call me?
I saw him at the mtv show
And he was one row away and he didn't even say hello
I don't get it
You know i hate lou
I really do
He won't even hire us for his videos
And i was proud of him

I was so scared today
There was blood leaking thought my shirt
From those old scars from being shot
And the corset i wear to keep my insides in was hurting
And i did three sets of fifteen pushups
And four sets of ten setups
But then my insides hurt
And i saw drops of blood on my shirt and i remember
The doctors saying i was dead
And then later they had to take blood out of my hand
'couse they ran out or veins
But then
All this thinking was making me an old grouch
And you can't do anything anyway so
If they wouldn't let me play with them in my own dream
I was just going to have to make another
And another
And another
Gee, wouldn't it be funny if i died in this dream
Before i could make another one up

And nobody called

And nobody came

Andy, it's me, haven't seen you in a while
I wished i talked to you more when you were alive
I thought you were self-assured when you acted shy
Hello it's me

I really miss you, i really miss your mind
I haven't heard ideas like that in such a long, long time
I loved to watch you draw and watch you paint
But when i saw you last, i turned away

When billy name was sick and locked up in his room
You asked me for some speed, i though it was for you
I'm sorry that i doubted your good heart
Things always seem to end before they start

Hello it's me, that was a great gallery show
Your cow wallpaper and your floating silver pillows
I wish i paid more attention when they laughed at you
Hello it's me

Pop goes pop artist, the headline said
Is shooting a put-on, is warhol really dead
You get less time for stealing a car
I remember thinking as i heard my own record in a bar

They really hated you, now all that's changed
But i have some resentments that can never be unmade
You hit me where it hurt i didn't laugh
Your diaries are not a worthy epitaph

Oh well, now andy, guess we've got to go
I wish some way somehow you like this little show
I know it's late in coming but it's the only way i know
Hello it's me

Goodnight, andy

Goodbye, andy