SONGS FOR DRELLA - A Fiction is a brief musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and is entirely fictitious. We start with Andy growing up in a "Smalltown" - "There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh." He comes to New York and follows the customs of "Open House" both in his apartment and the Factory. "It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me/the way to make friends Andy is to invite them up for tea." He travels around the world and is in his words "Forever Changed." He knows the importance of people and money in the art world ["Style is all it takes"] and follows his primary ethic, "Work - the most important thing is work." He can copy the classicists but feels "the trouble with the classicists, they look at a tree/that's all they see/ they paint a tree ..." Andy wished we all had the same name "Faces and Names." He becomes involved with movies - "Starlight." He is interested in repetitive "Images" - "I love images worth repeating ... see them with a different feeling." The mortality rate at the Factory is rather high and some blame Andy - "It wasnot me who shamed you ..." The open house policy leads him to being shot ["I Believe"]. He had been warned but a new, locked door approach at the Factory caused him to wonder "... if I have to live in fear/where will I get my ideas ... slowly Slip Away?5 One night he has 'A Dream,' his relationships change ... "A Nobody Like You." He dies recovering from a gall bladder operation. Chocolates were his weakness. We miss him very much. "Hello, It's Me."
- Lou Reed
SONGS FOR DRELLA is a collaboration, the second Lou and I have completed since 1965. I must therefore say that although I think he did most of the work, he has allowed me to keep a position of dignity in the process. It therefore remains, as intended, a tribute to someone whose inspiration and generosity offered over the years is now remembered with much love and admiration.
- John Cale
SONGS FOR DRELLA - A Fiction 1990
Originally co-commissioned by The Brooklyn Academy Of Music and The Arts At St. Ann's.
1. Small Town
2. Open House
3. Style It Takes
4. Work
5. Trouble With Classicists
6. Starlight
7. Faces And Names
8. Images
9. Slip Away (A Warning)
10. It Wasn't Me
11. I Believe
12. Nobody But You
13. A Dream
14. Forever Changed
15. Hello It's Me
HELLO IT'S ME
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 hope 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
