Lou Reed Lyrics-48 – Teach them about sunsets (from “Teach the Gifted Children”) (Now Playing Week 20)

We’ve come a long way since “Venus in Furs” and “Walk on the Wild Side.”  

Songs of experience, songs of innocence

After decades in which Lou wrote primarily “songs of experience,” the older (and maybe wiser) Lou started composing more and more “songs of innocence.”   

This track is a prime example. The same insights and knowledge that made his earlier songs so achingly beautiful are evident here, but now they are sung through a more mature and wise voice. And from a slightly different perspective.

Keep it simple, keep it wonderful

To explore city life and to indulge in all its delights and pleasures is a grand experience. But once we have experienced such things, we should also remember the simple joys of life and nature.

Sentiments like love and mercy, and pleasures such as viewing magnificent sunsets, or maybe just seeing the soft light of the moon on a warm, still night.    

In fact, the kind of joys we might experience during a “walk on the quiet side.”  The kind of joys that we would want a child to experience.

"Teach the Gifted Children," Lou Reed …

Lou Reed, Anthology of Memorable Lyrics.

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