5. Perfect Day, By Lou Reed
From his first album Transformer, Perfect Day has long been one of Lou Reed‘s most beloved songs. Ostensibly describing the “perfect day” with someone you love, it’s actually about a relationship with heroin. In that context, the sort of dazed energy of the song, between dream and waking and Reed’s trembling voice makes a lot more sense. Kinda about carrying addiction and drug use with you, the music channels the feeling of being high and drifting through life. This false ballad has bittersweet connotations and is darkened by the pleas of “you just keep me hanging on”, suggesting both heroin’s ability to put you into a state of bliss, forgetting who you are, and maybe deciding to actually live when you might otherwise want to die. As we all know, though, heroin has a way of creeping up on you and overdoses are not very uncommon.
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