01-04-2020, 11:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-11-2020, 07:15 PM by Dekalb_Blues.)
Christa Päffgen (1938 – 1988), known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, musician, model, and actress.
Best-known for her brief associations in the 1960s with pop-artist Andy Warhol and the ur-punk band Velvet Underground.
For much of her adult life addicted to heroin.
I'll Be Your Mirror -- from The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
[The song was not written for Nico, as Lou Reed wrote it during his time at Syracuse before he
ever met her. It was one of the songs he reluctantly allowed Nico – who then accompanied the
band on stage – to sing on the record, as a request by Warhol. But if we understand that the
songs she sings somehow became emblematic of Nico’s troubled relationship with Reed, it shows
a much gentler side of the relationship than the two other songs he gave to her: "Femme Fatale"
and "All Tomorrow’s Parties."]
I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty that you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid
When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you
I'll be your mirror
Time from Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then, one day, you find, ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
Nico and Sterling Morrison during the Velvet Underground’s now-iconic performance at the 1966 New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry dinner.
"I’ve been on the top. I’ve been on the bottom. Both places are empty."
These Days (from Nico's 1967 debut album, Chelsea Girls )
I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking
These days, these days.
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to.
I've stopped my rambling,
I don't do too much gambling
These days, these days.
These days I seem to think about
How all the changes came about my ways
And I wonder if I'll see another highway.
I had a lover,
I don't think I'll risk another
These days, these days.
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
It's just that I've been losing so long.
La la la la la, la la.
I've stopped my dreaming,
I won't do too much scheming
These days, these days.
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten.
Please don't confront me with my failures,
I had not forgotten them.