Lou Reed wrote "Pale Blue Eyes" -- widely regarded as his greatest-ever ballad -- for a girl he'd been seeing during his time at Syracuse University in the early '60s. Deeply touching, it is almost frighteningly personal; indeed, the first time Reed played it to Sterling Morrison, the guitarist protested, "if I wrote a song like that, I wouldn't make you play it." Hauntingly slow, its stark accompaniment a duet for warm guitar and almost religious tambourine, "Pale Blue Eyes" documents a love that many people have experienced, but few have ever been able to voice so effectively. Even more affecting is what amounts to the punch line, the half-regretful "the fact that you are married only proves you're my best friend." Years later, incidentally, Reed admitted that the song's original inspiration did, in fact, have hazel eyes.
(Dave Thompson, allmusic.com) |
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