METALLICA And LOU REED: 'Dragon' Lyrics Revealed

September 29, 2011

The musical collaboration between Lou Reed and METALLICA, "Lulu", will be released on November 1 in North America via Warner Bros. Records and one day earlier (October 31) in the rest of the world through Universal Music. The CD was co-produced by Reed, METALLICA, Hal Willner who has produced albums for Reed, Marianne Faithfull, and Laurie Anderson, among others and Greg Fidelman. Fidelman also mixed the record.

"Lulu" final track listing:

01. Brandenburg Gate (4:19)
02. The View (5:17)
03. Pumping Blood (7:24)
04. Mistress Dread (6:52)
05. Iced Honey (4:36)
06. Cheat On Me (11:26)
07. Frustration (8:33)
08. Little Dog (8:01)
09. Dragon (11:08)
10. Junior Dad (19:28)

"Dragon" lyrics:

You don't actually care
Love for you is no beginning
You're not really there
Hallucination

I thought you were listening
Hallucination
I thought you were listening
Hallucination

I understand you think you're above it
The adolescent sense of the sky
The feeling of billowing heartbeats
The fingertips run through your hair

They run through your hair
Hallucination
Hallucination

Oh you think you're so special
That there's no law meant for you
You come and go like the goddess you are
We're mere mortals below
Fingertips run through your hair
We are mere mortals below

Are meant to be peons
Are meant to be servants
Are meant to be dismissible objects
One fucks with
One fucks with

Poor pitiful creature

The winner in heartbreak
The winner in caring
The winner in every miniscule method of wearing
Your heart on your sleeve
A red star of idiocy

An idiot's idiocy
My, my caring for you
Caring for you
Do you think we're a book
Some kind of a table
You can rest your feet on when you're able
Red star of idiocy
An idiot's idiocy
My caring for you
Poor pitiful creature

To notice the pining
The self deprivation
The self flagellation of you
Dear worshippers

We do like you regal
We do like you haughty
We do love to look upon your perfect body

The hair on your shoulders
The smell of your armpit
The taste of your vulva and everything on it
We all really love you
And you have no meaning
You don't even see us
You were never caring

You go do what you do
You do it for you
No one exists with you
You're way above caring
Leave a trail upon the wake
That no one ever tries to take
Because waiting for you
Thinking of you
Is another way of dying
Is another way of dying

I'm clawing your chest
'Til your collarbone bleeds
Piercing your nipples 'til I bite them off
I scratch your face and bite your shoulders
Way above caring
Way above caring
And your Kotex jukebox
Your Kotex jukebox

I'm doomed, I'm swearing
Waiting for you
In your high heels and nightie
Your leather dress squeaking
Latex now sweating, waiting for you
In your tincture
Your opium white bathrobe
Your white tiles run red now
Are we both dead now?

The liquid exchange of our heart
The liquid exchange of our heart
Are we both dead now?

You're way above caring
Your heart on your sleeve
A red star of idiocy
An idiot's idiocy
My caring
My caring for you
My caring for you
You're way beyond caring
Your heart on your sleeve
A red star of idiocy
An idiot's idiocy

My caring for you
Oblivious to caring
Oblivious to caring
Oblivious to caring
Leave a trail upon the wake
That no one ever tries to take
Because waiting for you
Because thinking of you
Is another way of dying

You're way above caring
Oblivious to caring
Oblivious to caring
You poor pitiful creature
The mistake of feeling
The one who rejects you is the winner,
It's true
The winner in heartbreak
The winner in caring
The winner in every miniscule method of wearing
Your heart on your sleeve
A red star of idiocy
An idiot's idiocy
Your heart on your fuckin' sleeve
My caring for you
We were meant to be peons
We're meant to be peons
Mere mortals below
Meant to be servants

Meant to be dismissible objects one fucks with
Oh, oh, oh you're so special
No law meant for you
You come and go like the goddess you are

The fingertips run through your hair
A billowing heart beats
Feeling
Feeling
What a glorious feeling
To be so rejected
So rejected

An idiot's idiocy
My caring for you
You think I'm a book or a table
You can rest your fuckin' feet on
When you're able

The taste of your vulva, everything on it
The hair on your shoulders
The smell of your armpit
We do love you, to look upon your perfect body
We love you regal
We love you haughty
Oblivious to caring
Oblivious to caring
Caring

Oh my dear
Oh my dear
Oh my dear
Oblivious to caring

Are we really dead now?
Are we both dead now? [End of lyrics]

The deluxe version of "Lulu", which will come in a tube-shaped container measuring 13 centimeters x 1.24 meters, will include the following:

* 2xCD digipack package
* A large 1.2 m x 1.6 m poster (with song lyrics)
* 3 photographs by Anton Corbijn (50 cm x 50.8 cm)

Check out photos of the "Lulu" deluxe edition below.

The idea for these two giants of modern music to work together was born after the 25th anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame concerts in New York City in October 2009. METALLICA singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo played with Reed on VELVET UNDERGROUND classics "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat". "We knew from then that we were made for each other," Reed says.

After that triumphant performance, Reed suggested they all make a record together. At first they planned to record an album of Reedfraven's older material, what Ulrich describes as "some of Lou's lost jewels songs that he felt he'd like to give a second spin, and we could do whatever it is we do to some of those songs." That idea "hung in the air for a couple of months." Then, a week or two before that session was to begin, "Lou called up and said, 'Listen, I have this other idea.'"

That idea was to record a series of songs Reed had written for American avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson and German theater group the Berliner Ensemble's production of the "Lulu Plays", which premiered in April at the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, founded by Bertolt Brecht. The songs are inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind's early 20th century plays "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box", and were a rewrite of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", which emerged as a graphic novel on Fantagraphics Press.

"We were very interested in working with Lou," says Hetfield. "I had these giant question marks: What's it going to be like? What's going to happen? So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the 'Lulu' body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp 'TALLICA on it. And that's what we did."

"We had to bring 'Lulu' to life in a sophisticated way, using rock," Reed says. "And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be METALLICA. They live on that planet. We played together, and I knew it: dream come true. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality."

"It's definitely not a METALLICA album, or a Lou Reed album," adds Hammett. "It's something else. It's a new animal, a hybrid."

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