Heroin (7:08)

“Heroin” is a song by The Velvet Underground, released on their 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico. Written by Lou Reed in 1964, the song is one of the band’s most celebrated compositions, overtly depicting heroin use and abuse. Critic Mark Deming writes, “While ‘Heroin’ hardly endorses drug use, it doesn’t clearly condemn it, either, which made it all the more troubling in the eyes of many listeners”.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it #448 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2006, Pitchfork Media ranked it #77 on their list of the 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s. In 2007 Mental Floss magazine listed it as one of ten songs that changed the world.

“Heroin” was among a three-song set to be re-recorded at T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood before being included on the final release of The Velvet Underground and Nico (along with “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “Venus in Furs”). This recording of the song would be the album’s second longest at 7 minutes and 12 seconds, being eclipsed only by “European Son” by about thirty seconds.

“Heroin” begins slowly with Lou Reed’s quiet, melodic guitar and hypnotic drum patterns by Maureen Tucker, soon joined by John Cale’s droning electric viola and Sterling Morrison’s steady rhythm guitar. The tempo increases gradually, mimicking the high the narrator receives from the drug, until a frantic crescendo is reached, punctuated by Cale’s shrieking viola and the more punctuated guitar strumming of Reed and Morrison.