Lyrics to
Billy

This version of Billy was released by Lou Reed in 1974.

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Billy was a good friend of mine
We grew up together ever since we were nine
We went to school, he was my best friend
And I thought our friendship would never end

In high school he played football
And me, I didn’t do anything at all
He made touch-downs, while I played pool
And no one could figure out which one of us was the fool

Then we both went to collage
He studied medicine while I studied foliage
He got A’s and I got D’s
He was going for his Ph.D.
Then I decided to drop out
Things were getting a little too hot
Billy stayed there, became an intern and then a doctor
Then war broke out and he had to go
But not me, I was mentally unfit, or so they say, so, so

When he came back, he wasn’t quite the same
His nerves were shot, but not me
Last time I saw him, I couldn’t take it anymore
He wasn’t the Billy I knew, it was like talking to a door

Billy was a friend of mine
I grew up with him ever since I was nine
We went together through school
And now I often wonder, which one of us was the fool

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Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides Billy. Lou Reed released songs from 1972 to 2000 spanning across albums like Transformer, Lou Reed, Berlin, Sally Can't Dance, Rock 'n' Roll Animal, Coney Island Baby, Rock And Roll Heart, Street Hassle, The Bells, Growing Up In Public, The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, New Sensations, Mistrial, New York, Magic And Loss, Set The Twilight Reeling, and Ecstasy. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Lou Reed.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Billy by Lou Reed

The lyrics for Billy are defined as the words making up the song released by Lou Reed in 1974. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Billy have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Lou Reed and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Billy by Lou Reed if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Billy" means the words set to the music of Billy, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Lou Reed. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Billy and the lyrics to Billy are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Lou Reed who came here looking just for the lyrics to Billy, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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