Lyrics to
Going Down

This version of Going Down was released by Lou Reed in 1972.

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When you’re in a dream
and you think you got your problems all nailed down
Pieces of the scheme
seem to rattle up and then to rattle down

And when you start to fall
and those footsteps they start to fade

Well then you know you’re going down
yeah, you’re falling all around
And you know you’re going down
for the last time

When you’re in the air
and you’re thinking you’ll drift off into the west
Your friends polite, advise
hey look you’re pushing too hard
and perhaps you need a rest

And when you start to fall
and all those footsteps they start to fade

Then you know you’re going down
yeah, you’re crashing upside down
And you know you’re going down
for the last –

– Time’s not what it seems
it just seems longer, when you’re lonely in this world
Everything it seems
would be brighter if your nights were spent with some girl

Yeah, you’re falling all around
yeah, you’re crashing upside down
Oh, oh, and you know you’re going down
for the last time

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Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides Going Down. 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.

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About Lyrics and Going Down by Lou Reed

The lyrics to Going Down are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Lou Reed used when the song was created in 1972. The lyrics to Going Down have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Lou Reed and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Going Down by Lou Reed. 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 Going Down" means the words set to the music of Going Down, 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 Going Down and the lyrics to Going Down 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 Going Down, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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