Lyrics to
Kill Your Sons

Released by Lou Reed in 1974
From the Album: Sally Can't Dance |

This version of Kill Your Sons was released by Lou Reed in 1974.

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Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Lou Reed or about the 1970s in general.

All your two-bit psychiatrists
are giving you electroshock
They said, they’d let you live at home with mom and dad
instead of mental hospitals
But every time you tried to read a book
you couldn’t get to page 17
‘Cause you forgot where you were
so you couldn’t even read

Don’t you know they’re gonna kill your sons
don’t you know gonna kill, kill your sons
They’re gonna kill, kill your sons
until they run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run away

Mom informed me on the phone
she didn’t know what to do about dad
Took an axe and broke the table
aren’t you glad you’re married
And sister, she got married on the island
and her husband takes the train
He’s big and he’s fat
and he doesn’t even have a brain

They’re gonna kill your sons
don’t you know they’re gonna kill, kill your sons
Don’t you know they’re gonna kill, kill your sons
until they run away

Creedmore treated me very good
but Paine Whitney was even better
And when I flipped out on PHC
I was so sad, I didn’t even get a letter
All of the drugs, that we took
it really was lots of fun
But when they shoot you up with thorizene on crystal smoke
you choke like a son of a gun

Don’t you know they’re gonna kill your sons
don’t you know they’re gonna kill, kill your sons
Don’t you know they’re gonna kill, kill your sons
until they run, run, run, run, run, run, run away


Want more lyrics and songs by Lou Reed?

Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides Kill Your Sons. 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 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

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About Lyrics and Kill Your Sons by Lou Reed

When you decide to study the lyrics to Kill Your Sons, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1974 song by Lou Reed. Some of the lyrics to Kill Your Sons have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Lou Reed and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Kill Your Sons if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Kill Your Sons" means the words set to the music of Kill Your Sons, 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 Kill Your Sons and the lyrics to Kill Your Sons 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 Kill Your Sons, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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