Lyrics to
Street Hassle

This version of Street Hassle was released by Lou Reed in 1978.

Our About Lou Reed page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Street Hassle from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from Lou Reed that we have in our lyrics database.

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

Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda whipped out her wallet
the sexy boy smiled in dismay
She took out four twenties ’cause she liked round figures
everybody’s queen for a day
Oh, babe, I’m on fire and you know I admire your –
– body why don’t we slip away
Although I’m sure you’re certain, it’s a rarity me flirtin’
sha-la-la-la, this way

Oh, sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la-la
hey, baby, come on, let’s slip away

Luscious and gorgeous, oh what a humpin’ muscle
call out the national guard
She creamed in her jeans as he picked up her knees
from off of the formica topped bar
And cascading slowly, he lifted her wholly
and boldly out of this world
And despite people’s derision
proved to be more than diversion
sha-la-la-la, later on

And then sha-la-la-la-la, he entered her slowly
and showed her where he was coming from
And then sha-la-la-la-la, he made love to her gently
it was like she’d never ever come
And then sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la-la
when the sun rose and he made to leave
You know, sha-la-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la-la
neither one regretted a thing

Street Hassle
Hey, that cunt’s not breathing
I think she’s had too much
of something or other, hey, man, you know what I mean?
I don’t mean to scare you
but you’re the one who came here
and you’re the one who’s gotta take her when you leave
I’m not being smart
or trying to be cold on my part
and I’m not gonna wear my heart on my sleeve
But you know people get all emotional
and sometimes, man, they just don’t act rational you know,
they think they’re just on TV

Sha-la-la-la, man
why don’t you just slip her away

You know, I’m glad that we met man
it really was nice talking
and I really wish that there was a little more time to speak
But you know it could be a hassle
trying to explain this all to a police officer
about how it was that your old lady got herself stiffed
And it’s not like we could help
but there wasn’t nothing no one could do
and if there was, man, you know I would have been the first
But when someone turns that blue
well, it’s a universal truth
and then you just know that bitch will never fuck again
By the way, that’s really some bad shit
that you came to our place with
but you ought to be more careful around the little girls
It’s either the best or it’s the worst
and since I don’t have to choose
I guess I won’t and I know this ain’t no way to treat a guest
But why don’t you grab your old lady by the feet
and just lay her out in the darkest street
and by morning, she’s just another hit and run.
You know, some people got no choice
and they can never find a voice
to talk with that they can even call their own
So the first thing that they see
that allows them the right to be
why they follow it, you know, it’s called bad luck.

Slipaway
well hey(man), that’s just a lie,
it’s a lie she tells her friends.
’cause the real song, the real song
where she won’t even admit to herself
the beatin’ in her heart.
It’s a song lots of people know.
It’s a painful song
a little sad truth
but life full of sad songs
penny for a wish
But wishin’ won’t make you a soldier.
With a pretty kiss for a pretty face
can’t have its way
Y’know tramps like us, we were born to pay.

Love has gone away
and there’s no one here now
And there’s nothing left to say
but, oh, how I miss him, baby
Oh, baby, come on and slip away
come on, baby, why don’t you slip away

Love is gone away
took the rings off my fingers
And there’s nothing left to say
but, oh how, oh how I need him, baby
Come on, baby, I need you baby
oh, please don’t slip away
I need your loving so bad, babe
please don’t slip away

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Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides Street Hassle. 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 the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Street Hassle by Lou Reed

The lyrics for Street Hassle are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1978 song by Lou Reed. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Street Hassle have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Street Hassle - Lou Reed and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Street Hassle by Lou Reed in multiple ways. 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 Street Hassle" means the words set to the music of Street Hassle, 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 Street Hassle and the lyrics to Street Hassle 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 Street Hassle, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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