Lyrics to
White Light / White Heat

This version of White Light / White Heat was released by Lou Reed in 1974.

Our Lou Reed Songs profile has White Light / White Heat lyrics from 1974 and most if not all of the lyrics by Lou Reed that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

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

White light goin’ messin’ up my mind
don’t you know, it’s gonna make me go blind
White heat, goin’ down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows

White light goin’ down to my brain
hey, don’t you know it’s gonna make me insane
White heat, down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows
forget it

White light
Ooohhh, white light
Ahhh, white heat
Ooohhh, yeah, white light

White light goin’ messin’ up my mind
don’t you know, it’s gonna make me go blind
White light, goin’ down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows

White light goin’ messin’ up my brain
don’t you know it’s gonna make me insane
White heat, goin’ down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows

forget it

Ooohhh, white light
Yeah, aaah, white light
White heat
Oh, baby, white light
white light, now, now, now

White light goin’ messin’ up my mind
don’t you know, it’s gonna make me go blind
White heat, goin’ down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows

White light goin’ down to my brain, ooohhh
Oh, don’t you know it’s gonna make me insane
White heat, goin’ down to my toes
Lord have mercy, white light had it, goodness knows
forget it

White light
Ooohhh, white light
Ooohhh, baby, white heat
Yeah, white light

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Want more lyrics and songs by Lou Reed?

Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides White Light / White Heat. 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 1974 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and White Light / White Heat by Lou Reed

When you decide to study the lyrics to White Light / White Heat, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1974 song by Lou Reed. Some of the lyrics to White Light / White Heat 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 White Light / White Heat 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 White Light / White Heat" means the words set to the music of White Light / White Heat, 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 White Light / White Heat and the lyrics to White Light / White Heat 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 White Light / White Heat, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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