"SMALLTOWN" "When you're growing up in a small town" "You say no one famous ever came from here" "When you're growing up in a small town and you're having a nervous breakdown and you think that you'll never escape it" "Yourself or the place that you live" "Where did Picasso come from" "There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh" "If art is the tip of the iceberg" "I'm the part sinking below" "When you're growing up in a small town" "Bad skin, bad eyes - gay and fatty" "People look at you funny" "When you're in a small town" "My father worked in construction" "It's not something for which I'm suited" "Oh - what is something for which you are suited?" "Getting out of here" "I hate being odd in a small town" "If they stare let them stare in New York City as this pink eyed painting albino" "How far can my fantasy go?" "I'm no Dali coming from Pittsburgh" "No adorable lisping Capote" "My hero" " Oh do you think I could meet him?" "I'd camp out at his front door" "There is only one good thing about small town" "There is only one good use for a small town" "You know that you want to get out" "When you're growing up in a small town" "You know you'll grow down in a small town" "There is only one good use for a small town" "You hate it and you'll know you have to leave" "OPEN HOUSE" "Please, come over to 81st street I'm in the apartment above the bar" "You know you can't miss it, it's across from the subway and the tacky store with the mylar scarves" "My skin's as pale as outdoors moon" "My hair's silver like a Tiffany watch" "I like lots of people around me but don't kiss hello and please don't touch" "It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me" "The way to make friends Andy is invite them up for tea" "Open house" "I've got a lot of cats, here's my favorite she's lady called Sam" "I made a paper doll of her - you can have it" "That's what I did when I had St. Vitus dance" "It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me" "Give people little presents so they remember me" "Someone bring the vegetables, someone please bring heat" "My mother showed up yesterday we need something to eat" "I think I got a job today they want me to draw some shoes" "The ones I drew were old and used" "They told me to draw something new" "Fly me to the moon, fly me to a star" "But there are no stars in the New York sky" "They're all on the ground" "You scared yourself with music" "I scared myself with paint" "I drew 550 different shoes today" "It almost made me faint" "STYLE IT TAKES" "You've got the money," "I've got the time" "You want your freedom make your freedom mine" "'Cause I've the style it takes and money is all that it takes" "You've got connections" "I've got the art" "You like my attention and I like your looks and I have the style it takes" "and you know the people it takes" "Why don't you sit right over there we'll do a movie portrait" "I'll turn the camera on and I won't even be there" "A portrait that moves you look great I think" "I'll put the Empire State Building on your wall" "For 24 hours glowing on your wall" "Watch the sun rise above it in your room" "Wallpaper art, a great view" "I've got a Brillo box and I say it's art" "It's the same one you can buy at any supermarket" "'Cause I've got the style it takes" "And you've got the people it takes" "This is a rock group called The Velvet Underground" "I show movies on them" "Do you like their sound" "'Cause they have a style that grates and I have art to make" "Let's do a movie here next week" "We don't have sound but you're so great" "You don't have to speak" "You've got the style it takes" "(Kiss)" "You've got the style it takes" "(Eat)" "You've got the style it takes" "(Couch)" "You've got the style it takes" "(Kiss)" "WORK" "Andy was a Catholic the ethic ran through his bones" "He lived alone with his mother, collecting gossip and toys" "Every Sunday when he went to Church" "He'd kneel in his pew and say" ""It's just work, all that matters is work. "" "Andy was a lot of things, what I remember the most:" "He'd say, "I've got to bring home the bacon someone's got to bring home the roast. "" "He'd get to the factory early" "If you would ask him he would tell you straight out" "It's just work, the most important thing is work" "No matter what I did it never seemed enough" "He said I was lazy, I said I was young" "He said, "How many songs did you write?"" "I had written zero, I lied and said, "Ten. "" ""You won't be young forever" "You should have written fifteen"" "It's work, the most important thing is work" ""You ought to make things big" "People like it that way" "And the songs with the dirty words" " record them that way"" "Andy liked to stir up trouble he was funny that way" "He said, "It's just work"" "Andy sat down to talk one day" "He said decide what you want" "Do you want to expand your parameters" "Or play museums like some dilettante" "I fired him on the spot he got red and called me a rat" "It was the worst word that he could think of" "And I've never seen him like that" "It's just work," "I thought he said it's just work he said it's just work" "Andy said a lot of things" "I stored them all away in my head" "Sometimes when I can't decide what I should do" "I think what would Andy have said" "He'd probably say you think too much" "That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do" "It's work, the most important thing is work" "TROUBLE WITH CLASSICISTS" "The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree" "That's all he sees, he paints a tree" "The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky" "He doesn't ask why he just paints a sky" "The trouble with an impressionist he looks at a log" "And he doesn't know who he is standing, staring, at this log" "And surrealist memories are too amorphous and proud" "While those downtown macho painters are just alcoholic" "The trouble with impressionist is" "The trouble with impressionist is" "The trouble with personalities they're too wrapped up in style" "It's too personal, they're in love with their own guile" "They're like illegal aliens trying to make a buck" "They're driving gypsy cabs but they're thinking like a truck" "The trouble with personalities is" "The trouble with personalities is" "I like the druggy downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains" "I like their lack of training their primitive technique" "I think sometimes it hurts you when you stay too long in school" "I think sometimes it hurts you when you're afraid to be called a fool" "The trouble with classicists is" "The trouble with classicists is" "STARLIGHT" "Starlight open wide starlight open up you door" "This is New York calling with movies from the street" "Movies with real people what you get is what you see" "Starlight open wide" "Andy's Cecil B. DeMille" "Come on L.A. give us a call" "We've got superstars who talk they'll do anything at all" "Ingrid, Viva, Little Joe, Baby Jane, and Eddie S" "But you better call us soon before we talk ourselves to death" "Starlight open wide everybody is a star" "Split screen 8-hour movies" "We've got color, we've got sound" "Won't you recognize us we're everything you hate" "Andy loves old Hollywood movies he'll scare you hypocrites to death" "You know that shooting up's for real" "That person who's screaming that's the way he really feels" "We're all improvising five movies in a week" "If Hollywood doesn't call us we'll be sick" "Starlight open wide" "Do to movies what you did to art" "Can you see beauty in ugliness or is it playing in the dirt" "There are stars out on the New York streets" "We want to capture them on film" "But if no one wants to see them" "We'll make another and another" "Starlight let us in that magic room" "We've all dreamt of Hollywood it can't happen too soon" "Won't you give us a million dollars the rent is due" "Andy will give you 2 movies and a painting" "Starlight open wide!" "FACES AND NAMES" "Faces and names" "I wish they were the same" "Faces and names only cause trouble for me" "Faces and names" "If we all looked the same and we all had the same name" "I wouldn't be jealous of you or you jealous of me" "Faces and names" "I always fall in love with someone who looks the way I wish that I could be" "I'm always staring at someone who hurts" "And the one they hurt is me" "Faces and names, to me they're all the same" "If I looked like you and you looked like me" "There'd be less trouble you see" "I'd disappear into that wall and never talk" "Faces and names" "I wish I was a robot or a machine" "Without a feeling or a thought" "People who want to meet the name I have" "Are always disappointed when they meet me" "Faces and names, I wish they were the same" "Faces and names only cause problems for me" "Faces and names" "I'd rather be a hole in the wall looking out on the other side" "I'd rather look and listen listen and not talk" "To faces and names" "I had a breakdown when I was a kid" "I lost my hair when I was young" "If you dress older when you're not as your really age you look the same" "If we all looked the same we wouldn't play these games" "Me dressing for you and you dressing for me undressing for me" "Faces and names if they all were the same" "You wouldn't be jealous of me or me jealous of you" "Me jealous of you" " I'm jealous of you" "Your face and your name" "IMAGES" "I think images are worth repeating" "Images repeated from a painting" "Images taken from a painting" "From a photo worth re-seeing" "I love images worth repeating project them upon the ceiling" "Multiply them with silk screening" "See them with a different feeling" "Some say images have no feeling, I think there's a deeper meaning" "Mechanical precision or so it's seeming" "Instigates a cooler feeling" "I love multiplicity of screenings" "Things born anew display new meanings" "I think images are worth repeating and repeating and repeating" "I'm no urban idiot savant spewing paint without any order" "I'm no sphinx, no mystery enigma" "What I paint is very ordinary" "I don't think I'm old or modern" "I don't think I think I'm thinking" "It doesn't matter what I'm thinking" "It's the images that are worth repeating" "If you're looking for a deeper meaning, I'm as deep as this high ceiling" "If you think technique is meaning, you might find me very simple" "You might find that images are boring" "Cars and cans and chairs and flowers" "You might find me personally boring" "Hammer, sickle, Mao Tse Tong" "I think that it bears repeating the images upon the ceiling" "I love images worth repeating and repeating and repeating" "SLIP AWAY (A WARNING)" "Friends have said to lock the door and have an open house no more" "They said the Factory must change and slowly slip away" "But if I have to live in fear where will I get my ideas" "With all those crazy people gone will I slowly slip away" "Still there's no more Billy Name and Ondine is not the same Wonton and the Turtle gone" "Slowly slip away" "If I close the Factory door and don't see those people anymore" "If I give in to infamy" "I know it seems that friends are right" "Hello daylight, goodbye night" "But starlight is so quiet here think I'll slowly slip away" "What can I do by myself, it's good to hear from someone else" "It's good to hear a quiet voice that will not slip away a crazy voice that will not slip away" "If I have to live in fear my ideas will slowly slip away" "If I have to live in fear I'm afraid my life will slip away" "If you can't see me past my door" "Why your thoughts could slowly slip away" "If I have to lock the door another life exists no more" "Slip away" "Friends have said to lock the door" "Watch out for what comes through that door" "The said the Factory must change" "But I don't" "IT WASN'T ME" "It wasn't me who shamed you it's not fair to say that" "You wanted to work" "I gave you a chance at that" "It wasn't me who hurt you that's more credit that I'm worth" "Don't threaten me with the things you'll do to you" "It wasn't me who shamed you it wasn't me who brought you down" "You did it to yourself without any help from me" "It wasn't me who hurt you" "I showed you possibilities" "The problems you had were there before you met me" "I didn't say this had to be" "You can't blame these things on me" "It wasn't, it wasn't me, it wasn't me" "I know she's dead, it wasn't me" "It wasn't me who changed you you did it to yourself" "I'm not an excuse for the hole that you dropped in" "I'm not simple minded but I'm not father to you all" "Death exists but you do things to yourself" "I never said give up control" "I never said stick a needle in your arm and die" "It wasn't, it wasn't me, it wasn't me" "I know he's dead but it wasn't me" "It wasn't me who shamed you who covered you with mud" "You did it to yourself without any help from me" "You act as I could've told you or stopped you like some god" "But people never listen and you know that that's a fact" "I never said slit your wrists and die" "I never said throw your life away" "It wasn't, it wasn't me, it wasn't me" "You're killing yourself and it wasn't me" "I BELIEVE" "Valerie Solanis took the elevator got off at the 4th floor" "Valerie Solanis took the elevator got off at the 4th floor" "She pointed the gun at Andy saying you cannot control me anymore" "And I believe there's got to be some retribution" "I believe an eye for an eye is elemental" "I believe that something's wrong if she's alive right now" "Valerie Solanis took three steps pointing at the floor" "Valerie Solanis waved her gun pointing at the floor" "From inside her idiot madness spoke and bang" "Andy fell onto the floor" "And I believe life's serious enough for retribution" "I believe being sick is no excuse and" "I believe I would've pulled the switch on her myself" "When they got him to the hospital his pulse was gone they thought that he was dead" "His guts were pouring from his wounds onto the floor they thought that he was dead" "Not until years later would the hospital do to him what she could not" "Andy said, "Where were you, you didn't come to see me"" "Andy said, "I think I died, why didn't you come to see me"" "Andy said, "It hurt so much, they took blood from my hand"" "I believe there's got to be some retribution" "I believe there's got to be some restitution" "I believe we are all the poorer for it now" "Visit me visit me" "why didn't you visit me" "NOBODY BUT YOU" "I really care a lot although I look like I do not" "Since I was shot there's nobody but you" "I know I look blase party Andy's what the papers say" "At dinner I'm the one who pays for a nobody like you" "nobody but you nobody like you" "Since I got shot there's nobody but you" "Won't you decorate my house" "I'll sit there quiet as a mouse" "You know me I like to look a lot at nobody but you" "I'll hold your hand and slap my face" "I'll tickle you to your disgrace" "Won't you put me in my proper place" " a nobody like you?" "Sundays I pray a lot" "I'd like to wind you up and paint your clock" "I want to be what I am not" " for a nobody like you" "The bullet split my spleen and lung the doctors said I was gone" "Inside I've got some shattered bone for nobody but you" "I'm still not sure I didn't die" "And if I'm dreaming I still have bad pains inside" "I know I'll never be a bride to nobody like you" "I wish I had a stronger chin my skin was good, my nose was thin" "This is no movie I'd ask to be in with a nobody like you" "all my life" " It's been nobodies like you" "A DREAM" "It was a very cold clear fall night" "I had a terrible dream" "Billy Name and Brigid were playing under my staircase on the second floor about two o'clock in the morning" "I woke up because Amos and Archie had started barking" "That made me very angry because I wasn't feeling well and I told them" "I was very cross the real me that they just better remember what happened to Sam the Bad Cat that was left at home and got sick and went to pussy heaven" "It was a very cold clear fall night" "Some snowflakes were falling gee it was so beautiful and so I went to get my camera to take some pictures" "And then I was taking the pictures but the exposure thing wasn't right and I was going to call Fred or Gerry to find out how to get it set but oh it was too late and then I remembered they were still probably at dinner" "and anyway I felt really bad and didn't want to talk to anybody but the snowflakes were so beautiful and real looking and I really wanted to hold them" "And that's when I heard the voices from down the hall near the stairs" "So I got a flashlight and I was scared and I went out into the hallway" "There's been all kinds of trouble lately in the neighborhood and someone's got to bring home the bacon and anyway there were Brigid and Billy playing" "And under the staircase was a little meadow sort of like the park at 23rd street where all the young kids go and play frisbee gee that must be fun maybe we should do an article on that in the magazine" "but they'll just tell me I'm stupid and it won't sell but I'll hold my ground this time" "I mean it's my magazine, isn't it?" "So I was thinking that as the snowflakes fell and I heard these voices having so much fun" "Gee it would be so great to have some fun" "So I called Billy, but either he didn't hear me or he didn't want to answer which was so strange because even if I don't like reunions" "I've always loved Billy" "I'm so glad he's working" "I mean it's different than Ondine" "He keeps touring with those movies and he doesn't even pay us and the film" "I mean the film's just going to disintegrate and then what" "I mean he's so normal off of drugs" "I just don't get it" "And the I saw John Cale" "And he's been looking really great" "He's been coming by the office to exercise with me" "Ronnie said I have a muscle but he's been really mean since he went to AA" "I mean what does it mean when you give up drinking and then you're still so mean" "He says I'm being lazy but I'm not" "I just can't find any ideas" "I mean I'm just not, let's face it, going to get any ideas up at the office" "And seeing John made me think of the Velvets and I had been thinking about them when I was on St. Marks Place going to that new gallery those sweet new kids had opened" "but they thought I was old and then I saw the old Dom the old club where we did our first shows" "It was so great" "And I didn't understand about that Velvet's first album" "I mean, I did the cover and I was the producer and I always see it repackaged and I've never gotten a penny from it" "How could that be" "I should call Henry, but it was good seeing John," "I did a cover for him, but I did it in black and white and he changed it to color" "It would have been worth more if he'd left it my way but you can never tell anybody anything, I've learned that." "I tried calling again to Billy and John but they wouldn't recognize me it was like I wasn't there" "Why won't they let me in?" "And then I saw Lou" "I'm so mad at him" "Lou Reed got married and didn't invite me" "I mean is it because he thought I'd bring to many people" "I don't get it." "He could have at least called" "I mean he's doing so great" "Why doesn't he call me?" "I saw him at the MTV show and he was one row away and didn't even say hello" "I don't get it" "You know I hate Lou I really do" "He won't even hire us for his videos" "And I was so proud of him" "I was so scared today" "There was blood leaking through my shirt from those old scars from being shot" "And the corset I wear to keep my insides in, was hurting" "And I did three sets of fifteen pushups and four sets of ten situps" "But then my insides hurt and I saw drops of blood on my shirt and I remember the doctors saying" "I was dead" "And then later they had to take blood out of my hand 'cause they ran out of veins but then all this thinking was making me an old grouch and you can't do anything anyway so if they wouldn't let me play with them in my own dream" "I was just going to have to make up another and another and another" "Gee wouldn't it just be so funny if I died in this dream" "before I could make another one up." "And nobody called" "and nobody came" "FOREVER CHANGED" "Train entering the city" "I lost myself and never came back" "Took a trip around the world and never came back" "Black silhouettes, crisscrossed tracks never came back" "Forever changed" "You might think I'm frivolous uncaring and cold" "You might think I'm frivolous depends on your point of view" "Society soiree the gambles arranged, the high and the low" "I left my old life behind and never turn back" "Forever changed" "Forever changed" "Got to get to the city to get a job" "Got to get some work to see me through" "My old life is behind" "I see it receding" "My life's disappearing disappearing from view" "Hong Kong - and I was changed" "Burma and Thailand and I was changed" "few good friends to see me through to see me through" "Only art can see me through" "Only heart can see me through" "My life's disappearing from view" "My old life disappearing from view" "I was forever changed" "HELLO IT'S ME" "Andy, it's me haven't seen you in a while" "I wished I talked to you more when you were alive" "I thought you were self-assured when you acted shy" "Hello it's me" "I really miss you, I really miss your mind" "I haven't heard ideas like that in such a long, long time" "I loved to watch you draw and watch you paint" "But when I saw you last I turned away" "When Billy Name was sick and locked up in his room" "You asked me for some 'speed'" "I though it was for you" "I'm sorry if I doubted your good heart" "Things always seem to end before they start" "Hello it's me that was a great gallery show" "Your cow wallpaper and your floating silver pillows" "I wish I paid more attention when they laughed at you" "Hello it's me" ""Pop goes pop artist," the headline said" ""Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead?"" "You get less time for stealing a car" "I remember thinking as I heard my own record in a bar" "They really hated you, now all that's changed" "But I have some resentments that can never be unmade" "You hit me where it hurts and I didn't laugh" "Your Diaries are not a worthy epitaph" "Oh well now Andy - guess we've got to go" "I wish some way somehow you like this little show" "I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know" "Goodnight, Andy"