The Velvet Underground -- "Candy Says"
Here's a soft-sounding song about something pretty hard-edged, especially considering the time at which the song was written. This song effectively approximates the voice and vision of Candy Darling, the most famous transsexual of her time, and takes the gender-bending themes that were merely latent in rock and roll (my dad always thought Elvis sounded like a girl; Little Richard did sound like a girl) and places them front and center, with little ambiguity. Lou Reed kicks off the musical thematics of the 1970s two years in advance of the calendar with this one.
All that being said, what makes this such a great song is the pretty melody. Lou Reed's fragile voice seems as if it's about to veer out of key at any moment, but he keeps it in place, just barely. This song, the first track on their self-titled third album, is as close to a dare as The VU could make at the time -- to take their drug-fueled experimental rock and try to fit it into a conventional pop framework while still finding a way to break boundaries. Ultimately, though, the song is less shocking than it is human and humane. Candy has feelings. Candy feels bad about himself/herself, and life, it turns out, is not just one long party. But there's still hope. The bluebirds still fly.
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