Songs for Drella

Taken from the liner notes;

"SONGS FOR DRELLA - A Fiction" is a brief musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and is entirely fictitious. We start with Andy growing up in a "Smalltown" - "There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh." He comes to New York and follows the customs of "Open House" both in his apartment and the Factory. "It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me/the way to make friends Andy is to invite them up for tea." He travels around the world and is in his words "Forever Changed." He knows the importance of people and money in the art world ("Style is all it takes") and follows his primary ethic, "Work - the most important thing is work." He can copy the classicists but feels "the trouble with the classicists, they look at a tree/that's all they see/ they paint a tree ..."
Andy wished we all had the same name "Faces and Names." He becomes involved with movies - "Starlight." He is interested in repetitive "Images" - "I love images worth repeating ... see them with a different feeling." The mortality rate at the Factory is rather high and some blame Andy - "It wasnąt me who shamed you ..." The open house policy leads him to being shot ("I Believe"). He had been warned but a new, locked door approach at the Factory caused him to wonder "... if I have to live in fear/where will I get my ideas ... slowly Slip Away?" One night he has 'A Dream,' his relationships change ... "A Nobody Like You."
He dies recovering from a gall bladder operation.
Chocolates were his weakness.
We miss him very much.
"Hello, It's Me."

- Lou Reed

SONGS FOR DRELLA is a collaboration, the second Lou and I have completed since 1965. I must therefore say that although I think he did most of the work, he has allowed me to keep a position of dignity in the process. It therefore remains, as intended, a tribute to someone whose inspiration and generosity offered over the years is now remembered with much love and admiration.

- John Cale

SONGS FOR DRELLA - A Fiction was originally co-commissioned by The Brooklyn Academy Of Music and The Arts At St. Ann's.

1. Small Town
2. Open House
3. Style It Takes
4. Work
5. Trouble With Classicists
6. Starlight
7. Faces And Names
8. Images
9. Slip Away (A Warning)
10. It Wasn't Me
11. I Believe
12. Nobody But You
13. A Dream
14. Forever Changed
15. Hello It's Me