For Staś
For my beloved, blue-eyed Staś. I love my Stasiulek with all my heart. 🥰
It takes very little for Pale Blue Eyes to begin working. Lou Reed sings sparingly, Sterling Morrison leaves enormous amounts of air between the guitar notes, and Maureen Tucker plays tambourine instead of a full drum part. Nothing here forces the song forwards. It simply remains.
Years later, Tucker said that she loved it precisely for its monotony, comparing its effect to Ravel's Boléro. That is a beautiful word here. Not boredom. Repetition in which one can stay a little longer.
Blue eyes
I will not pretend that Pale Blue Eyes is a song about fatherhood. It is not. In Reed's hands, it is a complicated love story between adults. Yet songs have the wonderful ability, once released into the world, to begin holding our own images too.
And in those few quiet chords I see You.
Our walks through the parks of Gocław and Grochów. The swings and slides near home. Those ordinary moments when nobody yet realises that something is happening which they will one day remember most clearly.
And Your blue eyes.
Perhaps that is why this song suits You better than some grand paternal ballad. It announces nothing, needs neither an orchestra nor great words. It leaves room.
Stay a little while
One day You may hear Pale Blue Eyes entirely without me.
I would only like a small trace of our walks, the swings and that blue to remain somewhere between Lou Reed's voice, the tambourine and those few guitar notes.
For You, Staś.













Comments
0