Lou Reed Lyrics-45 – A blissful moment (from “Fly Into The Sun”) (Now Playing Week 18)

After the First World War, the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote an almost perfect poem called “The Second Coming.”  It’s essentially an apocalyptic vision of war and other horrors of modernity, and concluded with the now-famous lines,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?   

More than a half century later, Lou wrote the above lines as lyrics to "Fly Into The Sun." One can almost hear the echo of Yeats’ poem. But Lou transcends the apocalyptic vision.   

Even though civilization may be collapsing, and even though mankind might soon be cremated in a nuclear conflagration, Lou looks beyond the horror, and sees it as a blissful moment. It might mean the end of life as we know it, but it might also mean the beginning of a transcendent life of pure spirit, as we “fly into the sun.”  

Fly Into The Sun, Lou Reed …

Fly Into The Sun, (cover version by LA Hillbilly) …

For a previous Lou reference to Yeats, see – Lou Lyrics #35

Lou Reed, Anthology of Memorable Lyrics.

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