This sounds remarkably like the Lou of the 1960s and early 1970s.
Fear in hell
Or, more accurately, it sounds like a wiser man depicting a character living on the sordid underside of New York City in those years. In a later verse of “Waves of Fear,” the character says “I know where I must be, I must be in hell.”
We know that Lou was working, creating music, performing his music. So, clearly, the wasted, paranoid freak in this song was just another of his characters.
Just a character
As Lou stated in an interview, “It’s just one character. … I have various tangent manifestations of the same character.”Lou Reed – "Interview @ 5:50 mark" (Right-click to hear on YouTube)
"Waves of Fear," Lou Reed …
Lou Reed, Anthology of Memorable Lyrics.
Images sourced from Google Images