"I Heard Her Call My Name" is a song by American avant-garde rock band The Velvet Underground. It is the fifth track from the band's second album, White Light/White Heat. It is a particularly loud, brash and aggressive song that features a pair of atonal guitar solos performed by Lou Reed and repeated use of piercing feedback. The heavy levels of guitar distortion is often said to have influenced punk music and heavy metal. Indeed, Zyklon-B Zombie by Throbbing Gristle uses the same rhythm and high levels of distortion, complete with the line "And then my mind split open!"
Reed's vocals are especially unintelligible and enthusiastic. He further accents his lyrics by singing them in a purposely off-key voice, often adding exclamations of "eehee!" and the like.
In their biography Uptight, the band claimed they were unhappy with the recording of "I Heard Her Call My Name", saying that the recording was a poor attempt to capture the energy of live versions of the song.
The lyrics show the influence of the blues, including the lyrics of the Son House recording "Death Letter" from the 1965 album Father of Folk Blues, which features phrases such as "the gal you love is dead" and "I thought I heard her call my name."
Read more about I Heard Her Call My Name: Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words heard and/or call:
“I, who had heard of music in the spheres,
But not of speech in stars, began to muse:
But turning to my God, whose ministers
The stars and all things are; If I refuse,
Dread Lord, said I, so oft my good;
Then I refuse not ev’n with blood
To wash away my stubborn thought:
For I will do or suffer what I ought.”
—George Herbert (1593–1633)
“I cannot speke and loke lyke a saynct,
Use wiles for witt and make deceyt a pleasure,
And call crafft counsell, for proffet styll to paint.
I cannot wrest the law to fill the coffer
With innocent blode to fede my sellff fat,
And doo most hurt where most hellp I offer.”
—Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542)