Tried to steer the mighty ship
But the raging storm
Wouldn't hear of it
They were in for a long trip
The metaphor is neither facile nor gratuitous, and Reed crafts it carefully throughout the cut.
"The Day John Kennedy Died" is poignantly reminiscent of Bob Dylan at his best. Reed tells the story of where he was and how he heard about Kennedy's assassination. The narrative constitutes the middle section of the song while the lyrics of simultaneous hope and despair begin and end the piece:
I dreamed I was the president of these United States
I dreamed I replaced ignorance, stupidity and hate
I dreamed the perfect union and a perfect law
And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day
John Kennedy died
The dream may seem simple. But a few years ago it probably would not even have been there. Reed has swallowed his bitterness and now seems willing to admit that as bleak as things look, better days may still follow.
Optimism in the face of harsh reality, then, is Reed's new-found philosophy. The singer constantly agonizes over "the world's impending storm" and "a world in a terrible state." But unlike his earlier works, a warm and positive feeling suffuses. The Blue Mask. Reed, a veteran of a difficult business and a difficult era, could easily have become a cynic with age. But instead of displaying unalloyed disgust, Reed confronts us with a touchingly realistic album that tempers anger with hope.
In a recent interview granted to The New York Times, Reed explained: "I took a major in English and a minor in philosophy; I was very into Hegel, Sartre, Kierkegaard. After you finish reading Kierkegaard, you feel like something horrible has happened to you--Fear and Nothing. See, that's where I'm coming from." Fear and nothing are strikingly evident in The Blue Mask, "but so too is love and the salvation is promises. Reed sings that "in a world full of hate/ Love should never wait/ Heavenly arms reach out to me." At the age of 40, Lou Reed has grown; in a world where he once saw nothing bur darkness, he now perceives hope.