Lou Reed - Kill Your Sons Lyrics

All rise for the gay conversion therapy anthem.

cotne is dis u?

All your two-bit psychiatrists are giving you electro shock
They say, they let you live at home, with mom and dad
Instead of mental hospital
But every time you tried to read a book
You couldn't get to page 17
'Cause you forgot, where you were
So you couldn't even read
Don't you know, they're gonna kill your sons
Don't you know, they're gonna kill, kill your sons
They're gonna kill, kill your sons
Until they run run run run run run run run away

Mom informed me on the phone
She didn't know what to do about dad
Took an axe and broke the table
Aren't you glad you're married
And sister, she got married on the island
And her husband takes the train
He's big and he's fat and he doesn't even have a brain
They're gonna kill your sons
Don't you know, they're gonna kill, kill your sons
Don't you know, they're gonna kill, kill your sons
Until they run away

Creedmore treated me very good
But Paine Whitney was even better
And when I flipped on PHC
I was so sad I didn't even get a letter
All of the drugs, that we took, it really was lots of fun
But when they shoot you up with thorizene on crystal smoke
You choke like a son of a gun
Don't you know, they're gonna kill your sons
Don't you know, they're gonna kill, kill your sons
They're gonna kill, kill your sons
Until they run run run run run run run run away

Really adult rock. No safe space needed. I bet it was really fucking weird being Lou Reed.

the anthem of any child who was drugged against their will

He is big and he is fat and he doesn't have a brain.

this song was about electroshock therapy for gay and bi people, his parents send him to a conversion therapy institution bc he was bi

Thank you American Gods Donar the Great.

holy shit, im not the only one who found this song

This sounds excellent, cant wait to hit the highway and max the volume....

Bami scive

AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU'RE MARRIED??

An incredibly powerful and rageous song about electroshock that he suffered when he was a boy..fantastic..

NY stars is #2, but this song is crazy #1. Fucking Lou in psyche ward couldn't get to page 17.

You tried to read the book, you really did.

What's the difference between churning out hit songs for music companies (like Lou did around 1963 and 64 - and Carole King, Gerry Goffin etc) AND a call centre?? Me Neither. hahaha

This is a great anti-psychiatry song . Electro shock was one thing but then Reed mentions thorazine . You see tons of electro shocks was visibly inhumane to the public . But for the last 50 or so years mental health has been torturing , shortening life span , and causing sudden death with anti-psychotic drugs . And the vast majority of crazy people aren't dangerous . So the torture goes on with pills and psychiatric drugs and the public thinks well that just looks like my vitamin pill . And the newest anti-psychotics with warm and fuzzy names like Abilify are just as vicious and deadly as the old haldol and thorazine . This big pharma/mental health/psychiatry complex is mother fucking evil .

Life is feeling the highs and the lows. Ppl are medicating themselves into a stupor or a blank emotionless one

this drugging is happening more and more and people don't realize how awful it is until they are hurt by the drugs.

I bought a Lou Reed compilation on my lunch hour in some corporate job I hated. I put this on because I needed some new thrills.... and then at the end of the day I realized I hated my job and wanted out so I quit. That job is long gone... a prison sentence really... but I still got the music.

Not a happy guy.

I love this RAW under played hit~ I have a vast taste in music From Caren Carpenter to Skrillix & even some Church songS~ LOL

Dave Strider really brings it here.

I still have this album love it still and this song was the first reason why I listen to it to this day

WE ALL NEED HELP LOL?

this reminds me of my medical discharge from the naval hospital to the Brocton VA Phytriatric unit

MANCHESTER 2017 MONTH OF MAY

The song KILL YOUR SONS is about his parents sending Lou to a mental hospital because he was bisexual and they gave him psych meds and electric shock treatment to "cure him of being bisexual", it was Ex Gay Therapy in his day. The psychiatrist killed Lou.

Love it was 18 the first time I heard. This 60 now still love it

As a HUGE LR fan, this is one of my Top 3 LR songs. So completely trash-glam, and the "I really don't give a shit" lyrics just make it!

kkh369 Same here man. Then you have his softer side like coney island baby. That's one of the reasons why I love him.

Phil Paul He's the shit. I listen to WAY too much VU!

Yeah me too haha. By the way, I make my own music on my channel, It's kind of Lou Reed inspired, let me know what you think, thanks :)

Nazi trash stink. Throw out stinking trash. Shrinks stink. Give shrinks shock. Straight normal average isnt just boring, it's dead.

Taz Delaney well "Taz", could it be that you're too ridgid in your thinking that any meaning this song has goes right over your head?... Humm?...

Freaking genius!!

Kill your sons and daughters

Did the electric shock therapy work and cure him of being a shit stabber, or did he carry on packing fudge

+Robert Creighton The latter.

Do you have a problen with that? And you're listening to LR? Hmm...

I don't have a problem but I do find euphemisms for gay sex funny.     you can be an uphill gardener if you wish I'd pass no laws to stop you but I reserve the right find it a source of amusement.     viz warped my mind

@Robert Creighton Cool. I have a sense of humor, so no problem there. You know, it's Youtube...most people that would come on a Lou Reed video and say things like "shit-stabber" as a denigration of gays. The kind that would go on a Lou Reed video to tell everyone how much he DIDN'T like LR. You know what I'm saying. Which I'm really not into, especially with my Lou. Carry on.

"uphill gardener" XD

love L0u

Religion will......

+Peter Wesley Bastone hello Peter the song is actually about American psychiatrists and his mum and dad who committed him at 17 to have electric shock treatment that made him hate the culture that had done this and permitted this to happen. He was to all intents and purposes tortured and it appears it has not stopped. We have just gone from one religion and its Inquisition and torture, to the new religion of 'science' and the medics and their new form of torture. Plus ca change.

if i remember correctly lou reed was given electro shock therapy because he confessed to having same-sex attractions. electric shock therapy continues to be used today in the US as a treatment of last resort, for persistent, untreatable depression + previous suicide attempts. It's not used very often and it's really a desperate attempt to try and keep someone alive. people who have go through the treatment hide it from others due to the social stigma surrounding it.

+wolfumz Yes, Lou got shocked because our Lou likes to go both ways. They perpetuated a psycho-assault on Lou because he was a little freak (bless him). It had nothing to do with religion, and in Lou's case there were no "suicide attempts".

What an edgy and autistic comment

RIP Lou, one of your truest songs. You´ll always will be in my heart.

people just want to be politically correct. People from Lou's side don't care what people think of them...this is a great song regardless of the title and the story

+Dave Tucmantel The title and story make the song more effective.

Shit on the Cult of Political Correctness, which is nothing but a repeat of Victorian Euphemism. Lou literally rejected brainwashing, and his music was a breath of fresh air.

this song is about himself, he was treated with electroshock for his homosexual tendencies. Yes, it did happen back in the 60s and 70s. That's a song to his family and the doctors who said they were gonna cure him and were instead killing him. It's really not provocatory, or politically incorrect. there's a video interview where he explains what this is about, I suggest to have a look

Creedmoor had a bad reputation in that era.. A couple of my contemporaries in the '70s (in much more comfortable and likely far more effective Devereaux Foundation in PA) had paid it a visit. Lots of minors back then got sent to the mental health system for rather ordinary drug use, and of course some epic drug use.

(Sylvester Stallone and Nancy Spungen were other Devereaux alumni. Worked out for Sly at least. If you listen to the lyrics Lou bowdlerized some of the drug references, probably to humor the producers.)

The story of Roky Erickson of 13th Floor Elevators fame might interest you. Describing it as a tragedy is no exaggeration. At least he ended up free and the local music community including Billy Gibbons is impressively kind to him.

Dave Tucmantel very true take care

Rot in peace Lou.

Classic

el cassette me descubrió a lou y lou el lado oscuro de la vida

Its small wonder he went on to shooting smack after an experiencing what he describes - I mean if your parents and medical authorities think its okay to abuse you with medicine, then damned if you can't do it yourself.

I feel the same damn way as someone who's been institutionalised throughout my life.

! Reed ! Rocks ! R.I.P. ! Lou !

Wow, what world are you from????

The real world

I'm gunna miss you Lou.

If the music died with Buddy, the thought it dared to think after that died with Lou. rip

The best from the best,one of a kind, goodbye Mr. Reed, will miss you!

rip mr reed

will miss his brilliance

This song is purposely meant to sound raw and very rough. The lyrics very blunt. What he went through at this time in his life (age 17),the anger at his parents, the institution and its personnel for inflicting this pain upon him because of who he just was. It is like an immediate response even though it took him awhile to even get to this point to be able to express some of what he must have felt and went through. I am glad that he was able to just to do this much for himself.

They sent him to a state hospital under the care of what they thought to be professionals. The parents were just a small part of the system.

really sounds how the menatl wards were like in the 70"s. Hell on earth !

Actually the late 1950s when his parents committed him and he underwent electroshock therapy to cure him of his 'homosexual tendencies'.

Lou Reed was in the mental institution in the 50s man not the 70s

mental wards are like this now

Sad. This has happened to several people I know. This is one of Lou Reed's best songs ever.

I agree! Especially on lines like: "Doncha know they're gonna kill..." "Aren't you glad you're married?" "... and he doesn't even have a brain!" "...but Payne Whitney was even better." "All of the drugs that we took, it really was lots of fun." Cool, detached, sardonic, fuck you attitude, the darkness still moves me 38 years later.

lou isnt TRYING to hit a high note, dig?

amen brother...

I agree

It's the subtle unique inflections in his voice and in this songs case the sinisterness that I like.

You must not really like Lou Reed then...his voice is actually at it's greatest here for those who love Lou Reed. It's not about how high a note you can hit or how many acrobats you can do with your voice...if your into that you might as well just devote yourself to R&B singers because they're the best at that kind of thing. Technically perfect singers are the most boring singers in the world to me. I can technically sing better than him but I'll never be able to sing his songs as GREAT as he.

I just listened to it...not even close...not in this world, the next world or the one after that.

This song is one of the songs that make Lou Reed LOU REED!!!

best version can be found on Live In Italy

This IS the best version.

...Too long. We'll just call music like this...LouReedelic

OnLy LoU!

sad that a song as great as this has 8,458 hits while a shit cut by britney gets 11million...

how many of us were tossed into spychiatrist's MK Ultra torture chambers by criminally insane parents to 'cure' us of being queer? and hey, while the so-called straight anti-gay politicians go to highway rest areas to get boys to suc em off or more... geniuses like reed et shock...

Its just one of those things: music does and means different things to different people. Didn't mean to offend the die hard Lou fans out there! I should have probably kept my mouth shut!

The stupid thing is Im a massive Lou Reed fan - its just this one song, it does nothing for me unfortunately.

:-)

All the best.

@TruthThink1 Everybody is entitled to have an opinion. So no moron and stuff. But not liking this song is really strange. I am a huge fan of the Velvet Underground. But Lou Reed solo, well that’s a different story. I totally love Berlin (one of the greatest albums ever), and I love Kill Your Sons. All the rest Lou did solo: very mediocre or even really really bad. Really sad you cannot appreciate this totally great song. Therefore indeed you are kinda despicable;-).

Transformer, Rock 'n Roll Animal, New York mediocre?!?!

@Paul Quinn Street Hassle is brilliant

This song kicks total butt. One of his songs that to me makes Lou Reed, LOU REED!!!

Lou Reed looks like an albino on this album cover.

What amazes me is that it was eight or nine years into his career before Lou told this story. If it was me, track one, side one of my first record would have been called Thanks for Fucking Me Up, Mom and Dad, You Guys Suck.

what a disturbing story,..hope writing this song was a cathartic experience,....also,...I really dig Danny Weis's guitar work here,..he's awesome..

@MushroomCloud22 Thank you for your profound insight there, but before you continue to make a fool of yourself:

I heard about this song from an Adam Curtis documentary and (at the time of posting) that was the first time I heard it. And I recurs, the song is plain awful and for the benefit of my eardrums I shall not listen to it ever again. Although, I recurs again, I am a fan of Lou Reed.

Bye bye.

"...make a fool of yourself" Hahahaha, talk about hypocrisy!

@zaynzaynzayn yes it is

Personally I like the glasses and the hair cut.

thank you for bringing that one back :)

Just rediscovering the Velvets & Lou. Always liked this. Good to hear it again, and I don't even have a brain...

I really like Lou Reed, and I love the history behind this song, it truly saddens me. But this song is just awful.

THIS SONG RULES.