Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man

When I think of The Velvet Underground… the bands Big Star and The Replacements come up. Those three bands influenced a huge range of other bands but didn’t come along at the right time to make it themselves. They never had mainstream success but their music lives on with every 15-year-old guitar player that picks up one of their albums.

Ask Peter Buck, Paul Westerberg, Paul Stanley, and Rick Nielsen, about some of their influences. The Underground would come up and Big Star… In the 90s performers such as Kurt Cobain and Green Day were heavily influenced by The Replacements. Ok, I’ll step off of my soapbox now.

While the West Coast bands at the time had songs about free love and romanticized the psychedelic experience… The Velvet Underground was more about New York’s dirty streets and drug addictions.

It’s no big secret what this song is about. Waiting for his drug dealer to come. The song is about scoring $26 worth of heroin in Harlem. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said: “Everything about that song holds true, except the price.” The place where the deal took place is a Harlem brownstone near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street to buy drugs from a dealer.

Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man

The song was released in 1967 on The Velvet Underground & Nico album. Songs like “I’m Waiting For The Man,” “Heroin,” and “Venus In Furs” were what kept The Velvet Underground out of a record contract with Atlantic Records. Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun told them he would take them if they would drop those songs about drugs…they refused. They would eventually (1970) sign with Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records that specialized in blues and Southern soul). Until then they were signed to Verve Records…subsidiary of MGM.

Lou Reed wrote this song. John Cale who played piano and bass guitar started to push Reed into more avant grade directions. You can hear Cale’s influence on Reed by listening to the demo version. It sounds like a traditional blues song. I have it at the bottom also above the studio version. The versions are night and day.

The album peaked at #129 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #43 in the UK in 1967.

David Bowie:  “I actually played ‘Waiting for the Man’ in Britain with my band before the album was even released in America. Talk about oneupsmanship. A friend of mine came over to the states to do some work with Andy Warhol at The Factory, and as he was leaving, Andy said, ‘Oh, I just made this album with some people. Maybe you can take it back to England and see if you can get any interest over there.’ And it was still the vinyl test pressing. It hadn’t got a company or anything at the time. I still have it. There’s a white label on it, and it says ‘Warhol.’ He signed it. My friend gave it to me and he said, ‘This is crap. You like weird stuff, so maybe you’ll enjoy it.’ I played it and it was like ‘Ah, this is the future of music!’ I was in awe. It was serious and dangerous and I loved it. And I literally went into a band rehearsal the next day, put the album down and said, ‘We’re going to learn this song. It is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.’ We learned ‘Waiting for the Man’ right then and there, and we were playing it on stage within a week. I told Lou that, and he loved it. I must have been the first person in the world to cover a Velvet Underground song.”

The DEMO version

I’m Waiting For the Man

I’m waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I’m waiting for my man

Hey, white boy, what you doin’ uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin’ our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it’s the furthest from my mind
I’m just lookin’ for a dear, dear friend of mine
I’m waiting for my man

Here he comes, he’s all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He’s never early, he’s always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I’m waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody’s pinned you, but nobody cares
He’s got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I’m waiting for my man

Baby don’t you holler, darlin’ don’t you bawl and shout
I’m feeling good, you know I’m gonna work it on out
I’m feeling good, I’m feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that’s just some other time
I’m waiting for my man

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

32 thoughts on “Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man”

  2. Certainly were an influential group like you say. Never my cuppa tea though I at least a few covers of their stuff. You are right about the difference between the demo & released version, barely sound the same song. I like the final one better but the demo probably fits the content more. Wonder where that Bowie signed demo LP is now?

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    1. I would imagine in his family’s collection maybe…although I’m not sure he would have held it that long.
      I like quite a bit of their stuff…the more I hear the more I like.

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  4. Lou Reed had a way with describing as you pointed out the dirty streets and drug scene in New York . I didn’t really appreciate the VU until I started listening to some Lou Reed, probably early 80’s I guess. New Sensations was an album a friend had and it made me pay attention to his songwriting.

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    1. Their sound is more crude than others at the time…I think that was part of the attraction for me. Reed has some great albums…the one I know the best is Transformer.

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    1. I like how crude they sound…not musically but sound wise compared to other songs at the time…it made it more intriguing….and songs that featured topics unlike any other.

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      2. It really does…these bands that don’t have a huge following because of bans or non sense…I automatically gravitate to.
        Oh I’m sure he would. It’s the event of the year no doubt…I’m glad Cale is still around…

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  7. I like the demo version with Dobro…never heard that before. My sister got this album for Christmas (I might have been the one who bought it for her). Luckily our parents never really heard or understood the lyrics. “Heroin” is even more blatant than this one.

    John Cale pioneered the use of viola in rock, along with David Freiberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service.

    P.S. Once you peel the banana on the cover you can’t put the peel back.

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  10. VU was a band I found out about via the Jim Carrol Band, and Jim’s subsequent books, and it seemed like a band I should have liked, but I just never could. I’ve liked a lot of weird, out there music over the years, but I simply never could understand the appeal of VU. To each their own I suppose…

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    1. I liked the crude sound they had…the other two Big Star and The Replacements kinda had the same…not sound but “appeal” to the masses. They couldn’t get across…although The Replacements shot themselves too many times.

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  11. Great tune and a reality recognizable by every junkie. Too bad “the system” wouldn’t let this music reach the air, but the truth must remain in the shadow of subcultures (which are really the mainstream if the truth were allowed to be told.) Hope that’s not too twisty to be understood.

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    1. I totally get what you mean. You know me Lisa…I wave the flag for bands like this…their influence, along with the other two, influenced so many bands…they are important.
      Their timing was off…like most of them.

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