(Songs) V is for Velvet

Vicious

Lou Reed

Vicious
You hit me with a flower
You do it every hour
Oh, baby, you're so vicious

Vicious

You want me to hit you with a stick
But all I've got is a guitar pick
Huh, baby, you're so vicious

When I watch you come

Baby, I just want to run far away
You're not the kind of person around I
Want to stay

When I see you walking down the street
I step on your hands and I mangle your feet
You're not the kind of person that I want to meet

Oh, baby, you're so vicious

You're just so vicious

Vicious
Hey, you hit me with a flower
You do it every hour
Oh, baby you're so vicious

Vicious
Hey, why don't you swallow razor blades
You must think that I'm some kind of gay blade*
But baby, you're so vicious

When I see you coming
I just have to run
You're not good and you certainly aren't
Very much fun

When I see you walking down the street
I step on your hand and I mangle your feet
You're not the kind of person that I'd even want to meet

'Cause you're so vicious
Baby, you're so vicious

Vicious, vicious
Vicious, vicious
Vicious, vicious
Vicious, vicious

Vicious

Vicious chords

Origins

Lou Reed said it was Andy Warhol who inspired the song. "He said, 'Why don't you write a song called 'Vicious,'" Reed told Rolling Stone in 1989. "And I said, 'What kind of vicious?' 'Oh, you know, vicious like I hit you with a flower.' And I wrote it down literally."

*Gay blade is a slang term describing a flamboyant homosexual man. 

Video Killed the Radio Star

The Buggles

I heard you on the wireless back in fifty two
Lying awake intent at tuning in on you
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through
Oh, a, oh

They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the problems you can see

Oh, a, oh
I met your children
Oh a oh
What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Pictures came and broke your heart
Oh, a, a, a, oh

And now we meet in an abandoned studio (ohh)
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to go (ahh)

Oh, a, oh

You were the first one
Oh, a, oh
You were the last one

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Oh, a, a, a, oh
Oh, a, a, a, oh

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can't rewind we've gone too far
Pictures came and broke your heart
Put the blame on VCR

You are a radio star
You are a radio star

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star

video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
(You are a radio star) video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
(You are a radio star) video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star

Songwriters: Geoffrey Downes / Trevor Charles Horn / Bruce Woolley

Video Killed the Radio Star

Video Killed the Radio Star chords


Background

Horn has said that the short story "The Sound-Sweep", in which the title character—a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it—comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer, provided inspiration for "Video," and he felt "an era was about to pass." In a 2018 interview Horn stated: "I'd read JG Ballard and had this vision of the future where record companies would have computers in the basement and manufacture artists. I'd heard Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine and video was coming. You could feel things changing".

All the tracks of The Age of Plastic deal with positives and concerns of the impact of modern technology. The theme of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is thus nostalgia, with the lyrics referring to a period of technological change in the 1960s, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past.

The lyrics relate to concerns of the varied behaviours towards 20th-century technical inventions and machines used and changed in media arts such as photography, cinema, radio, television, audio recording and record production.

Development and composition

The Buggles' version of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a new wave and synth-pop song. It performs like an extended jingle, sharing its rhythm characteristics with disco. The piece plays in common time at a bright tempo of 132 beats per minute. It is in the key of D♭ major, and six basic chords are used in the song's chord progression. According to Geoff Downes, "It's actually a lot more complicated piece of music than people think, for instance part of the bridge is actually chords suspended and minor 9ths. A lot of people transcribed the song wrongly, they thought it was a straight F# chord. The song was written in D flat. The suspended gives it a slightly different feel."

Vienna

Ultravox

Walked in the cold air
Freezing breath on a window pane
Lying and waiting
A man in the dark in a picture frame
So mystic and soulful
A voice reaching out in a piercing cry
It stays with you until

The feeling has gone only you and I
It means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna

The music is weaving
Haunting notes, pizzicato strings
The rhythm is calling
Alone in the night as the daylight brings
A cool empty silence
The warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky
It fades to the distance

The image has gone only you and I
It means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna

This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna

Songwriters: Tom Norris

Vienna

Vienna chords

Background

The drum machine pattern created by Warren Cann was the basis of the song. The classically trained Billy Currie wanted to create something that might sound like it had been written by a late-19th-century romantic composer, and the romantic violin solo was influenced by the German composer Max Reger.

The lyrics, which are about a brief love affair in the city of Vienna, were quickly written by Midge Ure. According to Currie, Ure was hesitant about the overly classical romantic feel of the orchestration, and said: "This means nothing to me," to which the producer Conny Plank replied: "Well, sing that then." Ure said that he had in his mind only the line "The feeling is gone, this means nothing to me – oh Vienna!" when he went into studio.

Ure said of the track: "We wanted to take the song and make it incredibly pompous in the middle, leaving it very sparse before and after, but finishing with a typically over-the top classical ending."

Valley Girl

Frank Zappa

Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
In a clothing store
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
In a clothing store

Like, oh my God! (Valley Girl)
Like, totally (Valley Girl)
Enchino is like so bitchin' (Valley Girl)
There's like the Galleria (Valley Girl)
And like all these like really great shoe stores
I love going into like clothing stores and stuff
I like buy the neatest mini-skirts and stuff
It's like so bitchin' 'cause like everybody's like
Super-super nice
It's like so bitchin'

On Ventura, there she goes
She just bought some bitchin' clothes
Tosses her head 'n flips her hair
She got a whole bunch of nothin' in there

Anyway, he goes are you into S and M?
I go, oh right
Could you like just picture me in like a leather teddy
Yeah right, hurt me, hurt me
I'm sure, no way
He was like freaking me out
He called me a beastie
That's 'cause like he was totally blitzed
He goes like bag your face
I'm sure!

Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
So sweet 'n pure
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
So sweet 'n pure
It's really sad (Valley Girl)
Like my English teacher
He's like (Valley Girl)
He's like Mr. Bu-Fu (Valley Girl)
We're talking Lord God King Bu-Fu(Valley Girl)
I am so sure
He's like so gross
He like sits there and like plays with all his rings
And he like flirts with all the guys in the class
It's like totally disgusting
I'm like so sure
It's like barf me out
Gag me with a spoon!

Last idea to cross her mind
Had something to do with where to find
A pair of jeans to fit her butt
And where to get her toenails cut

So like I go into this like salon place, you know
And I wanted like to get my toenails done
And the lady like goes, oh my God, your toenails
Are like so grody
It was like really embarrassing
She's like oh my God, like bag those toenails
I'm like sure
She goes, uh, I don't know if I can handle this, you know.
I was like really embarrassed

Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Valley Girl
She's a Valley Girl
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
And there is no cure
Okay, fine
Fer sure, fer sure
She's a Valley Girl
And there is no cure

Like my mother is like a total space cadet (Valley Girl)
She like makes me do the dishes and (Valley Girl)
Clean the cat box (Valley Girl)
I am sure
That's like GROSS (Valley Girl)
Barf out (Valley Girl)
Oh my God (Valley Girl)

Hi!
Uh-huh (Valley Girl)
My name?
My name is Ondrya Wolfson (Valley Girl)
Uh-huh
That's right, Ondrya (Valley Girl)
Uh-huh
I know (Valley Girl)
It's like
I do not talk funny
I'm sure (Valley Girl)
What's the matter with the way I talk? (Valley Girl)
I am a Val, I know
But I live in like in a really good part of Encino so it's okay (Valley Girl)
So like, I don't know
I'm like freaking out totally
Oh my God!

Hi, I have to go to the orthodontist
I'm getting my braces off, you know
But I have to wear a retainer
That's going to be really like a total bummer
I'm freaking out
I'm sure
Like those things that like stick in your mouth
They're so gross
You like get saliva all over them
But like, I don't know, it's going to be cool, youknow
So you can see my smile
It'll be like really cool
Except my like my teeth are like too small
But no biggie
It's so awesome
It's like tubular, you know
Well, I'm not like really ugly or anything
It's just like
I don't know
You know me, I'm like into like the clean stuff
Like a man and like, I don't know
Like my mother like makes me do the dishes
It's like so gross
Like all the stuff like sticks to the plates
And it's like, it's like somebody sees food, you know
It's like grody
Grody to the max
I'm sure
It's like really nauseating
Like barf out
Gag me with a spoon
Gross
I am sure
Totally

Valley Girl

Valley Girl guitar / bass line

Background

A song by the musician Frank Zappa and his then-14-year-old daughter, Moon Zappa. According a biographer, Frank woke Moon in the middle of the night and took her to a studio to recreate conversations that she had had with friends, speaking typical "valley girl" or "Valspeak" phrases she heard at "parties, bar mitzvahs, and the Galleria."

Musically, the song is atypical for Zappa because of its conventional structure compared to his other compositions, and is played entirely in 4/4 time signature with the exception of the 7/4 groove at the very end.

Vegetables

The Beach Boys

I'm gonna be round my vegetables
I'm gonna chow down my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table

If you brought a big brown bag of them home
I'd jump up and down and hope you'd toss me a carrot

I'm gonna keep well my vegetables
Cart off and sell my vegetables
I love you most of all
My favorite vege-table
Oh oh taba vega vegel

I tried to kick the ball but my tenny flew right off
I'm red as a beet 'cause I'm so embarrassed

Oh oh dumb do dumb de dooby do
Oh oh dumb do dumb de dooby do
Oh oh dumb do dumb de dooby do
Oh yeah
Oh badumday oh dumb do dumb de dooby do
Oh badumday oh dumb do dumb de dooby do

Chomp chomp chomp chomp do-do-do do-do-do
Bop bop bop bop do-do-do do-do-do

I know that you'll feel better
When you send us in
Your letter an'
Tell us the name of your
Your favorite vege-table

I know that you'll feel better
When you send us in
Your letter an'
Tell us the name of your
Your favorite vege-table

Songwriters: Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks

Vegetables

Vegetables chords

Background

Apparently it's Paul McCartney doing the chomping noises. And apparently they wrote this song when they were stoned.

Victoria

The Kinks

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad, called obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the Lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria

I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria

Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my Victoria
Victoria, 'toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria

Canada to India
Australia to Cornwall
Singapore to Hong Kong
From the West to the East
From to the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all

Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, 'toria
Victoria, Victoria, Victoria

Songwriters: Raymond Douglas Davies

Victoria

Victoria chords

Background

Victoria is the opening track on the band's 1969 concept album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).

In Ray Davies' satirical style, the lyrics juxtapose the grim realities of life in Britain during the 19th century ("Sex was bad, and obscene/And the rich were so mean") with the paternalist aspirations of the British Empire in the Victorian age ("From the West to the East/From the rich to the poor/Victoria loved them all"), and expresses the simple adulation of queen and country by the downtrodden working class ("Though I am poor, I am free/When I grow I shall fight/For this land I shall die").

The production begins with a simple heavy rock electric blues guitar riff, carried through each verse and chorus, while the "Land of hope and gloria" bridge and raucous background vocals from Dave Davies build to an exultant climax of brass.

Vulture

Iggy Pop

Fat, black vulture
White head hung low
Chewin' dead meat
By the side of the road
His evil breath
Smells just like death
He takes no chances
He knows the dances

Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh

Vulture waiting
For a life to end
Proving the prophet
He's nobody's friend
If he gets near
Your bones he'll clear
He'll jump your bandwagon
Till it's your corpse he's draggin'

Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture
Vulture

Fat, black vulture
Has got no shame
He'll tell a lie
Cheat, steal, and frame
His poison whiff
Will kill you stiff
This toxic executive
Wants your guts in his grip

Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture, ooh
Vulture
Vulture
Vulture
Vulture

Whoa
Oh

Songwriters: James Osterberg / Joshua Homme / Dean Fertita

Vulture

Vulture chords

Background

From the 2016 album Post-Pop Depression, produced by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Pop described the album as "discussing issues of what happens when your utility is at an end, and dealing with your legacy."