Verse for Day 22 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Take a Walk On the Wild Side" by Lou Reed

Day 22 - "Take a Walk On the Wild Side" by Lou Reed

Songwriter Lou Reed (1942–2013)

     After four years with "The Velvet Underground", Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (1942–2013) built his solo career in 1972 with "Take a Walk on the Wild Side".  Produced by the late David Bowie, its chart-topping status had the strange effect of helping Reed's previous efforts with The Velvet Underground more than as a springboard for future personal success.

     The majority of sex trade workers are poor and [heterosexual] female.  The rest are mostly LGBTQ.  A disproportionate number are visible minorities.  Thus, even if we leave aside the puritanism, laws against prostitution are the Grand Slam of Bigotry;  they're not just a garden variety toxic mix of elitism, sexism, homophobia and racism, they are institutionalized elitism, sexism, homophobia and racism.

Lyrics:

Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,
Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.
Candy came from out on the island,
In the backroom she was everybody's darling,
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She says, hey baby, take a walk on the wild side
Said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
And the colored girls go,
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York City is the place where they said:
Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side
Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Lookin' for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go, go, go
They said, hey Sugar, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side, alright, huh
Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side
And the colored girls say
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
 

Addendum 

     Yesterday we saw a Filler-and-Killer Cliché Collage, where one blindingly brilliant line is highlighted against a foil of lesser verbage.  This was tantamount to being lulled asleep before being slammed upside with a 2-by-4.  "Paradise Has No Colonies" adopts an entirely different tack.

    Rosie knows the night          
    is a forgiving                
    thing. She takes her daughter's 
    corner, posing just a little   
    further from the street        

    light. It's a school           
    night for Lynn; someone        
    will have the children       
    in bed by ten.  

     Here, all the words seem unremarkable reportage.  It could just as easily be rendered as prose without the linebreaks, couldn't it? 

     The effect may be slow in coming, but the reader is left wondering if something was missed.  Nagged by this suspicion, some will revisit the piece.  Eventually, the lines will assert themselves, allowing the reader to see how each one, considered in isolation, addresses a different aspect of these two women's lives:

    Rosie knows the night            - experience
    is a forgiving                   - redemption
    thing. She takes her daughter's  - incest
    corner, posing just a little     - artifice
    further from the street          - retreat

    light. It's a school             - education
    night for Lynn; someone          - humanization
    will have the children           - motherhood
    in bed by ten.                   - pedophilia

     This, then, is the "cada línea" (Spanish for "each line").

Links: 

Songs for a 4 Year Funeral