Here She Comes Now by The Velvet Underground Lyrics Meaning – Decoding the Sonic Enigma
Lyrics
She ever comes now now
She ever comes now
Here she ever comes now now
She ever comes now now
She ever comes now
Oh oh, it look so good
She’s made out of wood
Just look and see
There’s something undeniably mystical about ‘Here She Comes Now’ by The Velvet Underground, a song that manages to be both minimalistic and complex in its sonic construction. The fact that this track from the band’s seminal 1968 album ‘White Light/White Heat’ is still the subject of discourse and analysis encapsulates the Velvet’s power to confound and enchant.
Yet, amidst the reverberating guitars and the halting cadence of the lyrics, lies a deeper significance that transcends the auditory aesthetic to touch upon themes of desire, objectification, and maybe even spiritual transcendence. What follows is an exploration of this enigmatic track, uncovering layers beneath the simplicity.
The Elemental Quality of Desire
‘Here She Comes Now’, with its mesmerizing mantra-like repetition, captures the essence of yearning, a fundamental human experience. The constant refrain ‘she ever comes now,’ chanted in a hypnotic loop, symbolizes the relentless and cyclical nature of desire. This phrase, neither wholly positive nor negative, lends the song an aura of both anticipation and potential disappointment.
Musically, the band embodies this elemental desire with a stripped-back sound that is paradoxically full and sparse. It creates a tense backdrop for the lyrics, which ultimately provides listeners with the feeling that they’re on the precipice of something great, something almost within reach, accentuating the theme of longing central to the human condition.
The Enigmatic Woman Made Out of Wood
The memorable line ‘Oh, she looks so good, she’s made out of wood’ stands as one of the most vivid and puzzling in the song. On one level, it can be construed as a commentary on the objectification inherent in the observer’s gaze — reducing the subject to her aesthetic appeal, to something static and decorative like a wooden statue.
Simultaneously, there could be an allusion here to the mythological, where figures often bewitched viewers by their statue-like, otherworldly beauty. It merges the physical with the abstract, painting the subject as both alluring and untouchable — a commentary on the unattainable nature of idealized beauty.
A Reverie in Repetition
The Velvet Underground excels at using musical repetition as a sort of trance-inducing mechanism. In ‘Here She Comes Now,’ the echo of each ‘now’ seems to pull the listener deeper into a reflective state. The song’s structure can be interpreted as emblematic of the routine patterns we find ourselves in, the rhythms of everyday life that transfix and sometimes numb us.
Repetition, after all, is a powerful tool. It can lull us into a sense of security or it can bore us into agitation. In this track, the repetition feels almost meditative, a sonic mantra propelling us toward a moment of realization or epiphany.
The Hidden Meaning: A Spiritual Subtext?
‘Here She Comes Now’ has often led listeners to speculate about a deeper, hidden message. Could the ‘she’ in question be more than a woman? Could it be an allegory for a spiritual awakening or the arrival of a profound insight? In the repeated line, there is an implication of something or someone approaching, but the nature of what comes remains open to interpretation.
This ambiguity is the brilliance of the Velvet Underground, particularly under the aloof poetics of Lou Reed. Each listener encounters their own ‘she’, their own form of enlightenment or desire, which may or may not ever arrive. The song leaves us in anticipation, awaiting a climax that is indefinitely deferred.
The Impact of Minimalist Mastery
It is often in the most minimalistic expressions that we find the profoundest of statements. Between the lines of ‘Here She Comes Now,’ between the strings of its haunting melody, there’s a masterclass in minimalist music. The Velvet Underground doesn’t need a symphony to stir the heart or the mind; just a few notes, a handful of words, and the suggestion of infinity in its sparseness.
The song’s enduring legacy lies in its ability to resonate with the array of human experience. It’s a testament to the band’s pioneering approach to music, and why, more than fifty years later, we are still dissecting its meaning, still waiting for ‘her’, whoever or whatever she may be, to finally come now.
