Lady Godiva's Operation
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| “Lady Godiva's Operation” | ||
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| Song by The Velvet Underground | ||
| Album | White Light/White Heat | |
| Released | January 30, 1968 | |
| Recorded | September 1967, Scepter Studios, New York City, New York | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 4:56 | |
| Label | Verve Records | |
| Writer | Lou Reed | |
| Composer | Lou Reed | |
| Producer | Tom Wilson | |
| White Light/White Heat track listing | ||
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"Lady Godiva's Operation" is a song by American avant-garde rock band The Velvet Underground, appearing on their second album, White Light/White Heat (1968). The lyrics and their delivery (sung by John Cale and then Lou Reed) are full of oblique, deadpan black humor and describe a botched surgical procedure (probably a sex-change operation which, by some accident or misunderstanding on the part of the surgeons, becomes a fatal lobotomy instead).
The song was covered by The Fatima Mansions as a single.
[edit] Music
The music, which is based on a simple two-chord vamp, is droning and dream-like, with pulsating guitar and bass parts, and a psychedelic electric viola part that is constantly panning from left to right and back, resulting in a dizzying, disorienting feeling.
In the second half of the song, Cale and guitarist Sterling Morrison do vocal impersonations of various surgical instruments, including a drill and a wooden leg.
[edit] Personnel
- John Cale - vocals, viola
- Lou Reed - guitar, vocals
- Sterling Morrison - bass guitar, backing vocals
- Maureen Tucker - percussion
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