Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting for the Man - Lyrics Meaning

American rock band The Velvet Underground released "I'm Waiting for the Man" in 1967 on their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Like many of the band's other songs, ``I'm Waiting for the Man'' focuses on the dark underbelly of life in New York City. The track, written by singer Lou Reed, tells the story of a man in New York traveling to Harlem to meet his drug dealer, who is never referred to as anything other than ``the man'' in the song. He brings $26 uptown, where he stops at a brownstone at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, which is currently the home of a 4/5/6 subway station. (``Up to Lexington, 1-2-5''). The Velvet Underground were one of the first groups to openly write songs about drug use and its catastrophic consequences (heroin, in the case of ``I'm Waiting for the Man''). The accounts often came from the personal experiences of the band members. Rolling Stone magazine placed ``I'm Waiting for the Man'' at number 159 on their list of the ``500 Greatest Songs of All Time'' in 2004. Reed has commented that ``Everything about that song holds true, except the price." $26 in 1967 would be more than $166 today.