Candy says I’ve come to hate my body/
And all that it requires in this world.

Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says” is about a woman who hates her body. Before knowing the story behind the song it sounds like it could be a story about any young woman uncomfortable with her body. This song was specifically written about a transsexual named Candy and it is sung from her perspective.

Candy feels tied to her body and would like to know what others feel like in theirs. Specifically, she feels tied to her worldly body and envies those who were born with the ‘right’ body. She envisions a time when she is older when perhaps this situation can be rectified: if she could turn into the person she really is. This clearly has a psychological effect on Candy. Her mind runs wild and she doesn’t like to be in quiet places alone with her thoughts.

Velvet Underground gives a very sympathetic interpretation to Candy’s story, which is ahead of its time really. The gentle vocals speak of a delicate subject. Also, Velvet Underground Candy as a person disconnected from her body. Again, it just seems ahead of its time. Even today trans-gendered are not fully understood but Velvet Underground attempts to tell a sympathetic story some fifty years ago.

Candy Says Lyrics

Candy says, “I’ve come to hate my body,
And all that it requires in this world.”
Candy says, “I’d like to know completely,
What others so discretely talk about.”

I’m gonna watch the blue birds fly over my shoulder,
I’m gonna watch them pass me by.
Maybe when I’m older,
What do you think I’d see,
If I could walk away from me.

Candy says, “I hate the quiet places,
That cause the smallest taste of what will be.”
Candy says, “I hate the big decisions,
That cause endless revisions in my mind.”

I’m gonna watch the blue birds fly over my shoulder,
I’m gonna watch them pass me by.
Maybe when I’m older,
What do you think I’d see,
If I could walk away from me.

Songwriters: Lewis Allen Reed / Lou Reed