"Street Hassle" is a song recorded by American rock musician

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

for his 1978 studio album of the same name. It is 10 minutes and 56 seconds long and divided into three distinct sections: "Waltzing Matilda," "Street Hassle," and "Slipaway." Part one, "Waltzing Matilda," describes a woman picking up and paying a male prostitute. In Part Two, "Street Hassle," a drug dealer speaks at length about the death of a woman in his apartment to her companion. Part Three, "Slipaway," contains a brief, uncredited, spoken word section by

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

(from 9:02 to 9:39) and a

dirge A dirge ( la, dirige, naenia) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegies ...

sung by Reed about love and death. It was recorded in E major. On the live album ''

Animal Serenade ''Animal Serenade'' is a live album by American rock musician Lou Reed, recorded in Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theatre in 2003 after ''The Raven''. The show features a drummer-less band (including Mike Rathke on guitar/synth, bassist, vocalist F ...

'' (2004), Reed says: "I wanted to write a song that had a great monologue set to rock. Something that could have been written by

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultu ...

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Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulated ...

, maybe a little

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

. You mix it all up and you have 'Street Hassle'." Critics have described the song as being largely motivated by and representative of the end of Reed's three-year relationship with Rachel Humphreys, a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

who died in 1990, likely of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, and was buried on Hart Island in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in the

Potter's Field A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...

located on the island. Biographer

Anthony DeCurtis Anthony DeCurtis (born June 25, 1951) is an American author and music critic, who has written for ''Rolling Stone,'' the ''New York Times'', ''Relix'' and many other publications. Career DeCurtis is a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', w ...

summarized the song as "something of a requiem for Reed and Rachel's relationship." (DeCurtis also claimed that the second section of the song, "Street Hassle," was inspired by the mysterious 1975 death of

Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

performer and

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denizen

Eric Emerson Eric Emerson (June 23, 1945 – May 28, 1975) was an American musician, dancer, and actor. Emerson is best known for his roles in films by pop artist Andy Warhol, and as a member of the seminal glam punk group the Magic Tramps. Career Growing ...

.) In a 1979 article for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', Mikal Gilmore refers to Rachel as the "raison d'être" for the entire album. “Street Hassle" was included in 2008's ''The

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present''.

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United St ...

covered the song in an abbreviated version on their sixth studio album ''

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'' (1984), using two verses (the first and third) from the "Waltzing Matilda" section and a verse from the "Slipaway" section. In 2005, the song served as the leitmotif for

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' seminal full-length video Baker 3.

References

1978 songs Lou Reed songs Bruce Springsteen songs LGBT-related songs Song recordings produced by Steve Lillywhite Songs about drugs Songs about streets Songs written by Lou Reed {{1970s-rock-song-stub