METALLICA And LOU REED: 'Mistress Dread' Lyrics Revealed

The musical collaboration between Lou Reed and METALLICA, "Lulu", will be released on November 1 in North America via Warner Bros. Records and one day earlier (October 31) in the rest of the world through Universal Music. The CD was co-produced by Reed, METALLICA, Hal Willner who has produced albums for Reed, Marianne Faithfull, and Laurie Anderson, among others and Greg Fidelman. Fidelman also mixed the record.

"Lulu" final track listing:

01. Brandenburg Gate (4:19)
02. The View (5:17)
03. Pumping Blood (7:24)
04. Mistress Dread (6:52)
05. Iced Honey (4:36)
06. Cheat On Me (11:26)
07. Frustration (8:33)
08. Little Dog (8:01)
09. Dragon (11:08)
10. Junior Dad (19:28)

"Mistress Dread" lyrics:

I'm built like you are
I have a dress and a train
Your snake cold lips
Make a harsh straight line
That echoes through my brain

You're perfect
Let me lift a glass high
Let me follow in your footsteps
Let me follow in your sigh
Let me follow in your sigh

I'm a woman who likes men
But this is something else
I've never felt such stirrings
I feel like I
Was someone else

I wish you'd tie me up and beat me
Crush me like a kick
A bleeding strap across my back
Some blood that you could kiss

Oh kiss away, oh kiss away
I wish there was a strap of blood
That you could kiss away
I wish there was a strap of blood
That you could kiss away
Tie me with a scarf and jewels
Put a bloody gag to my teeth

I beg you to degrade me
Is there waste that I could eat
I am a secret lover
I am your little girl
Please spit into my mouth
I'm forever in your swirl

You're heartless and I love that
You have no use of me

But I open the sticks, sticky legs I bear
And then insert a fist, an arm
Some lost appendage
Please open me I beg

You are my goliath
You are my goliath
And I am mistress dread

Oh I am mistress dread
Oh I am mistress dread

Open and release me
I love you in my head

Oh kiss away kiss away
Kiss away kiss away

All I ask my baby
Kiss away

All I ask my baby
Kiss away [End of lyrics]

The idea for these two giants of modern music to work together was born after the 25th anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame concerts in New York City in October 2009. METALLICA singer/guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo played with Reed on VELVET UNDERGROUND classics "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat". "We knew from then that we were made for each other," Reed says.

After that triumphant performance, Reed suggested they all make a record together. At first they planned to record an album of Reedfraven's older material, what Ulrich describes as "some of Lou's lost jewels songs that he felt he'd like to give a second spin, and we could do whatever it is we do to some of those songs." That idea "hung in the air for a couple of months." Then, a week or two before that session was to begin, "Lou called up and said, 'Listen, I have this other idea.'"

That idea was to record a series of songs Reed had written for American avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson and German theater group the Berliner Ensemble's production of the "Lulu Plays", which premiered in April at the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, founded by Bertolt Brecht. The songs are inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind's early 20th century plays "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box", and were a rewrite of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", which emerged as a graphic novel on Fantagraphics Press.

"We were very interested in working with Lou," says Hetfield. "I had these giant question marks: What's it going to be like? What's going to happen? So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the 'Lulu' body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp 'TALLICA on it. And that's what we did."

"We had to bring 'Lulu' to life in a sophisticated way, using rock," Reed says. "And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be METALLICA. They live on that planet. We played together, and I knew it: dream come true. This is the best thing I ever did. And I did it with the best group I could possibly find. By definition, everybody involved was honest. This has come into the world pure. We pushed as far as we possibly could within the realms of reality."

"It's definitely not a METALLICA album, or a Lou Reed album," adds Hammett. "It's something else. It's a new animal, a hybrid."

A variety of physical "Lulu" releases are available for pre-order at LouReedMetallica.com:

** 2CD Package - $19.99

Contents: Double CD with 24-page booklet including all lyrics.

** Deluxe 2CD Poster Set - $119.99

Contents: Limited-run tube including a poster of the "Lulu" mannequin and song lyrics, three high-quality prints of Anton Corbijn photos of Lou Reed and METALLICA, and the double CD of "Lulu" in a unique folding slipcase. Each tube is numbered. Dimensions of the tube are approximately 5.5 inches in diameter by 49 inches long.

** Deluxe Book 2CD - $109.99

Contents: Limited-run two-book set, each book 12" x 12" square bound with a hard cover. The Anton Corbijn book is 20 pages of photos taken of Lou Reed and METALLICA in Gothenburg, Sweden in the summer of 2011. The lyric book is 28 pages with lyrics from each song along with imagery from the objects collection of WerkbundarchiV Museum Der Dinge, Berlin, Germany. The two "Lulu" CDs are also included in the lyric book. All housed in a clear plastic slipcase.

** Vinyl 2LP Set

2CD Package

Deluxe 2CD Poster Set

Deluxe Book 2CD