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Did an occultist book inspire Velvet Underground song ‘White Light/White Heat’?
It’s well known that The Velvet Underground took a lot of their cues from literature. Be it taking their name from the title of a Michael Leigh novel, or naming sinister classic ‘Venus in Furs’ after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s book of the same name, the relationship between the band and the prose of others was a deep one. The group, and in particular their frontman Lou Reed, had an affinity for the darker side of the human condition, which is why the books they utilised for their art did the same.
One of these books that ranks in the weird and wonderful category is A Treatise on White Magic by theosophical author Alice Bailey. Indeed, it wasn’t just sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll that Lou Reed was interested in, he was also keenly interested in the esoteric mystery of magic.
Lou Reed was quoted in a 1986 issue of SPIN talking about his friend Jonathan Richman of The Modern Lovers: “One of my big mistakes was turning (Richman) on to Alice Bailey, that’s where that insect song comes from,” he commented. “I said, ‘Do you know, Jonathan, that insects are a manifestation of negative ego thoughts? That’s on page 114.’ So he got that. That’s a dangerous set of books. That’s why Billy Name locked himself in his darkroom at Andy Warhol’s Factory for five months.”
So, in discussing how he influenced Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, Reed also gave away the real reason why ‘Warhol Superstar’ Billy Name became a recluse because of reading Bailey’s books. Perhaps Reed was only messing with the interviewer as he was notorious for doing, but it does seem that there is some weight to his admission.
Regardless of why Name locked himself away, Reed was an avid reader of Bailey’s works. So much so, that the band’s legendary Barrelhouse piano vamp, ‘White Light/White Heat’ seems to have been inspired by Bailey’s A Treatise on White Magic. Commentators have long thought that the line “white light goin’ messin’ up my mind” was about the effects of amphetamines, but it turns out that it was actually a nod to Bailey’s astral works.
In his book, White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-by-Day, renowned music historian Richie Unterberger discussed the song’s relationship with Bailey’s book. It’s hard to disagree with his assertion. Unterberger said: “Specifically, ‘White Light/White Heat’ is often assumed to be about the exhilarating effects of crystal methedrine amphetamines, and Reed does say the song ‘is about amphetamines’ in his 1971 interview with Metropolitan Review.”
However, he explained: “But an equally likely, and perhaps more interesting, inspiration is Alice Bailey’s occult book A Treatise on White Magic. It advises control of the astral body by a “direct method of relaxation, concentration, stillness and flushing the entire personality with pure White Light, with instructions on how to ‘call down a stream of pure White Light.'” And it’s known for certain that Reed was familiar with the volume, as he calls it “an incredible book” in a November 1969 radio interview in Portland, Oregon.
In addition to this, Reed’s interest in an opaque form of healing that utilised “projecting light”, also adds to the strength of the claim, which may also have made its way into the song ‘I Heard Her Call my Name’ also from White Light/White Heat. In that same 1969 Portland radio interview, Reed hinted at the origin of the titular “white light” from ‘White Light/White Heat’. He revealed that he’d been investigating a form of Japanese healing, “a way of giving off white light… I’ve been involved and interested in what they call white light for a long time.”
I think it’s safe to say that ‘White Light/White Heat’ was almost certainly written with Bailey’s esotericism in mind. This time, amphetamines were just an afterthought.
Listen to the song below.
