All Tomorrow's Parties Lyrics

Performed by Velvet Underground

(NICO)

And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties
A hand-me-down dress from who knows where
To all tomorrow's parties

And where will she go and what shall she do
When midnight comes around
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door

And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties
Why silks and linens of yesterday's gowns
To all tomorrow's parties

And what will she do with Thursday's rags
When Monday comes around
She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown
And cry behind the door

And what costume shall the poor girl wear
To all tomorrow's parties
For Thursday's child is Sunday's clown
For whom none will go mourning

A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown
Of rags and silks, a costume
Fit for one who sits and cries
For all tomorrow's parties

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Thanks to Pascal for submitting All Tomorrow's Parties Lyrics.


on a par with the the Velvet Urderground and The Beatles | Reviewer: Malgré | 2/20/11

I have always loved this song and see it as pointing in the direction that Nico was later to go - to produce three (yes, THREE) phenomenal LPs (Marble Index, Desert Shore and Chelsea Girl - sorry, here in reverse order) which are as staggeringly original as the first three VU albums. That ßìk.. sees Nico as being like Yoko Ono is rather odd: Yoko moved in on the Beatles at the point wher they were in any case falling apart; Nico was only on the first VU album. However, the point in common is that they were/are both astonishingly creative musicians. Nico's three albums and Yoko's "fly" and the collaborations with husband John are absolute epochal works of experimental rock history that are on a par with the the Velvet Urderground and The Beatles respectively.

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Lou Reed has done better!! | Reviewer: ßìk.. | 5/22/10

I have this song but my version is sung by Reed.It is from some re issued edition but I'm not sure.However,I think Nico shouldn't have joined VU.She did what Yoko Ono did to the Beatles.Perhaps Nico wasn't that worse..

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Sunday's Clown | Reviewer: rat ~( );> | 4/5/10

This one's easy: Thursday's child wears the excited anticipation of the coming festivities. Sunday's embarrassed clown is what she realizes herself to be after having seen and recognized the folly of empty revelry.

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when midnight comes | Reviewer: Hugo | 1/1/10

In addition to what is already said below, I would like to remark that the phrase 'And where will she go, and what shall she do when midnight comes around' reminds me of the Cinderella story of the Grimm brothers.

It's about the difficulty to express your true self, isn't it ;-)

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Thursday | Reviewer: Anonymous | 11/15/09

I recall back in the late sixties that people used to say "It's Thursday today", implying something erotic or sexual. I never quite got what. I have always thought of this song in that context. Or possibly Monday as the "dreary first day", Thursday as the promise of the weekend coming, and Sunday as teh spent week, the end. These can, of course be seen from the point of view of a life - childhood, adolescence, and approaching old age, or as before a relationship, impending relationship and endof relationship. Certainly the feeling of the temporariness of everything is very present.

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existential is right | Reviewer: Jay | 8/19/09

I agree with all the meanings people have found so far.
When I first heard this, it spoke to me immediately, in a way connected to, but also separate from all those meanings. An earlier poster said the song is "about an existential dread, or an anxiety of time. the fear of getting old and being young and trying to always look fresh and beautiful". That's how I read the core meaning too, with "all tomorrows parties" being both a literal reference to the parties to come, and a strong metaphor for our increasingly futile attempts to hide from pain and mortality through distraction and drugs, as time wears on. It's a song of mourning for the future loss of a youth that has yet to be completed, but whose coming loss casts a pall back in time, ruining what should be the enjoyment of a golden time.

I agree with George's assessment right up until the last verse (or two?) of the song. I think the ending is saying that if she's going to cry about not being cool at a party she deserves to be despised (i.e. the rags and mourning shroud suit or "fit" her). There's a cruel recursiveness to it - she cries because she can't dress "cool", and is despised and dismissed all the more for crying. It seems like she'd get more respect if she held her head high. But probably not much more. How much of this song is intended to reflect back on the Warhol crowd, rather than the girl herself? What does it tell us about that crowd and their values?

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The ending puts a twist on it | Reviewer: Bob | 7/31/09

I agree with George's assessment right up until the last verse (or two?) of the song. I think the ending is saying that if she's going to cry about not being cool at a party she deserves to be despised (i.e. the rags and mourning shroud suit or "fit" her). There's a cruel recursiveness to it - she cries because she can't dress "cool", and is despised and dismissed all the more for crying. It seems like she'd get more respect if she held her head high. But probably not much more. How much of this song is intended to reflect back on the Warhol crowd, rather than the girl herself? What does it tell us about that crowd and their values?

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review | Reviewer: Anonymous | 7/30/09

i think you are all on the right track but it is really more about an existential dread, or an anxiety of time. the fear of getting old and being young and trying to always look fresh and beautiful. "thursday's rags" implies that the clothes of a few days ago are already old, out of trend. the girl always ends up on sunday, the last day of the week crying because she is trapped in a cycle where she is always left in hand me downs and rags. she cant keep up.

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Reference to 'the Factory'!! | Reviewer: George | 7/19/09

Apparently it's about the Warhol clique.
On Wikipedia is says that Lou Reed wrote it in reference to what he saw going on at the Factory

The 'poor girl' I think is some kind of wannabe - used to be cool but has fallen out of fashion (and fortune) with the rest of the group, who now see her as a joke (a clown).
She goes to the parties but can't really afford to. Dresses a bit tragically/unfashionable perhaps, and everyone thinks she's pathetic. Quite mean actually! But hey, it was probably the reality of some unfortunate girls' plight.

Could it be about Edie Sedgwick perhaps!?!?

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you really think its a bout a girl and a clown? | Reviewer: Peter | 7/11/09

I am pretty confident that there is no actual clown involved with the meaning of this song. the girl is the clown because she feels fake dressing up in old clothes when everyone around her is sporting the hot new fashions. she goes home and cries after because she feels like such a phony dressing up and she believes she has nothing.

but i think the real meaning of the song is that the girl shouldnt be so self conscious about her appearance or her social class. she makes herself worthy of the inadequate clothes by being so preoccupied with her appearance and making herself feel bad all of the time. the last two verses imply that by being so untruthful in the end she gets nothing and has no one there for her.

it is sad, but it has an inspirational message that the girl shouldnt have been so concerned with her appearance and should have been proud of who she was. this was a lesson nico learned coming from humble beginnings to high society.

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