ABSTRACT
Reportedly written during Reed's Velvet Underground period (1965-1970), 'Kill Your Sons' was finally recorded in March 1974, and appears as the fifth track on his solo album Sally Can't Dance. The song draws on Reed's personal experience of electroshock therapy (EST), detailing the treatments he received and revealing his Antipathy toward the psychiatric establishment that administered them. It is interesting that Reed neglects to reveal within the song lyrics the diagnosis he was given, but the reason behind his visits to Creedmore State Hospital in 1959, where at age 17 he underwent 24 electroshock treatments, has been thoroughly documented by many biographers. Fictional literary accounts based on true experience appear to share similar objectives to that of Reed's song, casting aspersion on psychiatrist's methods and revealing the covert intention behind such therapy. By the late 1960s, the time of Reed's writing 'Kill Your Sons', there had been a number of significant developments concerning psychiatry's attitude towards and treatment of homosexuality.
