"Rock Minuet" is one of the more lauded songs on the album, cited by Julian Schnabel as one of his favourite songs by Lou Reed. The song follows a straightforward riff played on guitar while Reed plays a solo over it. Strings are also used with his wife and frequent collaborator Laurie Anderson playing electric violin. The song is played in 3/4 time, mirroring the French social dance. The song explores the "unhealthy and perverse," by documenting the life of a young man and his affiliations with drugs and lurid sexual fantasies ("thrill of the needle and anonymous sex") relating it to his fathers abusive nature ("His mother on all fours, ah, with his father behind").
