Lou Reed is gone for good (1 Viewer)

For me that's heavy. Used to see him fairly often on the lower east side. I always thought New Sensations was a really underrated record. Great artist.
 
it's not much of an album, but 'What Becomes A Legend Most' is splendid.
New Sensations and New York were two albums that really defined that period of time for me.
I still listen to both, though Berlin ain't bad either. Also love the Blue Mask for Robert Quine' s guitar.
 
New Sensations and New York [...] Berlin [...] the Blue Mask [...]

I really love you, skyroo, but you're not seriously seeing 'Sensations' and 'New York' on the same level, do you?
'New York' has hardly ANY song that isn't a blast.

'Berlin' is definitely NOT "ain't bad".
It's possible to hate it, to dismiss it. (That happened when it came out and defintitely ended Lou's potential carreer as a Top-10-hitter, which he had been just before that with his [Bowie-produced] album 'Transformer'.) It's also possible to hail it. But how could this one be "ain't bad"?

I've once read, that a music-critic at that time when it came out has written (I'm quoting from my mind and also re-translating from the German): "BERLIN is like you cage-in a fistful of musicians and put them on downer drugs to produce the most dark and genius piece of depression, they're capable of." Next time you listen to it, think of this! It fits.

'Blue Mask', just as well as the following 'Legendary Hearts' (which has a most stupid cover), is IMMORTAL.
 
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that's alright babe. No surprise: I realize the '"just-fucking-with-you"-emoticon' Every morning right after waking up.

still I'd like you to think of my last post when listening to 'Berlin' the next time.

p.s.:
seems the threads have been melted now. Glued. Joined. Put together.
 
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Extremely saddened by this news. Another brilliant freak pioneer gone, and we are running out.
 
Damn! And only 71 years old. Now, there's one less Rock 'n' Roll Animal in the world. What a shame.

R.I.P. Lou
 
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I've talked about it before, but I feel I'd be remiss if I did not mention Reed's classic, Metal Machine Music. Unquestionably the greatest "fuck you" (directed toward his record company at the time) ever recorded and released. Anyone who would make a record like this is okay by me.

The Stooges did essentially the same thing five years earlier with L.A. Blues, but that was a mere five minute track, where Reed stripped away all the instruments except the guitar and fleshed out the, uh, concept to sixty-four minutes, eight seconds (or forever if you prefer, since there is a lock-groove at the end of side four) over four LP sides (also available on 8-track tape!).

FTW? Yes Dorothy, FTW.

[This video is unavailable.]
 
What gives?
I thought there would have been a few to have posted something.
One of the best shows I saw was Massey Hall was Lou with the Swimming Pool Q's opening.
One of my favourite times and albums was listening to Street Hassle in London…Ontario.
How many anthems I mean really fucking anthems have been written-Lou wrote 1
Bo Diddley
Johnny B Goode
Heart break Hotel
Hey Jude
Blowing in the Wind
Walk on the Wild Side
Smoke on the Water
Stairway to Heaven
One Love
Rock N Roll High School
Feel free to fill n the blanks
 
Never bought, or sought out, Metal Machine Music. I must have read the reviews. Luckily the back catalog of the VU got reissued with the Walk on the Wild Side 45 being a hit. (Same deal with Alice Cooper being a hit, the back catalog got back on the shelves.) So I got the four VU albums (maybe 5, Max's Kansas City was there as well) and not the Squeeze VU that didn't have Lou. Too much music business going on.

But that gave me enough ammo to do a high school presentation to a class on "contemporary sounds". If I could have found the first Stooges album I'd have done them instead but I was out of skool by then.
 
Luckily the back catalog of the VU got reissued with the Walk on the Wild Side 45 being a hit. (Same deal with Alice Cooper being a hit, the back catalog got back on the shelves.)
But WB didn't reissue those Straight albums (Pretties For You and Easy Action) after I'm Eighteen and a couple of songs from Killer made Cooper known.

I guess it depends what you mean by "hit." But I don't think the first two records were reissued for a long time (if ever?). I know they were hard to find during the mid-70s. They were so stylistically different from the "rock" Cooper records that started with Love It to Death and Killer, I don't think many people who heard School's Out on the radio would have warmed up to Pretties For You. It was just too fucking weird (which is why Zappa signed them to Straight in the first place).
 
I had the pleasure of meeting Lou a bunch of times. He lived right around the corner from where I lived for many many years, then later I got to work with him professionally, as well as Laurie A. He wasn't always a pleasure to work with (while Laurie was), but he was always always cool and he was always a pro. He will be missed. If it was still 1986 I'd walk over to east Fourth street and buy myself a bag of "hot-city" dope and shoot it up in his memory. RIP.
 
My favorite bad Lou Reed lyric from
Set The Twilight Reeling-"life is like a
mayonnaise soda".

I thought it was your ears skiroom, one of those misheard lyrics again,
like Bohemian Rhapsody; Spare him his life from the burnt sausages... is what I heard.
 
But WB didn't reissue those Straight albums (Pretties For You and Easy Action) after I'm Eighteen and a couple of songs from Killer made Cooper known.

I can't remember exactly but I did buy Pretties on cassette about the same time I bought Killer on cassette. And Easy Action in a big gatefold sleeve. It's all a blur.

Carry on with the smooching, or whatever it is you're doing.
 
About 12 years ago, I did a one-time gig where we did the whole White Light/White Heat album in order, including a long Sister Ray (it might have even been 17 minutes). I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of much of his music, but that was a very interesting musical experience and Lou Reed was a brash original, and art always needs people like that. RIP.
 
[...] Metal Machine Music. Unquestionably the greatest "fuck you" (directed toward his record company at the time) ever recorded and released. [...]
it even had been a big success - in Japan! (Who would've guessed?)
I've also once heard, that it had hit the 'classical-music'-charts back then, but don't have proof.
I had a brief period in the 90s, when I used the 3rd piece on this album to cure my hangovers. Worked pretty well sometimes.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lou a bunch of times. [...]
you serious?
 
the artist of artists:

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Personally I like Berlin and New York albums best, but can't go wrong with any Lou really.

oh, I meant solo work. All Velvets stuff is awesome!
 
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Most good art is made by people who are at odds with themselves. It shouldn't be any surprise that those people sometimes behave in contradictory ways.

As for Sounes, bad news travels faster than good news, I suppose. Maybe he aspires to be the Kitty Kelly of modern biographies.
 
If you haven't read Nick Kent's "The Dark Stuff" I highly recommend it. He's not very nice to Lou, but he's not very nice to anyone. The chapter on the Stones is the best as I recall (it's been a long time since I read it). Essentially, if you are not cool (and there is no exact definition of cool) you are kicked out of the Stones circle. And Kent finds himself outside the circle and you get the impression he knows he deserved it. As for Lou, he does describe him as someone in desperate need for recognition/press who can't understand why he's not getting it.
 

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