Search And Destroy: Lou Reed

Destroy: "His next one" has generally proven to be the correct answer.

Search: White Light, White Heat(!) Destroy: New York. Eeesh.

Bonus Search: I'm always on the lookout for a vinyl copy of Metal Machine Music, naturally.

Destroy: The live album _Take No Prisoners_ is also very funny, but only the first time through. After that's it's extremely annoying.

As for "Live in Italy" this is simply Lou's best live album, featuring the classic Quine/Saunders/Maher lineup.

Never trust anyone who might be definable as a 'hero'...

Bill

Destroy: My Love is Chemical (not as bad as hot hips, but it was already taken)

Metal Machine Music was a total Fuck you to the record company, critics and consumers. Rock N Roll suicide. He believed his best work (Berlin) was overlooked while his worst was popular. So to get revenge he decided to make an album truly bad. The concept, cover and joke deserve a 10 out of 10. "My week beats your year." - classic.

Even at his worst (Mistrial), he had a great video of a robot tearing off the latex "flesh" from its face. Magic and Loss can strain one patience but there are truly beautiful moments on that album. Also not a big fan of Growing up in Public, Legendary Hearts, Rock N Roll Heart.

Disco Mystic off of the Bells is great. you can laugh and get down at the same time.

BTW, Ecstacy is BRILLIANT... cover to cover... It should be the Number One record of the decade.

'Berlin'

Oh, almost fell asleep with just that :

'Berlin'

Anyways...'Berlin' is (in my humble opinion) easily one of Lou's greatest achievements. Side two (in particular) is truly near flawless. And that in and of itself deserves attention from any serious rock/pop music listeners ears.

Those ARE my "true" reasons. As I stated, I was beyond tired and kept it short and sweet (as opposed to my near rants in previous posts). Anyways, "near flawless" is to mean whatever it means to each and every individual, obviously. What is a "flaw" to me may not be to you (and vice versa), of course.

Anyways, in this particular case (Lou Reed 'Berlin'): "near flawless" would mean (to me, of course) the fact that Lou was able to put on wax (record) the entire second side (other than the final track) in a near (seeing as everything has flaws, regardless of ones individual definition, nothing is perfect - doesn't exist, not in my mind anyways) flawless manner. The expressions sought (or seemingly sought - since you're clearly one for games of silly semantics) after on side two are expressed as well as I (the listener) could have hoped for them to be expressed. Which I (personally, of course) can not say the same for side one (which is riddled with flaws, in my opinion).

Hope that helps. If not, don't expect another reprise.

Now, it's only fair that YOU (sir) further elaborate on your VERY scantily written response to the original question: Search and Destroy-Lou Reed (of course, I chose to focus my response on 'Berlin'...you don't have to, though - in case you were not aware of this).

*By the way, rock (along with anything/everything else in life) isn't MEANT to be "flawed" nor "flawless". It is whatever the individual views it to be (reality is...that there isn't a concrete reality - dig?).

*Also, a part of Lou's appeal IS that he and his music, etc, are "flawed" (opinion depending of course, Mr. Semantic...or...is that Mr. Grainofsalt).

I don't get much out of "Berlin" - it's got my favourite LR song on though ("Sad Song") which seems to crystallise the exhaustion and frustration of the rest of the record nicely, and move beyond the squalid specifics of the rest of the album (which are OK in a short- story way but don't move me) to something more universal. But I'm a sucker for the universal.

Anyways.

However, from what I gather and/or feel: Side two (again, I'll just stick with the half that I, personally, prefer) is just complete and utter despair and helplessness (which you've, I'm sure, already figured out). From the fact that violence can no longer control the situation nor can drugs on "Caroline Says II" to having kids being taken away to his loss of control of his gal in "The Kids" to the suicide in "The Bed" to the final cut "Sad Song" ending (appropriately, though this is my least favorite of the second side, it's still a fine track) with the male lead of the album dealing with his over-all "railroading" (or his dealing with the truth of his gal not measuring up to his wants/needs/wishes/whatever) - which probably means that he, himself, is simply not facing the facts about himself (Lou?).

Just a life (lives, actually) completely and utterly spun (not spinning, but already spun) out of any semblance of control. Which some of us (unfortunately) can relate to, on some level, such depths of darkness or human suffering. Which is what I meant by "near flawless expression". To/for me, side two just hits the deepest-darkness moments in life right on the head (bullseye) - as far as the expression or feeling. Albeit ULTRA dark moments (which, luckily, most of us have to take in a more abstract sense in order to relate to).

But, yea...see I'm just the opposite of you - I very much prefer the short story details (whether in song or literature, etc). Regardless of how downright unbearable they may be (such is the case on side two, in particular).

Well, I know that my galfriend can't freakin stand the album. She just couldn't take the amount of hatred and misery she felt from it. Which I find somewhat liberating in some odd (maybe even perverse) way.

I tht I did Reed already: can't find it here, musta been on another thread.
SO: metal machine music = ok by me; the rest = ok by me, but I wouldn't agitate to impede their destruction by Xtian fundie vinyl- pyre.

Don't stop digging through these ancient threads!! Don't even slow down!! I wuv to see what piffle I wuz dropping back in the day (= May).

Studio - Magic & Loss. Lou doesn't lose his humour on this one. Very, very touching lyrics. For the subject adequate minimal low-key instrumentation.

N.B. I guess this was the first S&D. Rather short I think. Btw I just found out (but you probably all know) that "Search & Destroy" was a song on "Raw Power" by The Stooges.

Destroy: The Bells. Not only is his voice incredibly wavery and flatulent on this one. I dare anyone to truly "get down" to "Disco Mystic". Unless they meant suffer immediate depression.

Oh, and if you really wanna Search, just get the box set. A listenable survey of a chap I'm too young and too unworshipping of NYC to appreciate beyond those sweet, sweet Velvets.

Tripple destroy: Metal Machine Music.

$25 at the Django's in Portland, Oregon a few weeks ago.

You, of course, need the 4 VU studio albums and Live: 1969.

All of his live albums that I've heard are pretty desolate.

horrible album art i'm afraid

Basically any albums with fretless bassist Fernando Saunders are great. His '80s and '90s work is overlooked.

I discovered Lou through "New York," so that will probably always be my favorite solo album. After that, probably Berlin, Transformer, and this "Master Class" bootleg (with Little Jimmy Scott) that I really need to Torrent one of these days.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/06/lou_reed_talks_his_new_radio_s.html

what a dumbass

dude are you nuts, "What are you, a fucking asshole?" is one of the all-time great interview answers

classic

classic asshole

lou reed, a real classhole

but seriously, J0hn D, you should def. try to work "What are you, a fucking asshole?" into any future interviews you do.

I think I'm gonna go with "what are you fucking, an asshole?" just to put my own special spin on it

I'm not really sure why the song "Coney Island Baby" had never made an impression on me until now, but I sure dig it.

still creepy after all these years

Holy shit, this is amazing, Paris 1974. He's got the whole new wave thing down and punk hasn't even happened yet.
&

Fopp are selling a box of 5 Lou Reed CDs for £15. I am playing the first record now. It sounds good, my hi-fi seems wired for rock! Transformer, Berlin, Sally Can't Dance, Coney Island Baby to come.

Bizarre: Mark S in summer 2001 was talking about digging through ancient threads

Those threads Egyptians to Mark S's Romans.

Does that make current ILX the Dark Ages or the Renaissance?

i think 'transformer' is a really wonderful, consistent record.

'berlin' i like, except for those plodding slow numbers at the end. lou's concept just isn't developed enough for me to buy into the tragedy of those tracks

I downloaded Hudson River Wind Meditations from emusic last month. Listening to it is like doing tai-chi without moving.

Berlin was a bit of a dissapointed i thought (when i heard it in 2005) I am still rooting for New York. Dirty Blvd is awesome :)

Rooting? Have you heard it? Don't believe the doubters, it's terrific!

Ever noticed how awesome Jack Bruce's bass parts are on Berlin?

'berlin' i like, except for those plodding slow numbers at the end.

!!! the last third with the slow numbers is the good part. I like the album in general but chunks of it are really dire - production/arrangements seem a bit wrong in places.

but if we paid attention to bad arrangements and dire production we'd never listen to Lou!

don't forget the occasionally god-awful singing!

speaking of which:
yeesh.

wow

What Would An Elvis Costello/Lou Reed Collabo Sound Like?

The sound of that collabo just made a child wake up and cry.

hmm. i have a sleeping child handy, let's see if i can duplicate the result...

nope. sleeping soundly. further study required.

(i actually like that clip, but it makes me want to hear just an elvis version of it.)

I've got one light sleeper that woke up and one sound sleeper that didn't so maybe I skewed the results a little bit.

Yeah, EC makes a lot of annoying pretentious career moves, but one has to admit the guy can sing.

But that EC / Lou performance seems a mess cos Lou's chorus talking is totally out of any rhythm - even with an old pro like EC I kept wondering how he could stay in time with that noise going on.

I think I'd rather hear them both play a full rock version of 'Wild Child'. Come on! I was talking to Chuck in his Ghengiz Khan suit and his wizard's hat ...

Still trying to get the measure of the first Lou Reed solo LP, but I like it; good stereo seems to help with this 1970s material.

Kind of worth it just for the very start of the solo career: the four bashes on the drum that start 'I Can't Stand It'

Listening to New York again for first time in years. It sounds terrific! The sound clear, clean, dynamic; the voice up-front and authoritative; all the material so good before they even started. I think it's often been said - even back in 1989 - that this LP's topical lyrical references would come to seem very dated - but that doesn't feel like a problem: a lot of it just isn't dated, and what is seems historically interesting. Maybe this really is the best solo LP.

I've just heard Transformer in full for the first time, and boy yes it IS strong!!

coney island baby still best lou reed solo album.

Yeah, that's the one I get the most pleasure out of ... Speaking of which, check this out: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=90 for a rad version of "Kicks" with Don Cherry! Eeeyagh!

Still prefer The Blue Mask and New Sensations over the rest.

http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/lou-reed/fine-art-print/memorabilia/JSP0322-02-FP.jpg

my bro dug this up

so amused by Woodstock that tendrils grew right out of his brain.

Maybe this thread title should now be Seek & Destroy: Lou Reed, amirite?

Happy birthday, Lou!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwCwGBHd61s

Isn't that Little Lou though?

Some live albums up on Spotify from the Transformer tour. American Poet, Lou Reed Live & Wild, and Satellite of Love. All the same tracks though, some just have the stage patter edited out. Some real good versions, I especially like the Sweet Jane one.

xp that's from after Lou left the band and Doug Yule took over. Bowie made the same mistake though.

It was no mistake...

american poet is awesome, maybe one of my fave lou reed recordings ever. wayyyyyy different sound than the r&r animal stuff that followed.

also a number of interesting lou shows up on wolfgang's vault. was just listening to this weird one: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/lou-reed-and-moogy-klingman-band/concerts/kansas-city-memorial-hall-may-02-1973.html
features moogy klingman of todd rundgren fame! of all people.

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu4k3hFxia1qgu4c9o1_500.jpg

speaking of that album, i'm reading that history of 70s NYC music and the author claims that it's lou in drag on the back cover. i'd heard that before as a rumor, but thought it was just a myth.
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4120/4794105448_da1812d416_b.jpg
that's not lou on the left is it? doesn't really look like him.

that is absolutely not Lou. Facial features aside, Lou doesn't have those legs gimme a break.

but if lou's also the one on the right then he's checking himself out which kind of makes sense

It was no mistake...

― dlp9001, Monday, March 5, 2012 2:20 PM

I didn't think so. Why then?

Lou Reed inspires name of new spider

this Bockris book is hilarious

Nico same late, as usual. Lou said 'Hello,' to her in a rather cold way, but just 'Hello,' or something. She simply stood there. You could see she was waiting to reply, in her own time. Ages later, out of the blue, came her first words. "I cannot make love to Jews anymore.'

this book is very poorly edited

repeated quotes, wrong dates, "lead singer of Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner" etc

yeah it's a jumble for sure. some great stories, but not a great book. would love it if someone else tackled the life of lou. in that classic albums doc on transformer, one of the dude's is listed as lou's "biographer" -- i forget his name. but it seemed like he was the "official" biographer.

it's very heavy on the "dirt", so to speak, plus interview quotes from Lou, which are all quite funny. But yeah as with many other out-sized, cantankerous figures (James Brown, Dylan, etc.) sort of expect the definitive bio will have to wait til he's dead to be written.

true, tho i hold out hope that lou will write a memoir. it would be hilariously un-revealing, i'm sure.
the biographer guy was Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, who did the documentary a few years ago, Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart. so i assume he's not writing a book.

lol would totally read self-serving, bitchy Lou autobio

totally, though i kind of imagine if he did it, it'd just be the same ol stories he's trotted out for decades now.
maybe this exists, but i haven't seen it -- is there like a "Lou Reed Reader" out there, collecting the best interviews/articles about Lou over the past five decades? Some of his best work.

from a fairly recent interview, man is this the ever-lovin truth:

It seems this country, in particular, is geared to turning people into nostalgia acts. Everything moves really quickly here. It’s really based around 14-year-olds, and that’s kind of that. People get older and they stop buying records, really. And it’s like a vicious circle. They stop making records because there’s nothing there for them. So they don’t buy any records. And it’s not on radio, so they can’t hear it. So it becomes this insulated little thing, out of an endless series of things aimed at 14-year-olds. I don’t have anything against 14-year-old people. I was 14. And I think that’s great. It’s just that music is so wonderful, it’s kind of extraordinary to gear it only to children.

I was 14 when I bought my first copy of The VU & Nico.

the Bockris book is so terrible. Shit smells better. If you enjoy the quotes in isolation (the Quine stuff, for example; the stuff with Lou's late seventies drummer) it's tolerable. He even takes Lou at face value re the bomb that was Berlin ("My heart died" -- no heart to die).

dubious assertions abound, no doubt about that. but Lou Reed bios are slim pickings.

oh that's why I read it cover to cover in the mid nineties

for years it was in the remaindered books section of every B&N in the country.

Bockris' shameless self-promotion doesn't really help things (for ex. including a photo of the cover of his book about the Velvet Underground, captioned as "the book that rekindled interest in VU in the 80s" uh yeah right bro)

Well, fair's fair, it did that for me, if you're meaning "Uptight"...

I gave away my copy of Uptight by accident eight years ago which still bugs me

trying to figure out what era Lou this is
https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/548115_409792479071179_1787511890_n.jpg
nice shoes.

also, the "is that lou in drag/is that lou" myth is addressed in the transformer classic album doc. not lou. also, lou claims a banana was stuffed in the guy's pants.

^^^important info, i know.

xxp Early 70's, the photo is by Mick Rock, IIRC it was taken in a London hotel.

yeah, the black fingernail polish suggests sometime around transformer. feel like i haven't actually seen that many color photos of lou from that period, looks kinda weird.

another photo from the same shoot...
http://www.ablogcuratedby.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/loureed.jpg

1972.
Also lol at Lou's Marlboro habit - that's probably two days supply there.

Possibly the shoot was for Rolling Stone magazine, because again IIRC it was from the period just before Rock stopped interviewing people and decided to concentrate on taking pictures. A choice Lou quote from the article was something like (from memory so it's probably not entirely right) "I'm so boring really. I never write about myself. I'm not interested in my problems or attitudes, 'cause other people's are so much funnier. I need New York City to feed off of. I'll go out and do things and build up new characters to write about."

oh lou, if we've learned anything over the years, you're never boring.

It's a real Warhol thing to say.

is there like a "Lou Reed Reader" out there

Not exhaustive, and only covers the three mid 70's interviews (as well as a whole load of other non-Lou stuff that nevertheless is still well worth read), but the Lester Bangs compilation book 'Psychotic Reactions & Carburettor Dung' is worth a read. I really got a sense of what LR was like, especially from the 'fight' interview. Whereas the Bockris bio is boring, just a bunch of disconnected names and dates plus some not-very-dirty dirt that pretty much could have been about any slightly sleazy 70's rock star.

And Bockris himself reminds me of the boring teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
His Warhol bio is almost as bad - the only thing that saves it from being a total zzz-fest is the sheer larger-than-life craziness of Warhol's entourage and followers.

wow great photo find there tyler

the Bockris book is poorly assembled but I wouldn't call it boring. it's been very informative on a number of points, at least for me

yeah i've read the bangs anthologies, very fun reed-ing. just thought there could be a more expanded book of interviews -- LOU SPEAKS or something.

There's the Velvet Underground Reader, but the big interviews in it are w/ Moe & Sterling.

yeah i just want all lou! should i be pitching this to a publisher? it'd sell dozens!

you guys have all seen this, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npqGHknpbyM

his assholishness is pretty forgiveable in situations like this (similar to Dylan) where it's just abundantly clear that he's dealing with morons who are baiting him/don't get what he's doing/don't take music seriously

it's so weird that he didn't play guitar for so much of the 70s and tried to do some kind of awkward "singer" thing instead. he's so awkward and semi-incompetent as a frontman.

(speaking of live performances there fwiw)

Sterling Morrison said he'd started doing that towards the end of the Velvets, indulging in lame Jaggerisms - under pressure from Steve Sesnick, according to Sterl

would love it if someone else tackled the life of lou

The Peter Doggett biography of Lou Reed has good things in it, tho he is kind of a boring writer and I vehemently disagree with some of his opinions (e.g. that "Loaded" is some sort of throwaway Ruben + the Jets tongue-in-cheek thing)

indulging in lame Jaggerisms - under pressure from Steve Sesnick, according to Sterl

viktor bockris is a hack but here's john cale in 1996:

Victor Bockris' biography of Reed, "Transformer", says that his parents tried to "cure" him of some of his personality traits by having him undergo electroshock therapy. Do you think that's true?

I know it's true. Some of that book, I don't know how he got it. No one in the band participated-- that was one of the terms of going out on tour. I think Lou has a certain problem with the truth. 90% of that book is true.

if lou shot up half the amount of speed that bockris attributes to him during 1974-75 it's a miracle he's still alive

you can listen to some episodes of lou's radio show w/ hal wilner on the bbc - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ngqgq
kind of fun.

http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com

This looks interesting, Lou DJ's on WPIX in 1979, with guest John Cale (who performs in studio, I think?)

I heard that when it was first broadcast. I believe I was about 14 at the time. Somebody on an another thread was complaining that there was some malware called "WPIX" and I was wondering how it ever got that name.

"Quentin Crisp, Naked Public Servant" ... unless Lou's right and that's what it was called in the US

that sendspace link insatalled something called 'easylifeapp' on my pc which i still haven't manged to remove, even after running malwarebytes.

Guess the right link is the one that says "Click here to start download from sendspace." Mouseover and you will see WPIX.zip. Don't click on the eight other things that say "Download."

i see.

I also clicked on another one first. It waited a few seconds and then said "Your download is ready. Please click to get it" at which point I backtracked and looked a little harder for the right link.

"I want to talk to that fucking Reed man why did his download fuck up my computer"

Ha, I actually discussed that on a fourth thread: PIX! PIX! PIX! PIX!! PIX!!!!!

sorry about the malware dudes. i normally don't use sendspace but mediafire wasn't allowing this one.

hmm

hope he's okay

yeahhh, saw that. wondering if he just got bumped in favor of daft punk or something.

http://www.alfredo-roma.it/galleria/data/images/lou_reed.jpg

i'll forgive anything of a man who co-wrote Drella. can't believe there's still no DVD of the live film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isl-5L0Jf5M

Lou Reed recovering after liver transplant

Lou Reed, the US songwriter, poet and vocalist with the Velvet Underground, had a liver transplant last month, according to his wife, the musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson.

"It's as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don't get it for fun," said Anderson, who added that her husband was now on the road to recovery following the life-saving surgery.

Reed, 71, cancelled a number of concerts in April and had surgery in Cleveland rather than in his native New York due to what Anderson described as the "dysfunctional" hospitals in his home town. She said in an interview with the Times: "I don't think he'll ever totally recover from this, but he'll certainly be back to doing things in a few months. He's already working and doing t'ai chi. I'm very happy. It's a new life for him."

Wow

How long do new livers last for?

Should see him through.

Lou says:
"I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry. I am bigger and stronger than stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regimen has served me well all of these years, thanks to Master Ren Guang-yi. I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future."
lol! never stop, lou!

Lol love you Lou

I WILL OUTLIVE ALL OF YOU DIPSHITS

the operation was performed in Cleveland to facilitate the transfer of Lou's liver to a display tank at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

lou must've packed a lot of drinking into the 60s-70s - he's been sober for 30+ years, I think!

search: lou's drum machine & noise guitar cover of "solisbury hill" by peter gabriel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2PL4rmz-X4

I was on a radio station at the weekend and got the DJ to play "The Power of Positive Drinking" as a tribute to Lou.

at the GQ men of the year awards
https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1280855_10151891415170953_1644506334_n.jpg

"hey, it's Walk On The Wild Side! Whatcha been up to?"

Miss Judy's Heroin Farm

is Lou holding a water pistol?

that's the GQ lifetime achievement award, alfred, come on! but yeah, it is a water pistol.

that is a lifesize silicone replica of Lars Ulrich's brain

"tai chi? i think keef gave me an ounce of that once"

legendary farts

actually had a little trouble ID-ing the dude on the left here
https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1234144_10151891521340953_674454303_n.jpg

really?

i'd recognize mickey dolenz anywhere

Lou rapidly approaching "men who look like old lesbians" territory

i'd recognize mickey dolenz anywhere
ha, that's what i thought at first! and then i was like ... jonathan demme? i dunno, maybe i haven't seen enough recent pics of jimmy page...

yeah jimmy should actually be glad if music fans don't immediately associate him with that haircut yet

Ha, at Twelve-String Monkee. Would have misidentified him too, except just saw that photo with QOTSA, and even then...

My first thought at seeing that Lou Reed photo with Ronnie was, "Damn, Elvis Costello looks like hell!" Then I realized it was Lou and thought he looked good considering his rough year.

EC hides a makeup kit in his porkpie.

https://sphotos-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1234581_10151891396755953_1767081249_n.jpg

Dianne Wiest as Laurie Anderson

It was nice of Sally Jesse Raphael to say Hi to EC and Diane.

sally jesse, terry gross, dianne wiest

George Clooney, Sally Jesse, Terry Gross, Dianne Wiest

I WILL OUTLIVE ALL OF YOU DIPSHITS

LOL

what the hell?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BdppmEzyrE

That's from the 1973 Hendrix doc.

didn't know there was such a thing

yeah that's from this
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c6/Jimi_Hendrix_film_poster.jpg/220px-Jimi_Hendrix_film_poster.jpg
hendrix came to see the VU at the whisky circa 1968 iirc.

http://www.richieunterberger.com/vu.2nd.html

re VU interactions with Hendrix and other big name 60s rockers

RIP

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lou-reed-velvet-underground-leader-and-rock-pioneer-dead-at-71-20131027

the hell

While its probably true, waiting for some other site to confirm it, esp since the rs post has so little detail and so much bio it reads like an obit on file

:'-(

holy shit...i was worried that either lou or bowie would pass on this year. very sad.

fuck :( RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isl-5L0Jf5M

AHHHHH NOOOOOOOO

The Velvet Underground & Nico only sold a few thousand copies, but everyone who bought it has a grandkid who will ask "Who is Lou Reed?" on Twitter today.

He's hanging out with Bimble and Doc Pomus now.

i was lucky enough to see the Velvets at Glastonbury 1993, first band i ever saw on the Pyramid Stage. it was a scorchingly hot sunny day, Lou was in a bad mood, it was brilliant.

he's in that Pomus documentary, tot worth seeing btw

Damn, I am really sad. rip Lou, you were the best.

My favourite Lou interview:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/may/19/artsfeatures.popandrock

Been meaning to see that documentary, I believe Lou is the one who reads from Doc's journals. Would be kind of extra-emotional to watch it now, I guess.

Damn, this is really sad news.

If you like that kind of interview you should read the book in which Luis Buñuel is interviewed by two Mexican film professors, Objects of Desire.

Major loss. RIP Lou. This is a sad sad day for music

how is this not a new thread?

RIP

See ILE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjPuF-CYuic

Times obit

Wow. I never think death when I see a thread at the top. But I just went on Facebook, saw two Reed-related posts, and there it is. I will be checking network newscasts tonight and tomorrow to see if they lead with this. Yes, I count him as that important.

(By "him," I really mean the Velvet Underground.)

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24697765

RIP

A liver transplant is never a good sign, but I was still surprised by the news and surprised how sad it's made me. RIP Lou.

RIP. Never really thought he was gonna die

he's in that Pomus documentary, tot worth seeing btw

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Sunday, October 27, 2013 6:

Was just watching a press copy of this the other night (it's gonna show in W. D.C. one night only November 5th at the DC JCC. Lou does read Pomus' journals in it, and he's seen hanging out with him. Two quintessential New Yorkers

Banner headline on CNN.com right now; sub-head is "Founded the Velvet Underground."

The Velvets tackled taboo topics like drug addiction, paranoia and sexual deviancy, according to their bio page on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site.

Rock mythology has it that even though they were around only for a few years, everyone who went to a Velvet Underground concert went out and started a band.

this is not even the right version of the myth

Funny, I pulled out Coney Island Baby last night to play this afternoon.

Now that album sounds terribly depressing.

Rest well, Lou.

oh, holy shit. poor laurie anderson.

listening to the so-straightforward-it's-unsettling "the mask" LP right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xduERw9BSns

"the blue mask" i mean.

love when Quine steps back and lets Reed solo in "The Blue Mask."

and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxTHXyL0vg

damn

I really love the idea of Bimblw finally getting to meet Lou; thx James Redd

!

White against white, Black against Jew
it seems like it's 1942
the baby sits in front of MTV
watching violent fantasies
While Dad guzzles beer with his favorite sport
only to find his heroes are all coked up
classic, original, the same old story
the politics of hate in a new surrounding
Hate if it's good and hate if it's bad
and if this all don't make you mad
I'll keep yours and I'll keep mine
nothing sacred and nothing divine
Father, bless me, we're at full throttle
better check that sausage, before you put it in the waffle
and while you're at it better check that batter
make sure the candy's in the Original Wrapper

gutted, RIP

Too soon. So apt he left us on a Sunday morning.

Was Lulu the last thing he recorded? I hope not.

I'm happy it is! Bowing out with a middle finger.

he liked lulu, by all accounts. i think that's enough.

Lulu is great. I can't really express what meant to me, as a songwriter and just as a figure....RIP. I thought you were enough of an ornery bastard to live forever.

BTW the tai chi meditation album he did a couple years ago is kind of a coo ambient drone record

His death was the second story on ABC news tonight, with a seemingly random assemblage of non-peak footage.

Has christgau weighed in?

Has christgau weighed in?

i wanne be a singer like lou reed
i like lou reed

i had a sudden urge to put on 'Pale Blue Eyes' last night. spooky. RIP. hitting me in waves

I Heard Her Call My Name - just played this LOUD and it was the greatest thing. Rest well you glorious grumpy bastard.

lolVH1, but I really like this version without drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZRxjpxccF0

thefish649Aug 11, 2010
Lou Reed wanted seinfeld's hair, seinfeld's hair wanted Lou reed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0isUxJaA0G4

this is killing me

btw the cool wow can you believe how shitty it is that lulu was his last album wow comments are so terrible and beside the point, can you imagine dying thinking you had recently performed your best work lyrically? that's the ideal imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yQC4XTVdHw

I'm in the middle of writing an obit so I've said little but a remark: did anyone else come out thanks to "Some Kinda Love"? I have him to thank.

I wonder if/when we'll hear from Mo, Cale, and Bowie?

best part in please kill me

You see, Lou and Nico had some kind of affair, both consummated and constipated, during the time he wrote these psychological love songs for her like "I'll Be Your Mirror" and "Femme Fatale." When it fell apart, we really learnt how Nico could be the mistress of the destructive one-liner. I remember one morning we had gathered at the Factory for a rehearsal. Nico came in late, as usual. Lou said hello to her in a rather cold way. Nico simply stood there. You could see she was waiting to reply, in her own time. Ages later, out of the blue, came her first words: "I cannot make love to Jews anymore."

ok this one maybe more apt:

Lou Reed: Rock & roll is so great, people should start dying for it. You don't understand. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream. A whole generation running with a Fender bass... The people just have to die for the music. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music? Die for it. Isn't it pretty? Wouldn't you die for something pretty? Perhaps I should die. After all, all the great blues singers did die. But life is getting better now. I don't want to die. Do I?

huge RIP. was very shook when i found out. they were playing Loaded at a record store today and i didn't even know why but i had a real moment listening to new age. loved this guy on so many levels: as a songwriter & vocalist, punk icon, also as like a mythical character; the electroshock therapy, how he's always said to be this crabby mean prick... so cool

i hope all the jamokes who called 'lulu' unlistenable feel sorry now

ecstasy is the best fucking record, jesus

maaaaaaaad
you just make me maaaaad

did anyone else come out thanks to "Some Kinda Love"? I have him to thank.

Not exactly but a young me got turned on by this misheard lyric:

For a bore is a straight line
That finds a wealth in division
And some kinds of love
Are mistaken for fission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeM6UqtGBdM

xgau: http://www.spin.com/articles/lou-reed-robert-christgau-toesucker-blues/

I wonder if/when we'll hear from Mo, Cale, and Bowie?

CNN was talking to Mo by phone

http://jcofficialnews.tumblr.com/

RIP. I can still remember the first time I ever heard "Sunday Morning". It was like being transported to a cosmic womb.

Wonder how Jonathan Richman is taking this?

Listening to this Satellite of Love Live album which is pretty good but can't find any info about who is playing on it or when and where it was recorded. Just cheesy cover art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-c8brLf2HQ

fave krautrock lou:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkG3zMf19A

Wonder how Jonathan Richman is taking this?

Crossed my mind too.

Alfred does the business:

http://thequietus.com/articles/13708-lou-reed-obituary

Lou Reed is not dead.

short but sweet from John Cale

http://werksman.home.xs4all.nl/cale/index.html

if anyone fancies seeing the 'Transformer' episode of Classic Albums it's here and is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ilcorvojoe/search?query=lou

Was meaning to recommend that.

Alfred does the business:

http://thequietus.com/articles/13708-lou-reed-obituary

― Ned Raggett, Monday, October 28, 2013 6:57 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Beautiful piece.

who tells that Nico story in Please Kill Me?

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1385415_10152603133192137_768662356_n.jpg

Alfred nailed it.

He sure did. Haven't read Christgau in Spin yet. Saw on twitter that Geeta D. was busy preparing something last night. Not sure where that is gonna run.

Lou Reed RIP

That the ILE link

another link; some genius has uploaded the live '.. Drella' show to YouTube (still unavailable on DVD!) which is even better than the album version IMO. some amazing chemistry going on between Cale and Reed here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djwtXCzW5BY

nice! yeah that is really good and def better than the album

As for the notorious LULU, of course it's terrible, but that's beside the point.

yeah, i just don't get music criticism. Nice piece though.

I pre-emptively celebrated Lou Reed's life by playing Metal Machine Music in a fairly crowded older-person's dive bar on Friday. By minute 12 of the squalling industrial racket, I looked around as if I was confused and irritated (like everyone else was) so no one would point the finger at me.

Haha that's great! Like the sonic equivalent of "hey, who farted? (it was me)"

Alfred's dismissal of "Transformer" and "Berlin" irks me but otherwise a decent article.

Great article, AS.

Klosterman:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9892086/remembering-lou-reed

Klosterman ugh so terrible

hey look at this
http://www.missionmission.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/giffer.gif

our geeta:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/10/lou_reed_s_metal_machine_music_the_artist_was_a_rock_god_he_was_also_a_big.html

Dean Wareham:

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/28/dean_wareham_on_lou_reed_velvet_underground_seemed_to_appear_fully_formed_beyond_influence/

"Something Happened" an unheralded track from the Permanent Record soundtrack: http://youtu.be/q01kmT8iDYs

The prime example is 1974’s live album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal,” which features Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter on guitar, playing dazzling über-rock reworkings of Velvets songs. Many V.U. purists hate this album — it appeals more to stoners and Deadheads — and yet was also a Saturday night staple for many partying teenagers and aspiring punks in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s

It's his best-selling album before New York, and I heard its version of "Sweet Jane" on AOR in the eighties, but does this memory coincide with yours?

Bought it because Xgau recommended it, seem to remember hearing it on the radio once or twice. But, as a purist, I never really warmed up to it

the live version of "Heroin" is my favorite.

as in: my favorite on a live Lou album.

both those live albums rule so much to me but i love dick and steve so much. vicious and satellite of love on lou reed live are probably my two favorites actually. as far as the material from the two albums.

Think I'd rather listen to Eat A Peach.

they are such big rock records though. detroit rock city lou. i love that about them.

and things changed quickly in lou world. its not like he toured like that forever. before you know it its jazzy sax and don cherry and lenny bruce and god knows what else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRoBbusqM7M

so much fun!

Fun too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GwPyBHMOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1GwPyBHMOs

excellent piece alfred.

i'm sort of shocked at how bad klosterman's article is.

H8 klosterman to bits but "Some art is real" still beats out that"the world is poorer" lit-cliche bullshit

yeah but statements like this: "He proved that the only thing that truly mattered about an artist was the art' are as meaningless and corny as it gets

I don't disagree with what Klosterman says per se, but it's a really awful piece.

has ilx polled the velvet underground albums yet? i can't find anything.

wait, found it. Favourite Velvet Underground album (with extra facility) Surprised the self-titled (not the debut) beat White Light / White Heat.

LOU REED, 71″ by Byron Coley

LOU REED, 71

the easiest heroes are consistent
but the ones who really shape us
are random maniacs
whose work we stumble across
at times in our lives
we desperately need misdirection

and so it was i met the music of lou reed
through a guy named buzz
who’d bought the first velvets album
but didn’t like it
just the way he hadn’t liked the first mothers album
a month earlier
which meant i got each for a buck

there is literally no way to describe
the way that record hit me
i was a ten year old seventh grader
and the first time i played the album
i was transformed into someone else
someone who knew more than my contemporaries
even if i couldn’t quite shake it all out

lou and john and sterling and moe
gave me much more info
than i could understand
but they did it in a way
i loved so intuitively
with music exploding in such amazing directions
it made sense on a molecular level

and through the years i followed lou
good scenes, bad scenes, he put us through it all
but we kinda paid attention
because, after all
this motherfucker
this lou reed

this electroshocked cocksucking bastard
who put out many more lousy records than good
was the father of everyone i’ve ever known
and i never thought he’d die
and i really miss him

more than i ever thought i would

— Byron Coley

here's a little roundup of some lesser known classics that i wrote today:
http://vulture.com/2013/10/10-great-lesser-known-lou-reed-songs.html
[some of these might not be lesser known to y'all, but the idea was to go beyond the "big" tracks]
also this: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/65300804048/lou-no-way-i-can-possibly-sum-up-what-lou-reed
still really reeling about this, definitely the most upset I've ever been by a celebrity death...may have something to do with the fact that my dad is pretty much the same age and has been dealing with health problems as well.

Obviously on a Lou Reed kick at the mo...just downloaded the Stockholm 74 boot...my god it's great...Lou backed by Funkadelic...love it...

Wait, what?

excellent piece alfred.

― (emphasis Treeship's) (Treeship),

thanks!

Listening to Metal Machine Music for the very first time at time moment. Way less scary, and perhaps even way more melodic, than I've been led to believe.

just don't play it for your dog.

Play it for someone else's.

my friend matt krefting is THE number one lou fan i know and this is really good and sweet:

http://kreftingmoondawn.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/how-do-you-think-it-feels-and-when-do-you-think-it-stops/

That's a good one indeed. Thanks for sharing it!

very nice, thanks scott

Krefting nailed it. Wonderful piece. He's easily the biggest Lou fan I know, and he was the first person I thought of when I heard of Lou's passing.

Lou backed by Funkadelic...love it...

Assuming this is hyperbole. I think there are a couple session guys (Prakash John?) who played for both Lou and Funkadelic in the 70s tho.

Yes, Prakash John played with both

listened to Set the Twilight Reeling today for the first time, it's really wonderful. like the sound of the band, and the songs are well built yet slightly eccentric.

Isn't it a good album? A shame the acclaim M&L got wasn't swapped for STTR's.

yeah it feels assured in a way...though he undercuts the autumnal feel of the album in a hilarious and very lou way by dropping sex with your parents (motherfucker) in the middle haha....but i really liked all the songs and the production (which has been a problem for post-peak lou) is really solid and not gimmicky in the least.

Yeah I was being slightly ironic but I don't remember 'Sweet Jane' being that funky and Michael Fanfara sounds like Bernie Worrell...a really great boot...

Went and looked up the setlist for the Bowery Ballroom show I saw. Yup, it was good.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lou-reed/2003/bowery-ballroom-new-york-ny-2bd0c03a.html

matt's piece got huffpoed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-krefting/lou-reed_b_4178090.html

I saw that! So cool!

Woke up to this on Gawker just a bit ago.

I cried.

shit!

I wonder how much play "Halloween Parade" wil lget today... and if anyone else will get stopped by that "talkin' sp*c" line? Never heard that one on the street.

VV cover feature written by a bunch of anonymous newbies, but at least they reran their original review of VU&N:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/10/the_voice_1967_review_velvet_underground.php

there could even be some Lou costumes out tonight
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1002572_10152306206477729_1964649864_n.jpg

credit to Head Gardener at CaB

except that's tim curry? (i get the feeling i'm likely missing the point..)

Been re-listening to that WPIX show today. So great! I want Lou Reed to school me on doo-wop and early rock n roll.

Seeing as how that t-shirt of Hendrix with "Bob Marley" underneath it has proved to be a big seller, the new one with the pic of Iggy and "Lou Reed" underneath it is a shot to nowt, really.

http://s3.unlike.net/photos/0056/8649/kiss.jpg
http://www.roguemag.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mumford-and-sons-logo.png

(Who has to die for this t-shirt to be a goer?)

is that a fake Ace Frehley?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/opinion/sunday/when-backstage-was-no-big-deal.html

In 1967, after a falling out with their mentor Andy Warhol, the Velvets moved their music to Boston, where they would play a hall on Berkeley Street called the Boston Tea Party. They’d do a few nights a week every couple months or so. You’d pay three bucks and hear them play two long sets. And almost no one came. There’d be maybe 40 people on a good night. And generally the same 40 people night after night, including one girl who always showed up in a wedding dress.

k-lassic interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z509KPb9cxE

Playing in front of a Syracuse University fraternity house in 1961 or 1962.
http://dailyorange.com/resize/602/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/11042013_N_LouReed_FilePhoto.jpg

From a recent article in the university's student newspaper, the Daily Orange. Favorite quote: “Lou was a prick."
http://dailyorange.com/2013/11/ill-be-your-mirror-lou-reeds-time-at-su-shapes-career-as-music-legend/

TBH I prefer:

"He’d be asleep under 300 pounds of pistachio nut shells, because Lou loved pistachios..."

in that PBS special Lou says "i played with terrible bands in school, we changed our name every month bcz no one would knowingly hire us twice"

Those Syracuse Alumni reminiscences are nice but they are not a patch on the pants of Tony the Bartender hanging out at the Boston Tea Party.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/167282687/rip-lou-reed-shirt-silver-shirt?utm_source=OpenGraph&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

At least that appears to be intentional.

pretty good news i think -- i really loved Hermes' love goes to buildings book - http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/will-hermes-to-write-lou-reed-biography/?smid=nytimesarts

just heard him on NPR review the Peter Gabriel tribute album.

Thought I'd post this here, from Lou Reed's songwriting stint in the Pickwick label:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGzmAwK6iM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh6k88j4TxI

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2rY_cYub2bQ/UjCor_MKSJI/AAAAAAAAD1g/YMpfgTUEc6s/s1600/00501.jpg

Can someone get william h. Macy to perform Take No Prisoners as old lou plz

done

hmmm not convinced, but the second track is a vague possibility? http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_shades_is_this_mystery_acetate_lou_reeds_lost_first_recordings

https://medium.com/cuepoint/a-family-in-peril-lou-reed-s-sister-sets-the-record-straight-about-his-childhood-20e8399f84a3

yeah, very interesting. another account from another woman in lou's life: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/bettye-kronstad-speaks-for-the-first-time-about-her-marriage-to-lou-reed-fame-is-a-fiend-it-turns-people-into-monsters-10166659.html

lol great URL]

amazing pics in both of these
https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/2000/1*WCToddDffYZRlJn97x4SjA.png
http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10167803.ece/alternates/w460/Bettye-Kronstad.jpg

His sister's article is interesting and it mostly confirms what I've always thought about Lou's childhood...tho massive lols at this quote

"In later years, Lou spoke of being beaten up routinely after school at Freeport Junior High School, which boasted a number of gangs at the time. However, our next door neighbor told me, years later, that Lou was challenging, unfriendly, provocative even, daring him to “cross that line onto my property and you’ll see what happens.”"

Lou was challenging, unfriendly, provocative even

why, this doesn't sound like Lou at all!

ah of course she became a family therapist!

amazing pics in both of these

don't forget the big one at the very top of the article! january 1966, performing at a clinical psychiatry convention.

haha yeah, lou was probably seething at all of those psychiatrists.

alternate universe where lou became a scientologist because of his hatred of psychiatry

Wasn't that with the VU, with Andy & Co prowling the audience with mics asking the shrinks embarrassing questiosn?

Said Hey, Babe:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transgender-icon-holly-woodlawn-fights-806919?utm_source=twitter

Hearing this one for the first time today. Late-period Lou with the Blind Boys of Alabama:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-7CbhezVk8

Such a weird record iirc, put it on and sounds great then suddenly a lot of weird concept tracks that don't rock and makes you wanna skip. But it's been a while maybe should revisit. Cool enough song, it's a Luluish delivery... hmm a bit off to me though, as if he's reaching too much and not nearly as convincing as his more understated stuff.

Anyway the beginning of this thread sure has some crazy posts :P

i think i listen to the raven once a year thinking i'm going to suddenly love it, but there is a lot of kinda bad stuff on it. maybe i'll try again this month! spooooooky.

i'm pretty ok w/ calling both ecstasy and set the twilight reeling great albums though.

I second that emotion

Think I heard Twilight 7 times last weekend

hang on to that emotion!
yeah, was listening to set the twilight for the first time in a while last week, was digging the guitar sound.

Haha I will. Guitar sound is great on that album and Lou seems really confident in his playing too.

good lord

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/10/lou-reed-was-a-monster.html

“Ah, I needed something to rhyme with train. So I had to take poetic license.”

Awesome.

"Ah, I needed to be a complete prick to my sister and her husband. So I had to take poetic license."

Not that Lou wasn't a prick, but Sounes' Dylan bio is terrible. I'm waiting for the Will Hermes Lou bio for the definitive take.

Is any of this really a surprise

^^^

I haven't even read the linked article but even the "nice" songwriter of the velvets was kind of a monster

I mean I love john cale and I can't for the life of me find my (signed!) copy of his book, and I mentioned this in some velvets thread or other to such little response/corroboration that I feel almost gaslighted, but I swear he flatly describes an incident as horrific as shithead racist nico's assault on a black woman

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/movies/laurie-anderson-is-telling-stories-hers-and-ours.html?_r=0

Along with her own work, she has a legacy to tend: 800 hours of Mr. Reed’s old recordings, which she wants to make available online, as well as unpublished plays and photographs. “You learn so much about people when they’re gone, when their life is complete. I’ve just realized, too, that Lou was in the process of becoming an ancestor from being a person,” she said.

“As a human companion he’s gone, and that I really miss,” she said. “That was a conversation that was nonstop for 21 years. But then, I think, don’t be so selfish. Things end, and that’s how it is.”

800 hours!

haha, yeah... i wonder if that was just like Laurie's way of saying "there's a lot!" or if it is literally 800 hours.

And all of it is Live: Take No Prisoners outtakes. He riffs on Christgau for seventeen straight hours.

would buy
i've said it before, but i'd love a complete take no prisoners box set, with every note played, a la miles' live at the plugged nickel

Rumor has it there is a 2-week version of Like a Possum in the archives.

siiiick

799 hrs are metallica riffs from lulu

but i'd love a complete take no prisoners box set

this is a v v niche item but fuck yes

would be a lot -- i think they taped like a whole week of two-sets-a-night shows, but i'd be down.

40 minutes of "is that annoying?"

"Is That Annoying?". That's the title of the boxset right there.

Godfrey Diamond, Reed’s producer on Coney Island Baby, remembers an exchange late in his career. “Lou, all I want you to do is give me another ‘Sweet Jane’. You’re the master of writing songs about people,” Diamond remembered. “He looks at me and goes, ‘Godfrey, I try to write ‘Sweet Jane’ every day,’ in this deep, awful, mean, aggravated, upset voice. Clearly, that wasn’t the thing to say.”

Well, duh?

haha "all i want you to do..." -- genius production advice.

"Sweet Jane" everyday

can't help hearing this in the voice of Nate Dogg singing "Smoke weed every day"

it is weird to me that people who've been listening to and loving lou for as long as I have...don't feel like they kinda have enough

like, at the peak of my fanhood, thirty years ago, I hungrily gobbled up every bootleg I could find, had whole shows from that Bottom Line residency, etc, but...idk not trying to insult anybody but how does this dude's stuff not wear thin for those of who, like me, first got into it like 30+ years ago?

oh here we go

ha, it's cool if it's wearing thin for you ... but i'm at around 25 years of heavy lou listening and i still enjoy hearing different stuff.

Lou's mercurial and combative nature are endlessly fascinating, his work is full of strange turns and almost non-sequitur digressions. He's a bit like Dylan in that respect, that combination of mystery and unpredictability. And a willingness (actually more like a stubborn insistence) to fail publicly and spectacularly, there's risk-taking in his work - and that's always interesting to grapple with and untangle.

agreed. his failures are sometimes as interesting as his successes.

I've been bored of the first VU album for years, possibly even decades, but could merrily listen to "Growing Up in Public" right now, if I had the facility to do so at hand. Figure that one out.

say what you like about the quality of Lou's total output, he sure didn't do the same thing over and over

This looks like it could be great

The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed, Saturday, July 30
To Highlight this Summer’s Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival

Curated and Produced by Laurie Anderson and Hal Willner, Celebration Includes Concerts, Films, a Sound Installation, Readings, and Other Events Across Lincoln Center’s Campus Culminating in
Damrosch Park Concert and Screening of the Film Berlin Directed by Julian Schnabel
All Free and Open to the Public

NEW YORK, NY (April 8, 2016)— Lincoln Center Out of Doors, New York City’s longest-running, free, outdoor summer festival, will celebrate the work and legacy of legendary musician and consummate New Yorker Lou Reed with a full day of free events on Saturday, July 30, encompassing a wide range of his interests and creative output. The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed is named for Reed’s iconic song “The Bells.”

Curated by Laurie Anderson and Reed’s friend and longtime producer Hal Willner, the day begins in the morning with group Tai Chi led by Reed’s teacher Master Ren Guangyi that is open to all (beginners welcome) on Josie Robertson Plaza and culminates in Damrosch Park with Lou Reed’s Love Songs, an evening concert featuring performances by a raft of artists across a range of music genres. The concert will be followed by a screening in the park of Julian Schnabel’s acclaimed 2008 film Berlin which captured Reed’s live, 2006 concert performances of the 1976 album of the same name.

In between is a wide array of events, including:

A sound installation Lou Reed: Drones created from six of Reed’s guitars and amps in a feedback loop to produce an
immersive sound environment

Screenings of films and documentaries at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

A demonstration by Tai Chi Master Ren Guangyi, to include his martial arts students

Readings from Reed’s collected lyrics by notable actors and artists

Afternoon musical performances

All-day marathon playing of Reed’s recordings

More information about participating artists, venues, event starting times, and other details will be announced at a later date. Watch for the May 4 announcement of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors schedule, featuring concerts and events from July 20?August 13. Visit LCOutofDoors.org.

Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson frequently attended Lincoln Center events and also performed here—separately and together—on several occasions. In November 2013, the only public event marking Lou Reed’s death—organized by family and friends—took place outdoors on Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza. There was no ceremony. No speeches. Just Reed’s music—selections of recordings spanning the last 45 years, from his Velvet Underground years, to his solo career—playing on loudspeakers for a gathering of several hundred people, alerted by a posting on his Facebook page. It was, as reported in the New Yorker, a “public memorial that celebrated Reed by filling the whole complex with his music, like church bells ringing in a town square.”

Now, for “The Bells,” musical collaborators and other artists gather to give voice to the singular legacy of the rock musician, cofounder with Andy Warhol of The Velvet Underground, progenitor of glam, punk, indie, new wave, and noise rock, poet, and activist who left an indelible mark on the music of the past 50 years and on the city that he called home.

Reviving as a reminder of that event---which reminds me that The Bells still seems like an undercelebrated album---not among albs as panel subjects here, for inst.----however!!! (more details than early announcement):
http://www.lcoutofdoors.org/events/the-bells-a-daylong-celebration-of-lou-reed

So far so good!!

http://livestream.com/LincolnCenter/a-tribute-to-lou-reed-part-1

So of course now there's buffering

"This live event has ended but you may continue watching in DVR mode as long as you please."

Part 2 tomorrow? Hope so.

Okay, here's some more live--"Jesus" at the moment---and video: http://www.stereogum.com/1891393/watch-anohni-lee-ranaldo-ira-kaplan-more-perform-at-lou-reed-tribute/video/

this is so good

Disco Mystic!!!!

second set way better than the first imho -- leans less heavily on velvets material, covers later albums more thoroughly.

Evening (second ) set was billed as ballads, while afternoon first set was billed as rock and roll. I was in NY visiting and caught some of the afternoon first set (couldn't make evening one)--fun seeing Renaldo and Shelley from Sonic Youth with Yo La Tengo folks up there together; I liked Lenny Kaye's tribute to Lou and to Sandy Pearlman--"I'm Set Free"... David Johansen was ok; part of Bush Tetras doing "Run, Run, Run," Don Fleming leading band through some bootleg track. Paul Simon's son Harper was not that impressive. Maria Muldaur's daughter Jenni was alright.

Also caught a few minutes of this-- A sound installation Lou Reed: Drones created from six of Reed’s guitars and amps in a feedback loop to produce an
immersive sound environment

enjoyable for a few minutes but after that I had enough

11:30 am to 2 or whatever first set didn't have that big of an audience. Sky was gloomy and it rained a bit plus I guess 20 & 30 somethings not that into the old folks paying tribute to Lou I guess?

Should be some posted here and there, now and then. I'd say look for xpost "Disco Mystic", esp. with the dayglo rainbow chorus line, chanting, "Di-isco, Dis-co Mystic", with various degrees of urgency, always firm about it---she's pointing at yew, citizen. Sax less prominent than original track, but ruggedly handsome guitar strata.
Yes, Lenny Kaye delivered, especially "Rock N Roll", with all hands on deck, incl. Laurie with the glancing bow. Her inflections and timing were perfect in "Andy's Dream." Ditto the man and woman reading transcript of a Lou interview from an Australian tour.
Also liked somebody reading "The Rock Minuet", if that's the title, and several other performers performing things I didn't recognize, which is good; as s.clover indicates, shouldn't just be the most obvious, VU etc. choices. Missed a lot, though; I'll have to look around.

I'd say look for xpost "Disco Mystic", esp. with the dayglo rainbow chorus line, chanting, "Di-isco, Dis-co Mystic", with various degrees of urgency, always firm about it---she's pointing at yew, citizen.

so bummed this hasn't gotten onto youtube yet cuz I really want my wife to see it, she would love it

looked like a fun event! i bet there'll be rips of everything sooner or later ...

x-post--

The Lincoln Center security guards sure looked confused by the Disco Mystic dancers in their see-through but brightly colored outfits

here's some of it---no time to watch yet, although I saw some of "Sister Ray" this weekend (didn't seem that hot, though I came in toward the end). Looks like a decent selection, though some are excerpts (and one's already been removed, or did it just stop functioning):
http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/watch-performances-lou-reed-tribute-concert-87565

Lou's Spotify playlists are kinda cool
https://open.spotify.com/user/loureedofficial/playlist/1Pjh3fIfbzCHtVQ505QwZ3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aNC8tcMBzA

You can get a NYC library card with Lou's Transformer image on it.

When it's scanned, it doesn't beep, it yells "Turn up the guitar!"

Except when R Quine checks something out it says “turn down the guitar”

Lol

Excerpt from Anthony DeCurtis bio, in large part about Berlin and some of Lou's more monstrous qualities in his first marriage

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/01/my-brilliant-troubled-friend-lou-reed-a-life-anthony-decurtis-berlin

I'm about 1

Oops...100 pages into the Victor Bockris book. Of all my favourite bands and singers--and the Velvet Underground are top three--I have less sense of Lou Reed as a person than anyone. He's a complete blank to me.

lol that Bockris book is ... not good

there's a lot of good stories/anecdotes in it and some of the axes Bockris seems compelled to grind are amusing but his writing is pretty sloppy

Bockris book much more fun than the pompous DeCurtis bio or the risible Howard Sounes effort.

sounds plausible

I read Bockris's Warhol book (ages ago) and liked that. I haven't been reading this one as reliable scholarship; I know Bockris's reputation isn't great, but the tone is agreeable--a little junky, but right now I'd rather have that than a serious analysis of Reed's work.

Bio I’d really like to read is the Will Hermes one, assuming he ever finishes it.

yeah, i've been wondering about that one — maybe they pushed it back after the decurtis one came out?
haven't read a perfect lou bio, really. I thought the Decurtis one was OK, especially since he paid more attention to the later days, as opposed to just rehashing the old stuff.

I thumbed through the DeCurtis one and looked up how he handled "Coney Island Baby", which was actually p interesting. He catalogued all the doo-wop references.

interesting lou letter to delmore schwartz, circa 1965

Dear Delmore- it has been a very long summer and winter. I got out of school just in time to have hepatitis. it wasn’t a bad case though and after 2 odd months I was out of bed. then I became involved with a record company and worked at a job as a songwriter a performer and a musician. I helped make one of those cheap $1.98 albums that you see in supermarkets. We wrote 33 songs and sang, played and recorded them in 2 days. I commuted from the city to home from home to the city. worked 6-7 days a week from9 or 10 to anywhere from 11 to 3 in the morning not counting my lousy hour trips on the train to get to the studio. My first record came out. It was hysterically funny if you go for that kind of thing. We recruited a group to accompany me on promotional trips. One guy was from Wales. He got here on a Leonard Berstein scholarship, a starving viola player. the other was a violin player from harvard, who helped do the sound track for an “underground” film called Flaming Creatures by a gentleman named Jack Smith. The last showing drew the police of ny who arrested everyone insight, the projectionist, viewers, etc. -said the film was obscene. The third member of my tribe was an m.a. from u.c.l.a. who just had a showing at an art gallery that was a flop. There was trouble with the promo trips the audience loved us quite a lot, autographs, people knew us in a diner and thought we were ENGLISH. But I wasn’t up to it I’m afraid the way I would have been what seems like years ago. I quit my job (after first determining that I could work as long and as well as anyone there). But this bit wasn’t for me. Then (I was still under contacts of various sorts, they possessed 25% of nothing) my manager brought in this guy with lots of money who wanted to buy us instruments (we were one of the few bands in existence that had no instruments, they rented them for us on occasion) and book us in his nightclubs. I said no and quit the group. Meanwhile I had a folk album going for me. They loved me and my stuff but thought the lyrics were offensive (not dirty, just offensive) and would I change the lyrics and I said no and that was that. Interestingly enough a new record just came out which I had a hand in writing which is quite good and might stand a chance. One song of mine is in hollywood, another is in england where a longhaired group is mulling it over, and my manager has dug up some smaller but more liberal (?) folk record companies. Plus the record company I’m affiliated with now is interested in my making another record even though I don’t work there anymore and am not meant for promotion tours. So now I’m getting this job with the welfare department (because you don’t have to dress and its kind of a usefull job- you try to help people with 6 children and rats in one room apartments if that’s possible). Its a kind of ny peace corp with pay.

My harvard application has been sitting for awhile now because I didn’t know if I was ready to go to school anymore, or if i should anymore, at anytime. I was drafted and naturally ruled exempt, unacceptable for the obvious reasons. Thus I am free of the draft and slowly but surely people who depend on me for music or talent or advice or etc. I’ve had some strange experiences since returning to ny, sick but strange and fascinating and even, sometimes ultimately revealing, healing and helpful. The record industry is viscous as are most businesses, but this one a little more so. ny has so many sad, sick people and I have a knack for meeting them. they try to drag you down with them. If you’re weak ny has many outlets. Ican’t resist peering, probing, sometimes participating, othertimes going right to the edge before sidestepping. Finding viscousness in yourself and that fantastic killer urge and worse yet having the opportunity presented before you is certainly interesting, Interesting is not the word. You have to wait a few days to use it, but often you are truely cold. The easy ways of making money, group bravado, the rich johns on park ave who dig watching fornicating couples enough to pay $250, $500, $&700 prices up for group performances of 3 or more or the more esoteric sexual art forms, f*** f*** f***

I feel better myself. I am better. I needed no school. I have let 6 months go by without looking at anything I had written. I needed to be cool - I needed to be away from the writing so that I could look at it more coldly. I finally did that and I decided that I’m very very good and could be a good writer if i work and work. i know thatswhat ive got to do, no getting around it, but things had to get established. Maybe I will go to school again. maybe i’ll teach, maybe europe, who knows. But mainly it must be writing and I think I’m good enough to give it a run for its money. Hope my latest records a smash because I’ll be needing the money to be sure. I’m lucky though. It doesn’t take much of anything that has to do with money to keep me quiet or happy or mollified. Its the peripheral things round you that need bread. You’ll notice my spelling hasn’t improved.

HOW ARE YOU? I mean that, how are you? I hope very much that you are well. I also hope very much that you are my spiritual godfather, and I mean that quite a bit too.

Lou as modest and self-deprecating as ever.

He never said he was unself-deprecating!

awesome letter

Yeah, that's great

I can recommend the DeCurtis book -- he's a better journalist than critic.

he's especially good covering the Anderson years. Didn't know Lou returned to drinking the occasional glass of red wine or two. I'm sure it didn't help his renal glands.

decurtis is the kinda guy who i think of as showing up as a talking head rock critic in a million rock docs spouting received wisdom. but his lou book covers the right bases, doesn't shy away from unpleasant stuff, but doesn't revel in it either.

NAMED AFTER HIS MOTHER’S late grandfather, Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth El Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.
So the Butch Firbanks thing was made up after all?

He was a fan of Ronald Firbank and Butch Wilkins.

Didn’t know about the lattter

The Chelsea Girls all loved Butch.

In Brooklyn:

Late Brooklyn-born musician Lou Reed's memory is being honored with a celebration of his passion for Tai Chi. Ren Guang Yi, Reed's teacher for 12 years, and other teachers from different disciplines will lead a morning meditation in Central Library's Grand Lobby followed by demonstrations and classes that represent many forms of Tai Chi.

No experience is necessary to participate, in keeping with Reed's belief that everyone can benefit from the Chinese martial art.

In the week leading up to the event, patrons can also view Reed's library of Tai Chi books, video clips and some of his weapons.

Saturday, August 3 / 8:30 am
Central Library, Grand Lobby & Plaza

https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/celebrate-inaugural-central-library-lobby-20190803

w/r/t Tai Chi, from Laurie's eulogy:

As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

Kind of interesting and weird to find out Shelley’s last name and read her description of young Lou.

Only two people lasted until the end of the Velvets’ legendary Summit High School gig, but one went on to co-found Mission of Burma and the other to play bass in The Bongos.

Never listened to this Velvets-backed version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” which mostly sounds like “I’m Waiting for the Man.”

This doesn’t seem to have too many views, maybe it’s available somewhere else:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo_7Zqx2_Ek

Reed’s own way of handling such situations was typically more blunt and frontal. At a birthday dinner for the novelist A. M. Homes at the Greenwich Village restaurant Il Cantinori, Reed noticed Anderson, seated across the table from him, enjoying a conversation with writer Lee Smith. Reed leaned across the table, glared at Smith, and challenged Anderson. “Who the fuck is this guy?” he asked. A devoted fan of Reed’s, Smith defused Reed’s anger by asking him about Delmore Schwartz.

Anderson who(?)

Oh Laurie

Anderson Lawrie.

Just barged through the DeCurtis book based on your various recommendations. Very well done, especially with respect to his wives and significant others.

This may be challoups, but I relistened to The Blue Mask as I am wont to do ever decade or so and at this point all I care about is “Heavenly Arms.”

Every

"Our House," "Heavenly Arms," the title track," "Underneath the Bottle," "Gun," "Waves of Fear" -- great.

Wow, yes, "Gun", what a monster of a track.

It's fascinating how Reed's "The Gun" is the quiet, unsettling track while Cale's is the rocker.

I listened to the album y’day... I have to skip “Gun,” I could handle it as a teen/younger guy, but not anymore.

Didn't like The Blue Mask at all at the time, would be surprised if it sounds any better to me today.

Just getting to WL/WH in the Bockris book. I knew the famous Cher quote about the VU--it turned up in Lilian Roxon's write-up on the band--but I don't think I knew about how violently they were rejected on the west coast in 1966.

Here’s an impromptu Blue Mask fact-check:

I remember where I was that day, I was Upstate in a bar
The team from the University was playing football on TV

blue mask is perfect

It isn't, and that's partly why I love it (same deal for New Sensations, which I love even more).

I got the big box of rca/Arista recently, have played Take no prisoners, metal machine music and new sensations.

Hmm, where next?

Coney Island Baby, Set the Twilight Reeling, Ecstasy

I think it has only the first of those

luck you, that's the best one

It isn't, and that's partly why I love it (same deal for New Sensations, which I love even more).

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, July 12, 2019 5:32 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

new sensations is wonderful but blue mask has this otherworldly floating mood throughout even when it's furious and that is the main reason i think it is perfect even though i can't hum "the heroine" for you right now or whatever

Blue Mask is head and shoulders above everything else IMO

(of solo Lou, not all rock albums ever — but it’s up there too!)

Don't sleep on Legendary Hearts -- "Betrayed," "Martial Law," "Don't Talk To Me About Work," "Bottoming Out," "Rooftop Garden"...so much greatness there.

Mixing Quine down blunts their impact as performances but not songs.

Prefer Legendary Hearts tbh

Yeah Legendary Hearts is great, I remember when someone told me I needed to check it out and I was like "that record with the stupid motorcycle helmet on the cover?"

Classic

going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public — I even came around quite a bit on Mistrial.
Sally Can't Dance is probably my least fave 70s album of Lou's but it still has some fun stuff.

Ah, Lou Reed's motorcycle period...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXxFCu7kPI

going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public —

I kinda love Growing Up In Public, it's indefensible but entertaining.

something about the band / arrangements on that record just makes me feel gross. "think it over" is pretty OK.

I was actually surprised at how much I liked Growing Up In Public. Sally Can't Dance had more decent moments than I was expecting, too. But Mistrial was a rough go. When I got the box a few years ago, that was my first time hearing Mistrial since 1986, and it somehow managed to sound much worse than I remembered it.

(And what will forever be a mystery to me is, as much as Lou revered Ornette Coleman's work, why did he always/only get the lamest saxophonists on earth to play in his bands?)

I love Sally Can't Dance! "Animal Language"! "Kill Your Sons"! "Billy"!

Of the 70s joints I've never really warmed to Rock'n'Roll Heart, I mean it's ok, I just don't love it

R&RH is way duller than SCD

I pretty much like all his 70s albums tbh.

Me too. It’s the 80s when he lost me.

yup

I like the first half of the 80s well enough. I haven't listened to much thereafter.

For instance I've never heard Mistrial.

Alfred will never convince me of the virtues of Fernando Saunders's aimless bass farts

That sounds like a great credit: "Fernando Saunders on aimless bass".

Yeah, the overdetermination of offenses including the Saunders abf, the tipping point where the Sprechgesang became more Sprechge than sang, and the endless guitar and microphone tech talk obsession that nevertheless seem to result in a generic clanky dry Strat sound or whatever.

haha yeah for someone who was reportedly super-obsessive about guitar sounds, from the late 70s on Lou's preferences are um strange to say the least.

Including live records, I think Saunders has played on more of Lou's albums than any other musician.

Seventies Lou:

Coney Island Baby
Transformer
Rock 'n' Roll Animal

Eighties Lou:

The Blue Mask
Legendary Hearts
New Sensations

Include New York (I won't but I won't quibble), Set the Twilight Reeling and Ecstasy and you've got one helluva run. To me it's an indisputable fact that Reed wrote more good songs and played and sang them better after 1982. I'm sorry if the so-called transgression of the seventies excites you. To me, the transgression was necessary for him to see the weird in the normal, like David Lynch learned.

Key line: "Things are never good, things go from bad to weird"

Berlin is sodden garbage -- an unnecessary and swollen gesture after TVU&N and WL/WH.

lol I'm listening to it right now

it's always seemed like an interesting failure tbh

that's my thought about Mistrial.

like, the last producer Lou Reed is Bob Goddamn Ezrin.

yeah the conventional wisdom that this was a terrible mismatch rings true

"The Kids" works, but it could've been on Transformer.

Actually, the conventional wisdom is that it's one of his greatest records, unfairly maligned at the time.

maligning was fair, was what I was getting at

I love it. I didn't hear it until 2013, but it made me realize that huh, I guess I really did want to hear Lou Reed's The Wall.

Weird to see only three mentions of Street Hassle on this thread. Always liked that one though that’s also bc it was my first Lou solo LP. I can’t rate it over some of the others of his I’ve picked up since though.

related: https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=15150

Feel like Street Hassle gets more play on some other Lou threads. The album as whole is a bit uneven but the title track is a definite career high point.(xp)

At the end of this thread I put a link to a good article about the recording of Street Hassle, which I probably should have put at the end of the Street Hassle thread itself, but hey, I’m unpredictable, just like Lou himself: In Praise Of...Lou Reed "Take No Prisoners"

To me, the transgression was necessary for him to see the weird in the normal
Sorry, to me there is something disingenuous about his latter day fascination with the normal. Perhaps Shakey and I, as readers of the rolling sf thread, are especially wary of this cheesy defamiliarization technique.

honestly I could care less about the shift in lyrical content, if there even is much of one, it's the sonics I can't stand

Perhaps you would have preferred if he had started playing fingerstyle?

thumbstyle

Yeah, the overdetermination of offenses including the Saunders abf, the tipping point where the Sprechgesang became more Sprechge than sang, and the endless guitar and microphone tech talk obsession that nevertheless seem to result in a generic clanky dry Strat sound or whatever.

LOL I don't necessary agree, but this is a great post

thumbstyle

Sorry, to me there is something disingenuous about his latter day fascination with the normal.

have you heard him sing? It's like imagining Donald Trump singing nursery rhymes. The Fascination with the Normal is precisely what gives those post-1982 albums (the good ones) their creepiness.

Are you saying the creepiness is intentional? And desirable?

Unintentional and desirable.

What about ostensibly clumsy stuff like the oft quoted couplet “My Dedalus to your Bloom/ was such a perfect wit”? What’s your take on this kind of thing?

Xgau says that it “honors the way that people really talk.” But who talks like that but Lou and pretentious permanent literature undergrads like the guy who was flirting with Laurie Anderson a few posts up? Delmore Schwartz himself wouldn’t be caught dead in a pauper’s grave with a sentence like that coming out of his mouth or pen.

To me that's just a different kind of stupid from Lou's 70s stupid.

Me too, but I liked 70s stupid better, it’s of a piece with 70s NYC cinema.

It’s like the taking of the Pelham 1,2,3

What about ostensibly clumsy stuff like the oft quoted couplet “My Dedalus to your Bloom/ was such a perfect wit”? What’s your take on this kind of thing?

― Ask Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs)

I would preferred "My Dedalus to your Bloom/I'm such a nitwit"

If Sterling has been around he probably would have asked for the lyric to be changed to that.

Growing Up In Public, for all its numerous faults, is the perfect bridge between 70s and 80s stupid.

i like the "such a perfect wit" line bc it's v earnest, the kind of error you preserve bc the syntax is so weird it's personal, it's not about reflecting some cultural stupidity. i mean, "my house" makes me cry, idk. but i'm not here to convince people who think fernando saunders sucks at bass

The line that bugs me the most is "Marxist DA"...like, there would never be a Marxist district attorney...but if there was, they wouldn't be average...like Lou is claiming to be...ok, I get it now, it's all a rich tapestry.

and the weird of "New Sensations" (title track0) is my kind of weird.

Just occurred to me for the first time to wonder if it bugged Lou that Sterling finished his PhD. I suppose it might have, but so much stuff bugged him it would hard to single that one out unless he went on record about it.

Man y’all are nitpicking some perfectly fine lyrics...

(now excuse me while I do another Wikipedia-based fact check of where Lou was on a specific day in 1963)

Lou deserves to have his nits picked for being such a pompous ass from the mid 80s onwards.

The clunky, plainspoken earnestness of “My House” is what makes it so endearing, IMO. He’s abandoning all pretense of being “poetic” in his tribute to a poet.

otm

Average Guy is probably my favorite song on that album

In an Italian restaurant called Romeo’s right now and all I can hear in my head is the Rock and Roll Animal himself singing “Legendary Hearts.”

Well that and Robin Williams as Elmer Fudd singing “Fire.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_oFjghXkAcHX2P.jpg:large

Almost finished the Bockris book. I laughed at this--early draft of Trump (circa the VU reunion in the early '90s):

Previously a phoneaholic, Lou had now become a fax maniac, spending hours composing messages and then keening over the machine in anticipation of a snappy reply. It was the perfect mode of communication for the hermetic Reed.

My favourite moment came much earlier, the night Reed quit the VU first time around: "Sterling, I'd like you to meet my parents..." Reminded me of Max introducing his dad to Herman in Rushmore.

Belated lol at Street Hasslehoff

The Bockris book--which I only read because it was a gift--gave me the story in broad outline, which is all I wanted. The only time I found it to be an ordeal was the last 50 pages or so, where Bockris (perhaps swept away by Reed's death) gives you, in excruciating detail, his interpretation of a cross-album conversation between Reed and Anderson. I don't know these records, and, personally, they're of no interest to me. I always think of Seinfeld and the Drake in these situations: "Well, I don't know if I'm happy for them...I mean I'm glad they're happy, but, frankly, it doesn't do anything for me."

The one thing that stuck with me from the Bockris book was Nico saying to Reed, "I cannot make love to Jews anymore."

Yeah, I always think of that, wonder if it applied to Dylan as well.

Also there is another line about
Reporter: When’s the last time you saw Lou Reed?
Nico: I don’t hang out in gay bars

Yes, it's obviously about Dylan too (xp)

Speaking of Bockris, wondering if I should buy an ebook of Uptight to replace my mistakenly given away paper copy.

Yes, it's obviously about Dylan too (xp)

Or at least I imagine and want that to be the case

Probably Jonathan Richman was never in the running in the first place.

So apparently today is International Lou Reed Tai-Chi Day.

If the name John Cale passes your lips during this 24 hour period you will be assigned punishment forms as part of your practice.

*plays imaginary viola furiously but serenely*

Lol

Let's get a few covers out of the way. Y'all can name yours.

Correct #1 tbrr

Luna “Ride into the Sun”

The Clean: I Can't Stand It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBT7Scb3NRg

Moe Tucker’s whispered version of “Waiting for the Man” on one of her solo albums, forget which one

https://youtu.be/dapWaB5awyM

Paul Quinn And Edwyn Collins "Pale Blue Eyes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z3RgoukUEk

Moe Tucker’s whispered version of “Waiting for the Man” on one of her solo albums, forget which one

― warn me about a lurking rake (One Eye Open), Monday, December 30, 2019

fuck I was gonna include it

as I noted on FB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny2-rEs06vE

I would ride for this as the greatest cover of anything, ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHivF_5EFbM

But the two words before the song title are "Cat" and "Power."

I always liked Mitch Ryder's version of "Rock and Roll" and the Feelies' cover of "What Goes On", probably because I heard them well before I ever heard the originals. (I can say the same for Big Star's "Femme Fatale.")

the cat power cover of I found a Reason is completely amazing.

Subway Sect, "Head Held High".

Cabaret Voltaire, "Here She Comes Now".

Alfred I greatly respect your critical chops, but I can’t believe you find nothing of merit there

https://youtu.be/Ml7mjXP4HKQ

https://youtube/Ml7mjXP4HKQ

... ffs

Here, let me help you:
https://youtu.be/Ml7mjXP4HKQ

ha, sorry!

Alfred I greatly respect your critical chops, but I can’t believe you find nothing of merit there

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK),

I couldn't resist the yuk and the yuck.

(xp) It's a good one to play if anyone claims no-one had heard of the Velvet Underground before the release of "V.U.".

Vannessa Paradis "I'm Waiting For the Man" is pretty wonderful

omigod

thanks for the tip

I'll second the Feelies take of "What Goes On"

the ones that comes to mind are the dils' "what goes on" and a version of "waiting for the man" by a band called "zoobombs"

i'm sure there are plenty more but i can't think of them right now

The Modern Lovers: "OK we're gonna do 2 more songs before our first break, and they're both for people who like to dance fast. Now the first one is one that we didn't write, it's one that the Velvet Underground wrote and never released. So you've never heard this one before. We like to do this as a tribute to the Velvet Underground. We all saw them a lot back east. And this is a song we hope you like. It's called 'Foggy Notion.'"

Also really like the Cruel Sea's take on "Cool it Down":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQGpfutfIwU

Pretty good version by the oddly named Dutch band, the Riats - from 1967! And "Sunday Morning" was on the b-side!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voV_e0IKwzs

Wot no Bryan 'Macho Man' Ferry's mash up of "What Goes On" and "Beginning to See the Light"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOnYGdGgqs4

I already got'em in for "All Tomorrow's Parties," which I prefer.

before the guy from Warm Soda was run out of the business for being a racist I was a huge fan of their version of "Waiting for the Man" on the castleface 'VU & Nico' tribute record

Motorcycle Boy - Run, Run, Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCr4ZyI2r8I

The string duo's version of "Sunday Morning" as the processional at my wedding this past May was outstanding.

'Ennui' on the SALLY CAN'T DANCE LP. Strikingly good: mellow, subtle, expansive - with that kind of gentleness that he occasionally offered, as on 'Coney Island Baby'.

in case anyone's interested in listening to old Lou bootlegs with me: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/tagged/summer-of-lou

Always.

is this the first S&D thread on ILX/ILM?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4YW3YiSWE
Lou Reed & John Mellencamp - 1987 Bloomington Indiana

lou @ 16:07

some of my friends were there! that's been making the rounds on my FB feed paired with people's memories - Lou came out into the alley to say hi to the underage kids

Wow, that's terrific. Lou looks touched by the response. I can imagine Mellencamp covering "New Sensations."

Rolling Stone wrote about this upload and it got picked up by some papers. Amazingly, John Prine came out and joined them at the very end, but no footage of his appearance has surfaced.

Even more surprising was this:

Indiana University rock history professor Glenn Gass was in the crowd that night. He followed Reed into an alley after the musician’s set and told him he was teaching his students about the Velvet Underground; Gass wrote his phone number on a matchbox and invited Reed to speak to the students, never thinking it would happen.

Reed called Gass the next day and said he wanted to do it. “He was very paranoid about it,” Gass told the Indiana Daily Student in 2017. “He said he had never done anything like this before. Just was nervous, visibly shaking all the way to the classroom. He was afraid he was going to walk in and people were just going to stare at him.”

But Reed wound up enjoying the experience and stuck around for 90 minutes. “It was kind of like a dream come true when you’re a rock-history teacher,” Gass said, “to have Lou Reed come in and spend an hour and a half.”

Lou obviously forgot this:

Lou Reed is spokesman for the Velvet Underground at a literature and electronic media class run by Dr Joseph Kruppa at Texas University, 23 October 1969. 'Because of media censorship, nobody has heard any real music, nothing to make your hair stand on end.' Daily Texan 24 Oct 69 pic.twitter.com/vcs9Jr1Wnx

— Arthur (@ratherarthur) August 3, 2020

and this!
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2013/10/lou-reeds-rock-n-roll-high-school.html

lloyd grove:

Speaking of Lou Reed, I remember that 31 years ago he played a high school assembly at Beverly Hills High School, where I was a 9th grader, and he and his Velvet Underground justed blasted out the place. When the school psychiatrist--yes, they had one of those in Beverly Hills, natch--warned that studies had shown that rock music had caused hearing deficits in hamsters, Reed replied "When we play for hamsters, we will turn the volume down."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/00/source/source0616.htm

https://i.imgur.com/RrnIKMV.png

xps yes some of my friends were also taking that class at the time! it was a big fuckin' deal.

I think this was just before I turned 21

Was the Live at the Gymnasium tape made at one these schools? It's great, hope it's come out on some legit comp.

gymnasium gig came out on the wl / wh deluxe box a few years ago — wasn't a high school venue, though. it had previously been a health club before becoming a night club.

what a great set that is

sleeve, the drinking age in indiana couldn't have been over 16 or 17 back in '87 ?

lol I wish, it was bumped up to 21 the year I turned 19 (1985) cuz the feds threatened to withhold matching highway funds from states that didn't comply

(before that it was 19)

been really enjoying Street Hassle lately.

Great Lou Reed cameo in this Atlantic article about a woman lamenting the slow death of her father's high-end audio repair shop:

Occasionally, a doctor bought an entire custom home-theater system after perusing for an hour. Other days, a lawyer would ask dozens of questions before declaring that he was heading to Best Buy. Or Lou Reed might walk in, insult the Tchaikovsky playing over the speakers, buy $700 Grado headphones for a recording session at Skywalker Ranch, and then have an assistant return them once it was done.

🤩

Checks out

american poet is awesome, maybe one of my fave lou reed recordings ever. wayyyyyy different sound than the r&r animal stuff that followed.

RSD Black Friday