Lou Reed Solo

um, not counting compilations and catalog stuff, he's made three albums in the past decade. two have gone gold and one went platinum. and his catalog continues to sell quite well. and his records are probably relatively cheap to make. even if he wasn't dylan, any label would be extremely happy to have him. plus, he IS dylan.

Take out the "live" part and that sums up pretty much all of Lou's output in the 70s, bless 'im

Metal Machine Music
Take No Prisoners
Transformer (CD)

That's also the chart (for me) inasmuch as most played...

Couldn't be - because they were certified gold not long after they came out.

So, basically, he is the Woody Allen of rock.

Metal Machine Music is the sexiest album ever made, mark you.

Reed moved from RCA to Arista in 1976, and then back to RCA again in 1981 until 1986. His albums may not have all been massive hits, but he had a solid fanbase which insured that his albums would sell X number of copies. He enjoyed a certain amount of success with Transformer, Rock and Roll Animal, Coney Island Baby and Sally Can't Dance during his initial RCA run, and then with New Sensations and possibly Mistrial during the second run (the videos for "The Original Wrapper" and "Video Violence" certainly received a lot of airplay here in Canada). When he left RCA the first time, he was in debt to them for $700000, so they must have seen some potential for profit to sign him again five years later. It was also about this time that The Velvet Underground was finally beginning to receive some recognition for their influence on modern musicians and their albums began to appear in print again in the USA. So the VU "legend" may have played a part in his re-signing to RCA (or not being dropped during this time), but it certainly wasn't helping him shift units in the US in the mid 1970s. There was no VU Legend in the 1970s.

What is it that labels see now? It must be The Legend. I doubt he will ever duplicate the success of New York. I can't stand the way he sings now and thus can't rate his last few albums (the VU live 93 album was the last straw), so your guess is as good as mine.

Also, the RIAA only logs US sales innit? The labels don't care about international sales because they aren't making the profits.

I am kinda diggin Rock n Roll Heart tbh

That's my favourite one, dude!

The line about New Wave films is batshit awesome.

the lounge jazz version of Sheltered Life is endearing

lou's faux populism is so good it's almost not faux. R&R Heart always has me thinking, "yeah, i don't like opera and ballet either! yeahhhh."

is this the same band as on Coney Island Baby...? It bears some sonic similarities, although this one gets a little more left-field with some of the distorted guitar tones and processed vocals, and the songs are simpler and lighter in general.

fwiw I do not like opera or ballet either lolz

Yeah, that whole album is just killer. The one "Ladies Pay" about the ladies who miss their men at war especially gets me every time. And the piano! Oh god.

not sure if it's the same band as Coney Island -- i don't think so? maybe some of the same dudes. But yeah, this one does have some odd production choices. The superfuzz guitar on the title track is fun.

^^^yes Ladies Pay! good stuff

Banging on a Drum rhythm track is fairly insane, was not expecting that from Lou

I'm thinkin the drummer in particular sounds like the same guy... I should just look it up

ah. yes. the rhythm section + keyboardist are all the same

yeah ... innaresting that lou plays all the guitar on R&R Heart, apparently?

let's take a minute to pay trib to this dude: http://www.iridescentmusic.ca/fonf.html

what is it about old men and terrible hawaiian shirts

maybe it's just something that happens to you, you know? like you wake up one day and you've got nothing but hawaiian shirts in your closet. and it feels good.

Yeah I think Hawaiian shirts are cool, actually, especially on older men.

but... you're onstage, not on vacation!

love these shirts
http://z.about.com/d/classicrock/1/0/I/9/velvetundergroundc.jpg

someone told me that tai chi album he made was surprisingly decent ambient

umm it's ok? i mean, i'm not sure if i'd be super into it if i didn't know it was Lou Reed. but because i know it is him, I AM SUPER INTO IT. to a certain extent. I bought the fucking thing, anyway.

wow, thanks for that link - great piece!

"if you remember too much, you weren’t there"

What could be more Lou Reed than insisting on the super-realism of live binaural recording, adding a bunch of mismatched overdubs, and then claiming the resulting sound is exactly what he'd wanted?

its own dull, flat sound

I can listen past the production. The arrangements and playing are great.

The drum sound is great too, actually.

Good article!

I find the debut's sound crisp rather than dull but I also listen to a fair bit of stuff recorded & played by muso dudes whose absolute ideal is clarity over color. to me the sound of the electric guitar on "I Love You", that intro figure, is one of the most memorable musical choices in Lou's discography - as soon as I think of it, I hear it in my head & love it.

think my main problem with the debut is the backup singers, they sound kinda lame. otherwise, i think it's a solid record!

yes it is! "Turn To Me" is easily in my top ten

― sleeve, Wednesday, September 19, 2018 9:25 AM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i love the way this song is just the riff suspended in empty space for the first two verses. it's a really good riff. album has a lot of really good riffs

i realllly love "fly into the sun"

"What Becomes a Legend Most" sounds like he's going for a Paul Young pastiche and it works.

So many good melodies on New Sensations jfc

Just wanted to say I'm not entirely convinced by Tom's assessment of Sterling Morrison's capacity as a guitar player. Obviously, the Velvets applied restraints to themselves in how they played (like Sterling is clearly restricting himself to a particular tessitura in what I assume is his six and a half minute solo in "I'm Gonna Move Right In").

I'd actually like to have a clearer view of what he and Lou do on guitars throughout those records but that's obtainable by more close listening and playing along.

there's another article linked somewhere else on ILM that I can't find right now that has another account of the recording process, people involved complaining about all these heads on poles littering the studio etc.

xp there's a great quote by Mo (I think, could be Yule also) somewhere about how Lou and Sterling swapped their solos on any given night according to some inscrutable internal logic

I'd actually like to have a clearer view of what he and Lou do on guitars throughout those records but that's obtainable by more close listening and playing along.

i pretty much know who's doing what — any specific songs?

I can usually distinguish Reed and Morrison. Usually.

Not who's doing what but more like chord voicings, methods of plucking, how they approached solos, gear, etc.

We've talked about this before but, yes, their lead sound/styles are totally different - even their rhythm playing is quite distinct.

"How in the world were they makin' that sound?/Velvet Underground"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAXYW-Bft5A

(Phil Milstein, from the quasi-bootleg What Goes On 3CD on Australian Raven label)

I can listen past the production. The arrangements and playing are great.

I don't think the arrangements or playing are great - it's true they are on "I Love You" though. I like the album btw!

even their rhythm playing is quite distinct.

Well...I don't see how the guitar on "Lady Godiva's Operation" sounds unlike a Morrison part.

Maybe not in every single song!

Ha, that was the first one I checked...

Adding my thanks to Shakey for the link - I just got up early and stretched out breakfast listening to Street Hassle and reading it, I don't think I've enjoyed the start of the day quite so much in a while.

lmao @ mistrial

you're payin' a price where there's no price to pay
love is trust
no money down

YET

"Tell It To Your Heart" is a classic.

yeah that song and "outside" are really good

thought you were going to say "Mama's Got a Lover"

lol i nearly did admit that i like that "the original wrapper" exists in lou reed's discography

The video jukeboxes are-a
playin Madonna

I've never heard "Mistrial". I consider myself a Lou Reed fan too. Shame on me.

before the streaming age you could 99-cent copies on Amazon

No doubt!

wow even Discogs has nothing below $2.99 plus shipping, still too much!

Mistrial >>>>> Berlin

I love how Mistrial gets dismissed most often for "dated production" when fucking Bob Ezrin's despair-on-mothballs arrangements don't scream the seventies, and the songs suck.

Now, you've gone too far.

The currents rage so deep inside us
This is the age of video violenc

mistrial is up there with take no prisoners as his funniest record

the best video ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiyX70ZqsVQ

mistrial is up there with take no prisoners as his funniest record

"Growing Up In Public" is a hoot too.

Mistrial >>>>> Berlin

I think the time is ripe for an "Alfred's 80s records challops" thread

and I wish that it be a cheerful thread

I thought this was that thread?

Preferring Mistrial to Berlin isn't a challops. A B or B- is a better grade than a C+ or C.

I meant for a thread to include more artists than Lou!

idk i can't agree with alfred on berlin, outside of the arrangements all the songs on it seem v well written to me

the (relatively) recent concert movie was v rewarding

I don't know Mistrial apart from the two singles, which are OK. But Berlin is an album I've lived with all my teen/adult life and means an awful lot to me, melodramatic orchestration and all. I hadn't realised until recently though that half the tracks were recycled from VU days. It's amazing that he was recycling VU tracks right up to Street Hassle and maybe beyond.

Listening to the eponymous 1972 album right now and it's sounding pretty good, albeit sort of Loaded II

^Right?

I suppose Street Hassle's ranking might uh rankle.. It's not much beyond the great title track.