Bimble Says: The Lou Reed Memorial Velvet Underground and Solo Careers Poll RESULTS THREAD

"The Bells" is a pretty great album which I had never heard much before this year. I would have voted "Families" ("And no, no, no, no, no, I still haven't got married
And no, no, no, there's no grandson planned here for you") if it hadn't slipped my mind but I did vote for "I Want to Boogie with You". 1) I really like the way the lyrics are written so that there are just too many syllables but Lou doesn't care, it's not gonna stop him acting cool here, he'll just say the last 4 words all at once and 2) "she thinks that I'm a flop" always makes me crack up!

68. Lou Reed "Wild Child"
4 votes, 78 pts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StfsHwWvleM

"It's about a Wild Child, funnily enough"

"Wild Child" is interesting in that it's easily the best song on his debut, plus one of only a few tracks on the album that was not a Velvets' leftover. I would've been totally unaware of it except that it was inexplicably included on a cassette Best Of I had as a teenager. Lyrics are a bit proto-Walk on the Wild Side, but funny instead of elegiac.

Always dug the cover of that record. Nothing shouts "Lou Reed" as much as a little birdie and a Fabergé egg.

67. Lou Reed & John Cale "Smalltown"
5 votes, 79 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6L0UD_zn4A

Shakey if it's not a (street) hassle, could you also provide a merged rundown when this is all over? I like this split rundown - more surprises - but I'd love to see how the solo stuff would have fared against VU in a single poll.

xxp haha, yeah... iirc it was lou's choice, though -- the artist did art for raymond chandler paperbacks or something? are there other Lou Reed solo albums that don't have lou's face on the cover? Legendary Hearts is the only one I can think of...

66. Lou Reed "The Last Shot"
4 votes, 80 pts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1mlnZFcQz8

could you also provide a merged rundown when this is all over

yes that is easy

I opted to split them out when no solo material made it into the overall top 10.

TS: "Underneath the Bottle" vs "The Last Shot"

Ooh ooh wee...son of a b!

oh ha, i guess lou is on the cover of legendary hearts (in the reflection).

That's such a "lol the 80s" cover

I also think it's hilarious, though I can obviously understand how the lyrics can be offensive. I do think the song is making fun of the narrator, not sympathizing with his lol/awful viewpoints.

there was a piece about snoop, maybe an interview, in either nme or melody maker in the early 90s which opened unironically with "i know what lou reed meant when he sung 'i wanna be black'."

hey two of my picks! I voted for "Darling, I Need You" - mostly on the strength of the awesome BBC session performance from the 70's. also voted for Wild Child because it is great, although I have never heard a version that really lives up to the core of the song. that 1st solo record is recorded so strangely.

Just got here..."Day of Niagara" and "Sun Blindness Music" are two droney pieces that don't do much for me. Not really sure why, with a lot of this stuff you just either get into it or you don't ime.

i am one of the uber goth "roses in the snow" voters
oooh so evocative! love that song. she sounds so medieval!

no more today?

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/31290231/John+Cale.jpg
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/31290211/John+Cale.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UpV74LGYRbU/UnjxJluGFVI/AAAAAAAAF3o/PNZNXZdjjFc/s1600/John+Cale.jpg

sorry had a bunch of work-shit to do

TIE
65. Nico "It Has Not Taken Long"
3 votes, 81 pts

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

Nico "Afraid"
2 votes, 81 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqT4ELCNgiA

64. John Cale "Heartbreak Hotel"
5 votes, 83 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewXubUm2-3s

woah only two votes for "Afraid"?

63. John Cale "Pablo Picasso"
3 votes, 84 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXtBsikiY50

bears more than a passing resemblance to the previous entry...

sorry there were three votes for "Afraid" actually. if it makes you feel any better.

ha, i was one of those three. i figured that'd be the one (along with "these days") that'd be the go-to nico song for people who don't really like the uber-goth nico.

that's ok then, I guess xp

QUADRUPLE TIE
62. John Cale & Terry Riley "The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles"
4 votes, 85 pts

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

John Cale "Amsterdam"
3 votes, 85 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGCu1okRPcA

The Primitives "The Ostrich"
4 votes, 85 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r998weOUiM

John Cale "Sylvia Said"
3 votes, 85 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0eqW7612KU

TIE
61. Lou Reed "What's Good"
4 votes, 88 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jTkTukfjZM

Loe Reed & John Cale "Hello It's Me"
4 votes, 88 pts.

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

TIE
60. Lou Reed "Women"
5 votes, 91 pts

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

Lou Reed "Make Up"
3 votes, 91 pts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TFb03PmScY

59. Lou Reed "Charley's Girl"
4 votes, 92 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHYE0D6FjXw

Xp Women love MakeUp!

<3 the charley's girl groove

it's pretty playful for a song about punching a girl's face in

TIE
58. John Cale & Lou Reed "Nobody But You"
3 votes, 93 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCIxMZ8hY8

Lou Reed & Metallica "Brandenburg Gate"
3 votes, 93 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yQif1hIUuw

57. Lou Reed "Legendary Heart"
4 votes, 95 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15y63U3LM9Y

56. Lou Reed "Hangin' Round"
5 votes, 97 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz74Dj1v3FM

55. Lou Reed & John Cale "Open House"
4 votes, 99 pts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN48QnUZl1Q

allright that's it for today

"The Ostrich" is the one song i was really mad at myself for forgetting to vote for. glad "Brandenburg Gate" made the cut! i mostly only know VU and i guess virtually all of their songs are still to come.

VU song results will be posted separately

haha
i read that as VU song results will be praised separately

but we voted for them together? this is so confusing

I like it. It's a good idea

it's not that complicated. this way I get to list a bunch more solo results, basically. points were allotted using the scale described, then I just separated the resulting list into two lists - one for VU tracks and one for solo stuff. If you were to assume (rightly, as it turns out) that pretty much every VU song was gonna get votes, that meant that 60+ some slots would be taken up by VU material. If I was to do a 100-song results rollout based on that, that would mean that the vast majority of solo material stuff that people voted for wouldn't even place. I suppose I could have made it a 200-song results rollout, with the majority of solo career stuff coming in at the bottom.

But this way is cleaner and more interesting, imho.

k

I was hoping the solo votes wouldn't be swamped, so I appreciate the separate rollouts.

sensible, Solomonic

"Open House" is a very beautiful song.

Just seeing this for the first time. Nice call separating solo and VU.

The Gun wuz robbed!

Really? It was opening track on every other gig, as far as I know..

Let's rank those albums, hm?.

That's Lou on "Head Held High" (though I'd get that in before another VU nerd shows up).

No need to imagine the Supremes singing "Run Run Run," they had a single with that title in 1964 on which they sing the phrase similarly