Lou Reed RIP

That (VU) was the first one I heard. To say it blew my 12-year-old mind is something of an understatement, but middle school was a pretty lonely place for a Velvets fan. Trying to pry my friends away from Huey Lewis records was a losing battle.

(I also heard the MC5 for the first time that same week. That was a good week.)

xp

middle school is a lonely place for everyone
i was never into drugs, i just liked the sound/groove and lyrics that weren't extra super stupid

Is it wrong that I kind of want that Iggy Pop shirt?

I've always wondered about the album sales of acts like the VU, Big Star, Eno, Ramones and the like, massively influential cult acts who likely sold a pittance, assuming anyone was even keeping count. You'd think the sheer number of words written about each would pump up the bottom line a bit, but who knows. I was shocked when I learned it took the Sex Pistols album 25 years to go platinum in the US, given it's just, like, one record from one notorious band that sparked an honest to goodness before-and-after revolution. You'd think over the decades more than a million curious people might have picked it up.

I want the Iggy Pop shirt that just says "Rational" on it.

I'm sure I bought the OOP banana album during college from St Marks Sounds' used bin, probably for the princely sum of $10-12.

I got mine in the early days of ebay.

Think it was £50 or thereabouts. Reasonably intact banana.

I can't remember where I bought it, didn't seem as hard to find or expensive as the second and third albums. Banana not peelable though, just a picture, not a stick on.

cassette - Hannukah gift from my brother when I was 13. he gave me the third album too.

When I got into them, I think the studio albums were all out of print, and all I could find on CD were those VU and Another VU comps which were expensive iirc, and the 2 separate discs of 1969 which were cheap, so 1969 Vol 1 was my first VU.

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2013/10/30/quine.jpg

fun fact -- the woman on the right in this photograph was involved in local politics where i grew up and is related to robert quine (aunt maybe? not his mom, but related)
bonus: her name was jane

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6p23avsDm1rzge1ho1_1280.jpg

Found my cassette in a bin of $5.99 tapes in early '85, just after they were rereleased. (Also bought Scorpions' "Lonesome Crow" from the same bin lol).

lol La Lechera is that you on the left

lol no, i was an infant!

sorry for excessive pics, that's me on the right
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6p1xyQNSp1rzge1ho1_500.jpg

For me, I've somehow tapped into long-buried teenage feelings and energy that I haven't felt in ages. That and being made extremely aware that I am one of those people whose entire life was changed by this band. It's not unpleasant!

― sweat pea (La Lechera), Wednesday, October 30, 2013 1:16 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's crazy, this is happening to me too. at first i was jaded 'who gives a shit' then i started reading all those pieces talking about stuff that i guess i take for granted as mattering. i'm not even that big into vu and have heard barely any solo lou reed. the whole zeitgeist prompted me to do a sappy declaration of love on the phone to my boyfriend on monday night, surely not very lou reed-esque, at least the blubbery way i ended up doing it.

Nah Lou was corny you did right by him :-)

it needed more hip-shaking

I've always wondered about the album sales of acts like the VU, Big Star, Eno, Ramones and the like, massively influential cult acts who likely sold a pittance, assuming anyone was even keeping count.

The thing about Big Star is that the first record was barely distributed, and Radio City, iirc, never even left the warehouse (aside from review copies). I don't know how their Ardent stuff would even be accounted for.

yeah, on sunday morning when I heard he'd died I started thinking of various lyrics of his that seemed fitting and it made me weirdly unexpectedly emotional. the more I thought about it, the more I realized that all of the lines that hit me the hardest were lines that related to who I am in ways that I could never really explain or admit. I'm not much of a lyrics guy or an emotional guy so it was surprising to me to realize how much his lyrics actually spoke to me and for me in a way nobody else ever did.
xp

Drella is a bit too real

I hate Lou, I really do

i actually wonder if folks born after the baby boom are more likely to know the VU's music than boomers (or at least folks born 1940s–1950s). of course, boomers are pretty damn likely to have heard of it, especially if they were into rock music at the time. but we're talking about albums that in their first years of release sold not-that-many copies.

oh yeah for sure!

unless you're David Fricke.

of course, I don't want to generalize about generations b/c my milieu is generally 20- and 30-something college grads who to differing degrees can be characterized as "intellectuals." so of course lou reed and the VU have a pretty high batting average among people I know.

my father (b. 1952) gave me his vinyl copy of VU & Nico. Contra Eno, he never formed a band.

Neil weighs in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFaTN9V833o

They should have let EC take a verse.

The hippie guy seems to be paying more respect to Doug Yule than Lou.

like if you look at their lastfm stats, VU has 1.6 million listeners, but the first album only has 482k listeners. Who are these million VU fans who don't listen to the first album!?

fans with bad tags

Have any obits mentioned this forgotten track? I almost did in mine -- a throwaway on an '83 soundtrack, boasting a fabulous long solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exr90v_FraA

Lou at his sweetly autobiographical best

a throwaway on an '83 soundtrack

I guess it's a throwaway in the sense that it isn't on a record, but Lou is so central to that movie.

My memory was that was a kind of lightweight enjoyment music biz movie with that song coming at the end and kicking it up a notch. Was also a little surprised because I thought he might be singing the similarly titled tune by his old buddy we have already touched upon, Doc Pomus.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/30/metallica-lars-ulrich-lou-reed-rocknroll-poetry

Really nice remembrance by Lars Ulrich

yeah i shall put Get Crazy as his #3 film performance

If they'd both been plugged in, it would've been a monumental feedback titan summit for the ages. As it was, a very sweet moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AgsCTz144g

Morbs, would you recommend One-Trick Pony the movie?

I haven't seen it since '80 but yes.

One Trick Pony is great

Not Bowie's finest hour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeL5RcbpiM8

You guys, please don't post that really cringeworthy Elvis Costello/Lou video...

I don't mind their "Queen Bitch" and WL-WH at all.

Bowie and Reed's that is

the lou/vu tracks i put on my podcast tonight. didn't expect this to go in such a sad direction. "adventurer" is happy tho i guess.

Lou Reed - Wind Coda
Lou Reed - Halloween Parade
Velvet Underground - Some Kinda Love
Lou Reed - Downtown Dirt
Lou Reed - Andy's Chest
Lou Reed - How Do You Think It Feels
Lou Reed - Kill Your Sons
Lou Reed - The Bells
Velvet Underground - Here She Comes Now
Lou Reed - Bottoming Out
Lou Reed - Ride Into The Sun
Lou Reed - Think It Over
Lou Reed - Adventurer
Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion (Quine Tapes/Family Dog version)

This is a Nico song about Andy performed by John, nothing to do with Lou, but perhaps everything to do with Lou:

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

He was very open, he would say, "Lars, I love you", and text me a heart.

aw

. Ten minutes before the crash on European Son, you can hear Reed signpost his love of Motown by opening There She Goes Again with a musical quotation from Martha and the Vandellas' Hitch Hike.

That means it is right then.

Admittedly, that would depend on which record Lou had, Marvin's or Martha's.