Best song Lou Reed ever wrote?

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Jesus and I'm Set Free

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 19 December 2002 00:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Aside from Caroline and Candy, there was also Lisa.

― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 19 December 2002 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, I didn't know Lou Reed wrote "For All Tomorrow's Parties" - that a good one too but I think Heroin is the best.

― toraneko (toraneko), Thursday, 19 December 2002 01:05 (twenty-three years ago)

"I'm Waiting For The Man" for Velvets, I like the economy of the wording. Conversely I pick "Wild Child" for solo Reed, cause of the great lyrical details.

― Poppy (poppy), Thursday, 19 December 2002 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

I think New York is full of magnificent songs that stands up as a whole.
Almost as awesome as Berlin.

― Chris K, Friday, 19 November 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

There is also a song called "Stephanie Says", I think, maybe from VU days - nice version.

"I wanna play footbal for the coach" on Coney Island Baby is pretty good too.

Don't wast your money on The Raven or Machine Music - unless your a hard core collector.

― Chris K, Friday, 19 November 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Ride Into The Sun

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 19 November 2004 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Coney Island Baby fourthed. So dreamy, poetic, truthful. It inspired me to play a hundred songs in this fashion.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 19 November 2004 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I really love "Beginning to See the Light" and "SOme Kinda Love"

― chris herrington (chris herrington), Friday, 19 November 2004 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

At the moment - Run,run,run

― Seuss, Friday, 19 November 2004 08:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm gonna wave a little flag for "Candy Says".

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 19 November 2004 08:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn this is tuff. Until I have more time to think about it I'm going to go with the live version of Waiting For My Man off Take No Prisoners, even though I realize there's a lot more comedy and weirdness than song-ness per se.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 19 November 2004 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree, God, this is such a tough call.

So many of the great VU songs have a group writing credit that I don't know if they really count; my copies of "Loaded" and "VU" don't say who specifically wrote "Temptation Inside Your Heart" or "Cool It Down" or "Hey Mr. Rain". So I dunno if they go to Lou or not. But they are fabulous songs, and don't get their due I think because the chestnuts are "Sunday Morning" and "Femme Fatale".

"Street Hassle" to thread, for sure.

If we're picking "Metal Machine Music", (and we should), then it's all about side four: the locked groove, people!

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Friday, 19 November 2004 08:48 (twenty-one years ago)

; my copies of "Loaded" and "VU" don't say who specifically wrote "Temptation Inside Your Heart" or "Cool It Down" or "Hey Mr. Rain".

I think they're all Lou.

― My Son Calls Another Man Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 November 2004 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

VU: What Goes On
solo: How Do You Think It Feels

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I Love You, Suzanne.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Lou is easily my favourite songwriter so I couldn't pick one..... but "Lisa Says" is one deserving of praise but often overlooked... ditto "I Love You"... "All Through the Night"... there's far too many to mention!

― My Son Calls Another Man Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I Love YOU, Suzanne.
I mean that,

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I love YOU, Suzanne.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 19 November 2004 10:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"Street Hassle" is amazing. I can't pick a VU fave though!

― haitch haitch haitch (or any three repetitive sounds) (haitch), Friday, 19 November 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the pretty ones; and since I can't choose between "Candy Says" and "Lisa Says" and "Stephanie Says", I'll go with "I'll Be Your Mirror". All Velvets songs, o'course - I don't give a damn about solo Lou aside from Metal Machine Music

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 19 November 2004 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Sweet Jane and Romeo and Juliette

― Onzong Lee, Friday, 19 November 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Satellite of Love. I don't think there's a prettier song in my music collection.

― seedy poops in the woods (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Friday, 19 November 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

No love for "Rock and Roll"? Despite all the comp-u-ta-tions you know you could just dance to a rock-n-roll station. What could be better than that?

― BrianB (BrianB), Friday, 19 November 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I dunno, it's probably really "Femme Fatale." In that it's a song you can do any number of ways. "Pale Blue Eyes" same, they're Klassiks of American Songwriting. They're such Songs 101 songs, simple, very my-first-song-I-ever-learned-on-guitar. Kids should learn them early along with "Row Row the Boat" and "Happy Birthday." Lou Reed leaves no child behind and all that.

But maybe "Sweet Jane," which after all is his best riff and his best-known song after "Walk on the Wild Side," which is a great RECORD and it's a song too, absolutely. "Rock and Roll" is another good one to cover. "Head Held High" is a good basic one. "Wild Child" and "Satellite" I heard last night for the first time in a L.T. and they're good ones too. His later stuff, I don't consider "New Sensations" a "song" in the same way as "Pale Blue" but it's good, real good, as is most of that album. "Don't Talk to Me About Work" is a good one. After that, I never heard most of it, I did get "The Raven" for my birthday last year and I have listened to it. But Lou, he's pathetic now.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 19 November 2004 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought they were amp-u-tay-shuns

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 19 November 2004 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, absolutely Lisa Says! Damn I should have thought of that one first. okthanxbye.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 20 November 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean the live 1969 version, of course.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 20 November 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Bimble, that is a GREAT version! I remember long ago being a teenager one Saturday walking into a record store up on Broadway near Columbia University where they were playing that and thinking: what they heck is this?

I'm too big a fan to pick one, but I like eddie's rundown up above. If I have to pick, almost anything from the first album, but obviously here the John Cale influence is very strong. I guess I'll go with that "song about love between man and subway," Waiting for the Man. For a good analysis of this song, see a Robert Quine interview at the old Perfect Sound Forever.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean those 4 albums are all great, the VU stuff. I've grown to like "Run Run Run" and "European Son" and the weird stuff on the second album like "Brother Ray" and "The Gift." Those are the things I go back to now, I'm kind of over the third album just like I'm over the Beatles. Some of the things on those two VU outtake albums are great too, always liked "Ferryboat Bill." "Beginning to See the Light" is a good candidate for Greatest Song He Wrote too. I guess enough people have heard those first 3 albums to make them alive in the popular consciousness, but it's gonna be "Sweet Jane" and "Walk on the Wild Side" that America will fondly look back on when it's said and done.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

If you play a Strokes fan "Coney Island Steeplechase" you can fool them into thinking it's an unreleased Strokes B-side.

Best songs to me are the ballads: Pale Blue Eyes, Femme Fatale, Mirror....although among his latest songs I'd say the song is Baton Rouge.

― shookout (shookout), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

With the Velvets: Changes daily. Listening to "Foggy Notion" now. The version of "Ride into the Sun" from the Quine tapes makes me quite happy. I'll also second "Stephanie Says" and nominate "Hey Mr. Rain" (particularily the second version) for the most unfairly overlooked VU song.
Solo: The first three albums on the whole are quintessential.

― J.H. Malerman (xada_hgla), Saturday, 16 September 2006 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

Lately I blast "I Love You, Suzanne."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 16 September 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Ignoring Sweet Jane for the moment..."Merry Go Round"?

― Ficky Stingers (Bimble...), Sunday, 17 September 2006 08:05 (nineteen years ago)

Mistrial's "The Original (w)rapper", cuz he was.

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Sunday, 17 September 2006 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

"The New Age"

― Erroneous Botch (joseph cotten), Monday, 18 September 2006 02:00 (nineteen years ago)

I only like 10% of the Tori Amos that I've heard, but her cover of "New Age" was just scorching.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 18 September 2006 02:30 (nineteen years ago)

"New Age" as a White Album era Lennon rocker.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 18 September 2006 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

"What Goes On" and "Strawman" (for the guitar solo)

― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Monday, 18 September 2006 05:41 (nineteen years ago)

who loves the sun and Wild child

― emekars (emekars), Monday, 18 September 2006 07:29 (nineteen years ago)

corretion: make it - Oh! sweet nothin' and Wild Child

― emekars (emekars), Monday, 18 September 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

venus in furs, candy says. tie

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 18 September 2006 12:56 (nineteen years ago)

I can't stop blasting Waves of Fear.

Show you where my state of mind is.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

Should be a POV, at least... torn between "Venus In Furs" and "Pale Blue Eyes".

"Thought of you as my mountaintop / Thought of you as my peak / Thought of you as everything / I had but couldn't keep" is a hall of fame lyric.

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 18 September 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

Definitely "Rock and Roll," with "Perfect Day" not far behind.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 18 September 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

'perfect day' is my favourite lou reed solo track.

there are about 5 velvet tracks that jump in ahead of it however

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Charley's Girl" is another one of my favourites!

― Oh No It's Dadaismus! (Dada), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 11:48 (nineteen years ago)

Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

I can think of many best songs.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 3 March 2018 02:40 (eight years ago)

good list, you not a fan of Drella?

― piscesx, Saturday, 3 March 2018 12:46 (eight years ago)

Skipping 13 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

There's a white prism with phony jism

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 3 March 2018 22:55 (eight years ago)

Man, what an impossible question. But at least sentimentally I guess I always come back to "I Love You" (where I think he might be being sincerely loving) and "Perfect Day" (where I'm pretty sure he's being deeply biting). . . "The Bed" really cripples me, and "Street Hassle" always wows me, too.

― Soundslike, Saturday, 3 March 2018 23:24 (eight years ago)

Oh, flappy, yeah, "Pale Blue Eyes" is waay up there, too

― Soundslike, Saturday, 3 March 2018 23:24 (eight years ago)

I love that line in “My House” —

I really got a lucky life
My writhing, my motorcycle and my wife

— and particularly how the “life/wife” rhyme echoes the long-ago rhyme in “Heroin” (in a very different context).

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 March 2018 23:54 (eight years ago)

* that’s ”writing,” not “writhing” (wtf)

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 March 2018 23:55 (eight years ago)

It would have been 'writhing' if he'd written it a ten years earlier or later.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Sunday, 4 March 2018 00:32 (eight years ago)

lol

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 4 March 2018 00:36 (eight years ago)

VU era: some kinda love
solo: coney island baby

― i remember the corned beef of my childhood (Karl Malone), Sunday, 4 March 2018 00:47 (eight years ago)

I love that line in “My House” —

I really got a lucky life
My writhing, my motorcycle and my wife

— and particularly how the “life/wife” rhyme echoes the long-ago rhyme in “Heroin” (in a very different context).

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 March 2018 23:54 (five days ago) Permalink

Also a testament to Lou I had to really stop and think "wait is it writhing?" for second there

Anyway the correct answer is Rock Minuet

― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 8 March 2018 20:23 (eight years ago)

that is a very dark song

I'd choose something lighter, he was a humanist at heart right?

― niels, Saturday, 10 March 2018 19:40 (eight years ago)

What Goes On, Rock and Roll, I'm Waiting for the Man

Waves of Fear, Coney Island Baby, Mad

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 10 March 2018 19:52 (eight years ago)

And special love to The Last Shot for the most insane Lou lyric ever (and that's saying quite a bit)

I shot a vein in my neck and coughed up a quaalude

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 10 March 2018 19:54 (eight years ago)

VU: Sweet Jane
70s: Coney Island Baby
80s: Waves of Fear
90s: Hello It's Me
00s: Modern Dance
10s: Junior Dad

― niels, Saturday, 10 March 2018 20:02 (eight years ago)

I couldn’t even pick a “best song” from "The Blue Mask" alone. That album is extraordinary...

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 10 March 2018 21:05 (eight years ago)

three years pass...

Covers comp coming: https://acerecords.co.uk/what-goes-on-the-songs-of-lou-reed

― beer drops on my keytar (morrisp), Friday, 26 March 2021 19:46 (five years ago)

'walk like an egyptian'

― John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Friday, 26 March 2021 19:52 (five years ago)

oh wait, that's the bagnles

― John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Friday, 26 March 2021 19:52 (five years ago)

one month passes...

Sorry, it was Prince

― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Sunday, 2 May 2021 19:54 (five years ago)

Oh he wrote more profound tunes, but when I just put the question to myself the first tune I heard was "She's My Best Friend". It is one of those songs that sounds like the whole song is a chorus.

― earlnash, Sunday, 2 May 2021 22:19 (five years ago)

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