Search And Destroy: Lou Reed

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.