I got the big box of rca/Arista recently, have played Take no prisoners, metal machine music and new sensations.
Hmm, where next?
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2019 13:05 (five years ago) link
Coney Island Baby, Set the Twilight Reeling, Ecstasy
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 13:06 (five years ago) link
I think it has only the first of those
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2019 13:12 (five years ago) link
luck you, that's the best one
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 15:07 (five years ago) link
It isn't, and that's partly why I love it (same deal for New Sensations, which I love even more).
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, July 12, 2019 5:32 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
new sensations is wonderful but blue mask has this otherworldly floating mood throughout even when it's furious and that is the main reason i think it is perfect even though i can't hum "the heroine" for you right now or whatever
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:19 (five years ago) link
Blue Mask is head and shoulders above everything else IMO
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:21 (five years ago) link
(of solo Lou, not all rock albums ever — but it’s up there too!)
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:22 (five years ago) link
Don't sleep on Legendary Hearts -- "Betrayed," "Martial Law," "Don't Talk To Me About Work," "Bottoming Out," "Rooftop Garden"...so much greatness there.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:30 (five years ago) link
Mixing Quine down blunts their impact as performances but not songs.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:31 (five years ago) link
Prefer Legendary Hearts tbh
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:32 (five years ago) link
Yeah Legendary Hearts is great, I remember when someone told me I needed to check it out and I was like "that record with the stupid motorcycle helmet on the cover?"
Classic
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 12 July 2019 16:55 (five years ago) link
going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public — I even came around quite a bit on Mistrial. Sally Can't Dance is probably my least fave 70s album of Lou's but it still has some fun stuff.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 July 2019 17:14 (five years ago) link
Ah, Lou Reed's motorcycle period...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXxFCu7kPI
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 July 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public —
I kinda love Growing Up In Public, it's indefensible but entertaining.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 17:20 (five years ago) link
something about the band / arrangements on that record just makes me feel gross. "think it over" is pretty OK.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 July 2019 17:51 (five years ago) link
I was actually surprised at how much I liked Growing Up In Public. Sally Can't Dance had more decent moments than I was expecting, too. But Mistrial was a rough go. When I got the box a few years ago, that was my first time hearing Mistrial since 1986, and it somehow managed to sound much worse than I remembered it.
(And what will forever be a mystery to me is, as much as Lou revered Ornette Coleman's work, why did he always/only get the lamest saxophonists on earth to play in his bands?)
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:05 (five years ago) link
I love Sally Can't Dance! "Animal Language"! "Kill Your Sons"! "Billy"!
Of the 70s joints I've never really warmed to Rock'n'Roll Heart, I mean it's ok, I just don't love it
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 12 July 2019 18:12 (five years ago) link
R&RH is way duller than SCD
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:13 (five years ago) link
I pretty much like all his 70s albums tbh.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:18 (five years ago) link
Me too. It’s the 80s when he lost me.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link
yup
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 19:40 (five years ago) link
I like the first half of the 80s well enough. I haven't listened to much thereafter.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:41 (five years ago) link
For instance I've never heard Mistrial.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:42 (five years ago) link
Alfred will never convince me of the virtues of Fernando Saunders's aimless bass farts
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 19:42 (five years ago) link
That sounds like a great credit: "Fernando Saunders on aimless bass".
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:43 (five years ago) link
Yeah, the overdetermination of offenses including the Saunders abf, the tipping point where the Sprechgesang became more Sprechge than sang, and the endless guitar and microphone tech talk obsession that nevertheless seem to result in a generic clanky dry Strat sound or whatever.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:08 (five years ago) link
haha yeah for someone who was reportedly super-obsessive about guitar sounds, from the late 70s on Lou's preferences are um strange to say the least.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:10 (five years ago) link
Including live records, I think Saunders has played on more of Lou's albums than any other musician.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:14 (five years ago) link
Seventies Lou:
Coney Island BabyTransformerRock 'n' Roll Animal
Eighties Lou:
The Blue MaskLegendary HeartsNew Sensations
Include New York (I won't but I won't quibble), Set the Twilight Reeling and Ecstasy and you've got one helluva run. To me it's an indisputable fact that Reed wrote more good songs and played and sang them better after 1982. I'm sorry if the so-called transgression of the seventies excites you. To me, the transgression was necessary for him to see the weird in the normal, like David Lynch learned.
Key line: "Things are never good, things go from bad to weird"
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:22 (five years ago) link
Berlin is sodden garbage -- an unnecessary and swollen gesture after TVU&N and WL/WH.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link
lol I'm listening to it right now
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:26 (five years ago) link
it's always seemed like an interesting failure tbh
that's my thought about Mistrial.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:27 (five years ago) link
like, the last producer Lou Reed is Bob Goddamn Ezrin.
yeah the conventional wisdom that this was a terrible mismatch rings true
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:29 (five years ago) link
"The Kids" works, but it could've been on Transformer.
Actually, the conventional wisdom is that it's one of his greatest records, unfairly maligned at the time.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:31 (five years ago) link
maligning was fair, was what I was getting at
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:41 (five years ago) link
I love it. I didn't hear it until 2013, but it made me realize that huh, I guess I really did want to hear Lou Reed's The Wall.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:45 (five years ago) link
Weird to see only three mentions of Street Hassle on this thread. Always liked that one though that’s also bc it was my first Lou solo LP. I can’t rate it over some of the others of his I’ve picked up since though.
― omar little, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:46 (five years ago) link
related: https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=15150
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:49 (five years ago) link
Feel like Street Hassle gets more play on some other Lou threads. The album as whole is a bit uneven but the title track is a definite career high point.(xp)
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:50 (five years ago) link
At the end of this thread I put a link to a good article about the recording of Street Hassle, which I probably should have put at the end of the Street Hassle thread itself, but hey, I’m unpredictable, just like Lou himself: In Praise Of...Lou Reed "Take No Prisoners"
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:59 (five years ago) link
To me, the transgression was necessary for him to see the weird in the normalSorry, to me there is something disingenuous about his latter day fascination with the normal. Perhaps Shakey and I, as readers of the rolling sf thread, are especially wary of this cheesy defamiliarization technique.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 21:08 (five years ago) link
honestly I could care less about the shift in lyrical content, if there even is much of one, it's the sonics I can't stand
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 21:10 (five years ago) link
Perhaps you would have preferred if he had started playing fingerstyle?
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 21:10 (five years ago) link
thumbstyle
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 21:11 (five years ago) link
LOL I don't necessary agree, but this is a great post
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 21:12 (five years ago) link
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 21:14 (five years ago) link
Sorry, to me there is something disingenuous about his latter day fascination with the normal.
have you heard him sing? It's like imagining Donald Trump singing nursery rhymes. The Fascination with the Normal is precisely what gives those post-1982 albums (the good ones) their creepiness.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 13 July 2019 12:49 (five years ago) link
Are you saying the creepiness is intentional? And desirable?
― Ask Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 13 July 2019 14:09 (five years ago) link