HEROIN

still sounds darkly seductive and urgently contemporary

you wouldn't think that when you are up in court for getting captured on cctv doing the most pathetically amateurish bookie robbery ever with a chair leg posing as gun which gets you enough cash for a few medium bags rather than a 10 wrap. And facing additional charges for breaking and entering another business where you stole a replica gun (which you decided not to use in the bookie robbery!). And then getting something like 3 years for both offences. All a true story and I'll always be grateful I'm not that person and never was.

never thought of this song as “seductive” wtf is there a Mel Torme version I haven’t heard?

not sexually seductive. the romanticism is seductive. giving your life over to the pursuit of bliss. sinking away from your problems and boarding a great big clipper ship 1,000 years ago.

Isn’t it the fact that the velvets were unromantic about this shit part of what makes them special?

yeah sorry I’m out

i'm not pro- the drug heroin. but this song absolutely is powerful because it evokes the siren song of a deadly substance like that, why people would turn to it. not dishonestly -- i meant romanticism in the highest sense. the sublime.

it just came on shuffle and i was surprised how it leapt out of the speakers and didn't sound like a 60s artifact

you live a charmed life treeship, nagl to rub it in

i was excited to find some used heroin (gravity records math rock band) at the shop. the 90s post-hardcore graphic design still gets me going but i'm not sure the music does all that much for me. it's a bit "what if slint, but only the shout-y parts". i guess it's suitably heavy but without the elan of antioch arrow or the virtuosity of clickitat (with each of whom they shared members) it all comes off a bit flat

still more interesting in 2023 than heroin the VU song, tho

When I was a teenager the song definitely made heroin sound fun and exciting (getting drunk and puking out the window of a '88 S-10 Blazer was no "when I'm rushing on my run and I feeeeeel just like Jesus' son").

didn't lou reed say he hated this song because he knew it had killed people?

The bit in Jarhead (the book) about there being no such thing as an anti-war movie is also pretty true of drug songs IMO.

I was taken aback when someone said that reading Naked Lunch made them want to try heroin. It was my favourite book as a teenager and I never took it as anything but a warning against control systems, including drug addiction.

that was probably too harsh an assessment. they had some great songs

“with no name”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM75GdNNwA8

“comes to mind” ← practically a 10 min VU epic by the standards of san diego post-hc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQYYY6DhmpA

“head cold” ← IF YOU FEED A COLD / DOES IT GO AWAAAAAYYYYYYY??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUK5Cr6-RW0

does it? will it? whatevs

"heroin" the song does not move me and never has, always struck me as a corny power ballad. "waiting for the man" on the other hand.

that is a great song too. i love that whole album, the lore around it, and the quasi-mythic idea of "downtown new york" it evokes.

I find the tumble of images pretty compelling, and the denouement. It’s been excessively revered which ruined it as an experiment with form and subject, now it has to be an anthem and it sucks at that.

xp “uptown,” iirc

the album is definitely rooted in greenwich village culture. "i'm waiting for my man" is about a downtown guy going to harlem to score heroin.

I know, just joshin’

hm

that is a great song too. i love that whole album, the lore around it, and the quasi-mythic idea of "downtown new york" it evokes.

or whatever, I listen to vu/lou and the world is a sewer

Bad vibes are part of the gestalt I am talking about. I agree that there is a darkness that was a necessary corrective to the utopianism or whatever of the 60s.

"heroin" the song does not move me and never has, always struck me as a corny power ballad. "waiting for the man" on the other hand.

― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, January 24, 2023 2:12 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

x2

banana album their weakest album by a mile

The harsh music is what makes both the song jump out as well as deromanticising the lyrical content, somewhat.

The dissonance is what is great about this album, when it appears. I cannot agree that this is the weakest velvets album.

Not when there is the black angel’s death song, with cale’s demonic electric viola

Thought this thread was going to be about the superpitcher song

always loved this power ballad abt a junkie boyfriend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmAds0EKCWM

this is a really cool album

https://www.discogs.com/master/60897-Stephan-Mathieu-Ekkehard-Ehlers-Heroin

Does your heroin lose its glamour on the washboard overnight?

Thought this thread was going to be about the superpitcher song

same. thread title's in all-caps like on the record.

and you will see that there will be a receptionist of some description.

lol