Best song Lou Reed ever wrote?

solo, hmmm, I would like to pick one of my favorite Reed album, Berlin, but those songs are great in the context of the whole album, picking one single song out of it would deminish it's impact. Therefor: Street Hassle.

Just kidding.

I like "Waiting for the Man" and "What Goes On" and uh shit I forget the name of the song on the third VU album that talks about "put jelly on your shoulder" fuck it 'cause I like that one a lot too and of course "Sweet Sister Ray" but I'm not so big on his solo stuff aside from Transformer and on that I'd probably rate "Vicious" or "Andy's Chest."

Time for more coffee.

Some Kinda Love

A*RIGHT! not that i 'avent any good thoughts on Lou, mind:

"Pale Blue Eyes" is just one of the many great songs of the Velvety period,
and quite a few on "Drella" more than just hold up,
and yes, the Berlin alb as a whole is very good.

but i've never given a tiniest toss 'bout the friggin' "Walk on the Wild Side"

"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.

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!

I think they're all Lou.

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.

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.

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.

I can think of many best songs.

good list, you not a fan of Drella?

I am but I prefer Cale's tunes.

live in italy version of "betrayed" has always been one of my fave moments of RQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plh-3ej1t0M

didn't mean to embed, sry

I really think 'Legendary Hearts' is one of Lou's most beautiful songs.
A bit of a 'Everybody Hurts' sentiment going on, but then, I love grand sweeping gestures.

One of my favorites is "Busload of Faith". I always really dug how the New York album, as it's real stripped down and live sounding.

can think of many best songs.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 2, 2018 6:40 PM

Taste is taste; but the positioning of “Coney Island Baby” on that list almost leads me to conclude you are trolling

Perfect Day and Stephanie Says.

Not very exciting answers but you know. I find halloween day parade really affecting too.

aste is taste; but the positioning of “Coney Island Baby” on that list almost leads me to conclude you are trolling

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp)

Don't take lists too seriously. The song made it, you're good.

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx-mH9ZjnuM

pale blue eyes

Alfred, Our House is called My House.

And this should be on your list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gveePL9Ft2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l4FI88FkQU

There's a white prism with phony jism

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.

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

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).

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

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

lol

VU era: some kinda love
solo: coney island baby

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

that is a very dark song

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

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

Waves of Fear, Coney Island Baby, Mad

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

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

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

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

'walk like an egyptian'

oh wait, that's the bagnles

Sorry, it was Prince

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.