Lou Reed Solo

"With You" is kinda fun – doesn't he use "capricious"?

rhymes with "death wish"!

Lou must've been pissed the first time he saw the album cover of The Stranger, knowing he could've done that.

I don't see the connection

need to hear the bells again, but i think sally can't dance is my fave studio Lou from the 1970's. it may be considered a throwaway but it seems more consistent to me than CIB and St. Hassle

"Ennui"!

I'd have to go back to it but I think I deleted like 2/3rds of Sally Can't Dance... the tracks that are good on it are REALLY good though. "Billy" (rhyming "foliage" with "college"!), the line about alimony in "Ennui", the title track

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXZ2C5Uil-0

All of the things that your old lover said
Look at them, they jump out of windows
And now they're just dead
It's the truth, don't you realize
Faded without any talent or fun
Running out in the streets, balling everyone
It's the truth, It's the truth
Pick up the pieces that make up your life
Maybe some day you'll have a wife and them alimony
Oh, can't you see

Lou was great at writing songs that capture that morning hangover feeling

Good Taste is the other good one on Sally Can't Dance. I think what bugged me about the rest of the album was the sorta nonsensical/inappropriate arrangements, backing band didn't work well with Lou in general imho

miss ya Bimble
:(

"Billy" holds up better in the memory. When I reheard it last month the inapposite guitar strums and clumsy rhymes bothered me this time.

"Animal Language" is kinda fun.

*"Serenade" rather.

I thought Ecstasy was the best thing Lou had done in a long time. Like, a LONG time (since Songs For Drella at least, probably since New York). I also enjoyed The Stone: Issue 3, the free improv blow-out on Tzadik w/ Laurie Anderson & John Zorn. Those two stand up to anything Mr. Reed has done, IMHO.

he Stone: Issue 3, the free improv blow-out on Tzadik w/ Laurie Anderson & John Zorn.

curious what Lou contributed to this, exactly

Set the Twilight Reeling is leaner and monochromatic, so I prefer it to the excellent Ecstacy -- and, yes, they're his best albums since the early eighties trilogy.

having listened a few times now I gotta say I kinda really love the sound of "The Bells". Sorta reminds me of the Dion/Spector album. Oddly, the consistently worst thing about it is Lou's vocals, sounds like he's straining way too much most of the time. Even so, plenty of killer lines, particularly in "Families", a couple others

i love The Bells; i think it's the density of the production/mix--cf, the overall thinness of GUIP just a year later--that makes all the difference between these relatively "ok" songs and those on other, comparably more or less hacked-out Reed records. probably my second fave '70s Lou disc really (Street Hassle will always come out tops for me).

yeah it took me by surprise - everything I'd read about it on the internet had led me to expect a much thinner/limp-sounding record. Were the stacked, overdriven synths an attempt to cop some movies from Bowie's Berlin-trilogy...? I think they come out sounding closer to La Dusseldorf or something.

well it was considered to be his art rock (a la Bowie, Eno, Heads, Gabriel) move at the time. so yeah, i suppose.

that's strange, it doesn't seem any art-ier than any of his other albums to me - its the usual mishmash of songs colliding with an inexplicably bizarre production aesthetic, which was pretty much his MO for the entire 70s

it wasn't as "street" as previous efforts, tho, and a helluva lot jazzier (sonically speaking), too. jazz + rock = art + rock. ^_^

the title track alone would probably be enough for people to say "art rock" at the time.

yeah I dunno I don't hear the "jazz", to be honest.

there's nothing on here as capital "J" JAZZY (or hilarious) as "Sheltered Life" off of Rock n Roll Heart, for example

Don Cherry plays on it -- what more do you want?

(but yeah, aside from that, not terribly jazzy)

I know and I love him but his presence alone doth not a jazz record make. I mean even some of Cherry's own stuff can only be classified as jazz in the broadest sense of the term. Brown Rice doesn't really swing, y'know?

Lou loved his Herbie Hancock records, that's for sure.

also this has to be some of the saddest lyrics Lou's ever written (Street Hassle comes close)

Mama, you tell me how's the family
And papa, tell me how thing's going by you
And little baby sister, I heard that you got married
And I heard that you had yourself a little baby girl, too
And here's some uncles and some cousins I know vaguely
And would you believe my old dog Chelsea's here, too
And would you believe nobody in this family
wanted to keep her
And now that dog's more of a part of this family
then I am, too
I don't come home much anymore
No-no-no I don't come home much anymore
Mama

And mama, I know how disappointed you are
And papa, I know that you feel the same way, too
And no-no-no-no-no I still haven't got married
And no-no-no there's no grandson planned here for you
And by the way, daddy tell me how's the business
I understand that your stock she's growing very high
No, daddy, you're not a poor man anymore
And I hope you'll realize that before you die
Because I don't come home much anymore
No-no-no-no-no I don't come home much no more
But daddy

And please-please-please-please-please
come on let's not start this business again
I know how much you resent the life that I have
But one more time, I don't want the family business
Don't want to inherit it upon the day that you die
Really, daddy should have given it to my sister
You know Elisabeth, you know Elisabeth
she has a better head for those things than I
She lives practically around the corner
That's really the kind of child you could be proud of
But papa, I know that this visit's a mistake
There's nothing here we have in common, except our name
And families that live out in the suburbs
Often make each other cry
And I don't think that I'll come home much anymore
No-no, I don't think I'll come home much again
Mama
Papa
Families
Often make each other cry
No, I don't think that I'll come home much anymore
(How's the families)

no, not "jazz record," '70s jazz-inspired sonics. dig?

xp

luv "Families."

Favourite track is "All Through the Night"

'70s jazz-inspired sonics. dig?

I... guess? what 70s jazz record sounds like this?

@ Moshy: I think that's his guitar gettin' all squeely in there. Sometimes hard to distinguish from Zorn's blowin'. ;-)

whoa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Ngt7VY-Iw

That rules.

will go to my grave saying that album's overcondemned

SING ALONG WITH LOU

"She was the first girl
in her neighbourhood
to get raped in Tompkins Square...
real good"

Lou too bored to sing along with Lou

http://25.media.tumblr.com/f480ebfbdc358daf1048c2f1aa537b33/tumblr_mhmtj3PaEa1s54i6co1_400.jpg
i listened to sally can't dance a couple weeks ago -- pretty good! worst thing is the sax on "billy".

lol that's one of the only songs I like on the album

i think the song is ok, but man, that dude playing the sax! like he runs out of ideas about 15 seconds in and has to keep playing for another three minutes.

standard lou reed operating procedure!

not denying its essential cheeseball Saturday Night Live-ness

earotic sax

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjL0HPeCIAAxlsj.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/a152bdb00e88655976632a6696c8f433/tumblr_n3h4darPRJ1qckm0wo1_500.jpg

think i'm going to listen to ecstasy on the bus ride home