Lou Reed Solo

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

I was listening to the "Sally Can't Dance" this morning for the first time in forver and it was a lot better then I remember. Something about the sleazy bar-band r&b combined with Lou "Lou-ing" really makes for something...odd.

"Animal Language"!

I can only imagine how Lou zig-zagged around the beat singing these songs live

new sensations is kind of a jam throughout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQgLn4zo-wA&feature=kp

I really can't stand the overall sound of Sally Can't Dance. I've only kept three songs from it (guess which ones)

can't stand the sound of Rock n Roll Animal either tbh

I used to hate Rock N Roll Animal, I remember just cringing the first time I heard it when I was in college, but I've really come around to it. Esp in the last five yrs or so.

My wife, a die hard Velvets fan, who doesn't have much time for solo Lou considers RnR Animal to be a crime against nature

yeah i'm still on the "why no i dont recall wishing lou would replace the velvets with the silver bullet band" side when it comes to rnr animal

i mean i may turn around on it, lou reed with the silver bullet band does sound not unamusing

but basically any "lou aims for cobo hall" re-arrangement of a velvets song/demo <<<<<<< the velvets song/demo

i forgive 70s critics for being kinder because they were coming from a "why ISNT lou more successful, maybe female background vocalists will do the trick" pov

also it was hard to hear VU before Lou Reed when VU hadn't come out

For me it scratches a certain itch, when I think of those songs I don't usually think of the RnR Anminal vers but it's cool to hear them in a different context.

I saw Jandek a few days after Lou passed and I really, really wanted him to come out and just do a note perfect vers of "Sweet Jane" from RnR Animal.

That, sadly, did not happen.

None other than Sterling Morrison himself nailed what the problem was with that album, more or less, saying something like "these guys use the same guitar tone on every single song from beginning to end, same tone, same volume, they never switch it up." Of course it doesn't help that it is a guitar tone I hate with the heat of a thousand suns.

lol at da croupier

i've kinda come around on the r&r animal band/arrangements, but i did hate it for a long time. some of it still makes me cringe.
speaking of weird eras, this show from 1986 has a totally weird band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv9ZlE3ymZY

i found a fernando saunders solo lp on the street for a buck a few months ago but still haven't gotten around to playing it

this one

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXAYRBxibrs/TbCYdnk8CbI/AAAAAAAAA2k/Mkc0jZvXBos/s400/Fernando%2BSaunders%2B-%2BCashmere%2BDreams.gif

bah

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXAYRBxibrs/TbCYdnk8CbI/AAAAAAAAA2k/Mkc0jZvXBos/s400/Fernando%2BSaunders%2B-%2BCashmere%2BDreams.gif

haha, man, if light in the attic put that out, people would be creaming over it a la this lewis dude.