Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby album

the first Lou Reed album I bought back in 1988 - Kicks literally shocked me.

this is my most-listened-to Lou Reed album, had it since high school.

I think it appeals to me so much because sonically its Lou doing a fairly straight 70s singer-songwriter-ish sound. Lyrically its very clever, a lot of funny surprises, bleak in places, sweet in others. The title track is perfect.

Both versions are sufficiently different to be appreciated on their own merits.

I agree with this, and I appreciate their differences.

yeah, VU version doesn't have great backing vocal tag on the end iirc

http://sp1.yt-thm-a04.yimg.com/image/25/m1/1874962328

Okay, seriously, who has heard the bonus tracks on the reissue and who hasn't?

Oh no, these bonus tracks are to die for. Oh no. You don't even KNOW what you are missing. Jesus. Even "Leave Me Alone" (which I find intolerable on Street Hassle) sounds utterly delicious here.

"Crazy Feeling" (alternate version) = fans of early Violent Femmes can go to hell

I mean, you guys realize there's an alternate version of "She's My Best Friend" on here that absolutely shreds, right?

But you haven't lived until you've heard the alternate version of "Coney Island Baby" the title track. You have not even begun to live.

Ooooo baby ooo baby oooooo baby oooooooooo baby ooooo baby ooooooooooooo shake yo bunz now mama

"Nowhere At All" makes me feel like a little kid just discovering the Beatles for the first time.

CHARLEY'S GIRL = astonishing that this has never been used in a wes anderson movie so far.

Okay who has heard the bonus tracks, though? Seriously?

Because once you hear the bonus tracks, you will never be the same.

alright already, you sold me; i'll be getting the remaster sometime in the near future. sheesh... who's next?

I couldn't find the bonus tracks/reissue version posted anywhere - and I am not buying another copy of this album just to hear them.

this album's great -- and the bonus tracks are worth hearing (dougie yule's on some of them!). i wrote about this reissue (along with cale's paris 1919 reish) here: http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=1959

Where has this album been all my life?

― Bimble, Thursday, October 2, 2008 2:31 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the guitars all over this album reminds me of the shit on the title track of l'homme a tete de chou

(u still need the reissue versh, shakey mo? i found it somewhere)

link?

ilm mail works?

sure - many thanks!!!

hey can you hook me up too

This has some of Reed's best vocals. I like how he's not in the cool, bad ass hipster mode, but just being Lou.

I need to hear those bonus tracks.

whoah some of these bonus tracks are clearly proto-Street Hassle in sound/delivery. Doesn't work so well on "She's My Best Friend", but "Leave Me Alone" is great!! "Downtown Dirt" too. Can't decide if the alt. versino of title track is better than the official one or not - some sweet stuff here, muchas gracias!

lolz this review is great

You can play on my team any day, Lou.

"Keep the fuck away from my ass, Lou."

When I die, please bury some talisman of Lou Reed with me. Just some symbol of him, anything. A tiny shred of his album cover, anything. When I die, he's going to be there, man. He's gonna wave to me and smile, and I'll know my life wasn't in vain.

^^^

holy shit

aw. poor bim. this album sounded rilly good to me recently. felt like an old friend i hadn't seen in a long time.

Coney Island Baby is probably (at least sometimes) my favorite Lou solo album. And now it means just a little bit more.

Lou is gonna be King Neptune and Laurie Anderson Queen Mermaid in the 2010 Coney Island Mermaid parade

http://www.coneyisland.com/mermaid.shtml

The Coney Island Parade King and Queen, Lou and Laurie look so cute in the photo...

yeah, this is the best Lou Reed solo album, in my opinion.

lol at King Neptune Lou Reed.

Anderson looks adorable. Lou looks like poached salmon.

He is Neptune after all

even after all these years, they still seem like a weird couple. when are they going to do a reality show. "I Love Lou"?

^^^

holy shit

― Here is a tasty coconut. Sorry for my earlier harshness. (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 May 2010 00:43 (16 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is too much.

RIP Bimble.

Its always a tough choice for me, but Coney Island Baby is steady in there for my favorite Lou Reed platter. I'm also a supporter of Street Hassle, Sally Can't Dance, the Blue Mask, Berlin, and New York. Depends on my mood I guess. I can also say that I actually LIKE Metal Machine Music. Speaking of Lou & Laurie, their recording with John Zorn is absolutely great, unlike the grande snoozefest that is Lou's recent ambient tribute to a river.

haha waht

Lou's recent ambient tribute to a river

seriously, haven't heard word one about this

it was like music he used for tai chi iirc

He sang Laurie Anderson to sleep by imitating a flowing river.

you know you want it
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/l/lou-reed/album-hudson-river-wind-meditations.jpg

That font is so 1998.

the album's ok. if it was a stars of the lid record or something, people on ILX would be all over it.

I heard a great Lou radio interview recently. Mostly about his photography, but he spent a loooooong time talking very seriously about how he just got some special shoes that simulate being barefoot. Totally the kind of conversation I find myself in within 3 minutes of meeting a friend of my mom's. Kinda made you realize how dude is pushing 70 hard.

Something like a circus or a sewer

I thought it was "something like a circus or a zoo"?

I hear sewer and that’s what written someplace as well

Yeah it’s sewer (tho I’m the guy who thought for 25 years that the man up on Lexington & 125 wore “Dior shoes”)

Ha, I sometimes think that. I believe it is "New York shoes" but can never be too sure.

It’s apparently “PR shoes” (a term I had never heard).

oh yeah, that too. PR meaning Puerto Rican, I believe.

Funny thing is that at least one music streaming service has the lyrics to Lou’s song attached to the other song with this name by The Excellents.

Heh, more than one. This song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Vr4hEo6Vs

i wanna play football for the coach

Actually I was a pole vaulter.

I went out of the sectionals at 8' 6''... that's pathetic!

^this

Loving his “Foux du Fafa” nasalization near the end.

About a minute before the end

something like a circus or a sewer

Never knew Bob Kulick’s name until just now. RIP a year and a half late, Bob.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2012/11/a-look-at-the-poems-of-louis-reed-in-an-old-issue-of-the-harvard-advocate

https://blog.theharvardadvocate.com/blog/post/2012-11-13-from-the-archives-lou-reed-the-velvet-u/

Can’t remember if I wondered yet on this thread about which version of “The Glory of Love” Lou was referring to, always thought it must be this one, which also seems to be referred to by his arch-frenemy and erstwhile label mate Frank Zappa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-prFT-eLxY

HI DERE

a little too lightweight to play linebacker

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOz5Dv1WQAUqOWa?format=png&name=small

Nothing says "Rock'n'Roll Animal" like a tuxedo t-shirt and a free hot dog.

I do wish Coney Island Baby had better/different cover art.

There are other shots from the Mick Rock photo session that I think would have been better, but I like how on the actual cover shot Reed looks simultaneously 20 and 90 years old.

the bad cover is pretty perfect

I like the ones that Reed described as "look(ing) like an android, programmed to assassinate", but the carnival barker shot fits the mood of the album better.

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/22/a9/fc/22a9fc9a5fe2dd051e4e0d2f7b9b0872--source-of-inspiration-private-life.jpg

^You’d like to send this one out to them, right?

Well, yeah.

Actually I just picked up another used vinyl copy of this album to replace my already pretty tapped out $1 garage sale one, and found that shot while trying to find a pic of the former's back cover, which is one of those budget versions that's different from the original in kind of a dumb way.

My new used copy used to belong to this radio station, which apparently has gone under a format change since then:

https://www.radiolineup.com/stations/WPRG-FM

I feel like its pretty clearly a joel grey reference

I’d like to send this one out to HOOS and Jor-El.

"your old man was the B&E man down on the street'