Kind of interesting and weird to find out Shelley’s last name and read her description of young Lou.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 20:52 (four years ago) link
Only two people lasted until the end of the Velvets’ legendary Summit High School gig, but one went on to co-found Mission of Burma and the other to play bass in The Bongos.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:37 (four years ago) link
Never listened to this Velvets-backed version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” which mostly sounds like “I’m Waiting for the Man.”
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 10 July 2019 00:03 (four years ago) link
This doesn’t seem to have too many views, maybe it’s available somewhere else:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo_7Zqx2_Ek
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 July 2019 15:48 (four years ago) link
Reed’s own way of handling such situations was typically more blunt and frontal. At a birthday dinner for the novelist A. M. Homes at the Greenwich Village restaurant Il Cantinori, Reed noticed Anderson, seated across the table from him, enjoying a conversation with writer Lee Smith. Reed leaned across the table, glared at Smith, and challenged Anderson. “Who the fuck is this guy?” he asked. A devoted fan of Reed’s, Smith defused Reed’s anger by asking him about Delmore Schwartz.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 03:45 (four years ago) link
Anderson who(?)
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 03:52 (four years ago) link
Oh Laurie
Anderson Lawrie.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 06:52 (four years ago) link
Just barged through the DeCurtis book based on your various recommendations. Very well done, especially with respect to his wives and significant others.This may be challoups, but I relistened to The Blue Mask as I am wont to do ever decade or so and at this point all I care about is “Heavenly Arms.”
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 11:44 (four years ago) link
Every
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 11:46 (four years ago) link
"Our House," "Heavenly Arms," the title track," "Underneath the Bottle," "Gun," "Waves of Fear" -- great.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 11:52 (four years ago) link
Wow, yes, "Gun", what a monster of a track.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 11:58 (four years ago) link
It's fascinating how Reed's "The Gun" is the quiet, unsettling track while Cale's is the rocker.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 11:59 (four years ago) link
I listened to the album y’day... I have to skip “Gun,” I could handle it as a teen/younger guy, but not anymore.
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:00 (four years ago) link
Didn't like The Blue Mask at all at the time, would be surprised if it sounds any better to me today.
Just getting to WL/WH in the Bockris book. I knew the famous Cher quote about the VU--it turned up in Lilian Roxon's write-up on the band--but I don't think I knew about how violently they were rejected on the west coast in 1966.
― clemenza, Friday, 12 July 2019 12:08 (four years ago) link
Here’s an impromptu Blue Mask fact-check:
I remember where I was that day, I was Upstate in a barThe team from the University was playing football on TV
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:19 (four years ago) link
blue mask is perfect
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:30 (four years ago) link
It isn't, and that's partly why I love it (same deal for New Sensations, which I love even more).
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:32 (four years ago) link
I got the big box of rca/Arista recently, have played Take no prisoners, metal machine music and new sensations.
Hmm, where next?
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2019 13:05 (four years ago) link
Coney Island Baby, Set the Twilight Reeling, Ecstasy
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 13:06 (four years ago) link
I think it has only the first of those
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2019 13:12 (four years ago) link
luck you, that's the best one
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 15:07 (four years ago) link
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, July 12, 2019 5:32 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
new sensations is wonderful but blue mask has this otherworldly floating mood throughout even when it's furious and that is the main reason i think it is perfect even though i can't hum "the heroine" for you right now or whatever
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:19 (four years ago) link
Blue Mask is head and shoulders above everything else IMO
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:21 (four years ago) link
(of solo Lou, not all rock albums ever — but it’s up there too!)
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:22 (four years ago) link
Don't sleep on Legendary Hearts -- "Betrayed," "Martial Law," "Don't Talk To Me About Work," "Bottoming Out," "Rooftop Garden"...so much greatness there.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:30 (four years ago) link
Mixing Quine down blunts their impact as performances but not songs.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:31 (four years ago) link
Prefer Legendary Hearts tbh
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 15:32 (four years ago) link
Yeah Legendary Hearts is great, I remember when someone told me I needed to check it out and I was like "that record with the stupid motorcycle helmet on the cover?"
Classic
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 12 July 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public — I even came around quite a bit on Mistrial. Sally Can't Dance is probably my least fave 70s album of Lou's but it still has some fun stuff.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 July 2019 17:14 (four years ago) link
Ah, Lou Reed's motorcycle period...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkXxFCu7kPI
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 July 2019 17:17 (four years ago) link
going through that whole RCA box, the only album I really actively dislike is Growing Up In Public —
I kinda love Growing Up In Public, it's indefensible but entertaining.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 17:20 (four years ago) link
something about the band / arrangements on that record just makes me feel gross. "think it over" is pretty OK.
― tylerw, Friday, 12 July 2019 17:51 (four years ago) link
I was actually surprised at how much I liked Growing Up In Public. Sally Can't Dance had more decent moments than I was expecting, too. But Mistrial was a rough go. When I got the box a few years ago, that was my first time hearing Mistrial since 1986, and it somehow managed to sound much worse than I remembered it.
(And what will forever be a mystery to me is, as much as Lou revered Ornette Coleman's work, why did he always/only get the lamest saxophonists on earth to play in his bands?)
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:05 (four years ago) link
I love Sally Can't Dance! "Animal Language"! "Kill Your Sons"! "Billy"!
Of the 70s joints I've never really warmed to Rock'n'Roll Heart, I mean it's ok, I just don't love it
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 12 July 2019 18:12 (four years ago) link
R&RH is way duller than SCD
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:13 (four years ago) link
I pretty much like all his 70s albums tbh.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 18:18 (four years ago) link
Me too. It’s the 80s when he lost me.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:39 (four years ago) link
yup
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 19:40 (four years ago) link
I like the first half of the 80s well enough. I haven't listened to much thereafter.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:41 (four years ago) link
For instance I've never heard Mistrial.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
Alfred will never convince me of the virtues of Fernando Saunders's aimless bass farts
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
That sounds like a great credit: "Fernando Saunders on aimless bass".
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 July 2019 19:43 (four years ago) link
Yeah, the overdetermination of offenses including the Saunders abf, the tipping point where the Sprechgesang became more Sprechge than sang, and the endless guitar and microphone tech talk obsession that nevertheless seem to result in a generic clanky dry Strat sound or whatever.
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:08 (four years ago) link
haha yeah for someone who was reportedly super-obsessive about guitar sounds, from the late 70s on Lou's preferences are um strange to say the least.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:10 (four years ago) link
Including live records, I think Saunders has played on more of Lou's albums than any other musician.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:14 (four years ago) link
Seventies Lou:
Coney Island BabyTransformerRock 'n' Roll Animal
Eighties Lou:
The Blue MaskLegendary HeartsNew Sensations
Include New York (I won't but I won't quibble), Set the Twilight Reeling and Ecstasy and you've got one helluva run. To me it's an indisputable fact that Reed wrote more good songs and played and sang them better after 1982. I'm sorry if the so-called transgression of the seventies excites you. To me, the transgression was necessary for him to see the weird in the normal, like David Lynch learned.
Key line: "Things are never good, things go from bad to weird"
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:22 (four years ago) link
Berlin is sodden garbage -- an unnecessary and swollen gesture after TVU&N and WL/WH.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 20:23 (four years ago) link
lol I'm listening to it right now
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 July 2019 20:26 (four years ago) link
it's always seemed like an interesting failure tbh