Search And Destroy: Lou Reed

I went to high school with Doug Yule, you can't say that!

Haha yeah the interview segment is adorable. LOVE American Poet, didnt know about the RSD release, excited to check that out

i've had the bootleg of that alice tully hall show for ages, but glad to see it's being cleaned up and made a part of the official canon. not as good as the American Poet show but pretty damn good.

I like AP so far, wondering how I should compare it versus Live at Max's.

Lou's singing is still pretty good, the band are a bit over-enthusiastic.

It's like an entire band of Billy Yules.

Ha!

I never heard this backing band (called The Tots) until American Poet came out. The Lou Reed biography by Diana Clapton was extremely negative about them, but based on that record, at least, their playing was a lot more pertinent than the Hunter/Wagner band.

I think they were just a bar band from Yonkers, not sure how they ended up backing Lou Reed!

I always thought their sound suited those tunes way better than the R&R Animal-era stuff that I've heard, which I've never dug at all

Yes, that's how I feel.

This is totally random/trivial (and more about RCA than Reed), but I'm curious:

As a preteen, I owned (and often listened to) a tape of this Best-Of comp; but looking at that Wikipedia page now, I'm struck by the fact that my copy didn't have all those songs.

Referencing the Discogs page for the album, and clicking through the many versions (including cassette versions), they all seem to have the complete, 11-song program... until I finally land on the specific tape I had, identifiable both by the tweaked cover art and the pared-down track list. (Clicking around further, the only other edition I find with only those 8 tracks is this bootleg/unofficial cassette.)

Why would they have issued one edition of the tape without three of the songs ("I Love You," "How Do You Think It Feels," and "Nowhere at All")?

It might have been some budget release for truck stops or duty-free or something.

RCA did a lot of chintzy budget comps/reissues like that on tape and CD. Iirc, the original CD of Transformer was sort of like that: just the album in a jewelcase with a card with a bad scan of the LP covers.

Interesting that the 1988 LP reissue was also cut down to 8 tracks. Maybe they wanted to push people to the CD version, which got all 11 tracks?

Oh, I missed that one… so it wasn’t just the tape. It was a pared-down reissue, for whatever reason…

RCA reminding you they learned everything from recycling the Elvis catalogue over and over.

Hehe. A Date With Lewis.

The record industry's contempt for its customers was evident in the way they treated pre-recorded cassettes. A friend of mine bought a cassette of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma, which omitted three songs totalling 31 minutes. No warning on the package, just slap "Pink Floyd" on it and wait for money to flow in.
I also remember an Eric Clapton compilation where the cassette left off one of the tracks on the LP, just to save $0.02 in blank tape.

Sequencing was frequently fucked with on cassettes. I dubbed my brother's cassette of The Velvet Underground and Nico which has "The Black Angel's Death Song" as the second song, and "I'm Waiting For The Main" as the second-to-last song. That was the only way I heard it for maybe 10 years or so, and I still prefer it over the correct running order.

My first tape was the first Skynyrd album, which moved "Freebird" to the middle, where it was split over two sides (song on Side A, jam on Side B).

Its weird that record companies would do that kind of shit with the cassette issue. It seems like the constraints on running time would be more relevant in the case of vinyl. I guess they were worried about having a lot of blank tape at the end of one side, which would force people to fast forward to the end before turning it over?

less blank tape = less tape used.

I guess so. Funny enough, the 8-track edition had all 11 tracks.

S/t is a balm.

MMM is a vibe

The "No Money Down" video takes a turn.

happy birthday Lou

Happy 80th, Lou.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALvVVp6Oat4

those 1971 rca demos that recently got a copyright dump are being released officially on record store day. most of them, anyway.

https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/14642

This is today. Lou's 80th birthday.

"This event is online only.

Dance the night away with Link Cromwell (aka Lenny Kaye) who will spin selections of doo-wop 45s from Lou Reed’s archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. We are partnering with The Lot Radio to present a live streamed dance party.

Sign up to receive an email reminder when the stream goes live, and watch the live stream from 7-9PM on The Lot Radio’s online video stream.

https://www.thelotradio.com/

that looks cool, thanks

Thanks for the updates! I posted this on Lou Reed: The Blue Mask:

The most recently, frequently revived Lou thread, so I'll paste this here, from ilxor tylerw's invaluable tumblr, doomandgloomfromthetomb:

Lou Reed - Tinley Park, Chicago, Illinois, September 12, 1992*

Last week, we heard Lou debut some spoken word renditions of a few Magic & Loss lyrics. Today, we get to hear them in a more traditional setting: you can’t beat two guitars, bass and drums. I’ve picked this particular show not only because it’s a very nice FM broadcast, but also because it features a very unique, very cool, very short-lived band: the awesome Marc Ribot on lead guitar and bassist Greg Cohen, along with drummer Michael Blair.

Ribot and Cohen at this point were probably best known for their work in the John Zorn and Tom Waits universes, and it’s interesting to hear their styles added to Lou’s early 1990s period. Ribot in particular is probably the most distinctive guitarist this side of Quine that Lou has worked with — and he sounds great here, going for broke in a way that Mike Rathke doesn’t. Check out his smoky solo on “Magician” or his driving, his shimmery sound on “Tell It To Your Heart” or his dramatic playing on “Sword of Damocles.” That latter tune is a highlight; towards the end, Lou quotes “Save The Last Dance For Me,” making its connection to Doc Pomus explicit. A really powerful moment!

I like the other Magic & Loss numbers, too — they’re a little more revved up and energetic, for sure. It’s also impressive that Lou tries to perform “Harry’s Circumcision” in front of a somewhat rowdy outdoor audience. He really believed in his new material — in fact, the set is dominated by late-period material, aside from a few obligatory walks on the wild side. Onwards!

Lou Says (1992) (quoted by Tyler):
You’re confused because you’re thinking about pop music and pop records, or rock ‘n’ roll. Think about Brecht and Weill, “Seven Deadly Sins.” Boy, now I wish I had come up with that one first. If you think of it as Lou Reed music, not pop or rock, those expectations (of what kind of songs belong on a pop record) disappear, because they don’t exist for an artist… All the way back to “Heroin,” the idea was to tell stories from different points of view, with conflicting opinions. Some of it can seem very personal, or at least it comes across that way, because you’re acting. And then you can write something equally personal that’s completely at odds with what the first person said. Any great novel has lots of “personal things” floating through it, whatever the character you’re writing about.
*link is at top of tyler's page:
https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/search/Lou%20Reed%20Marc%20Ribot

Another birthday post: DJ Lou's Sydney playlist audio, also an original I've never heard of: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/623899943896252416/lou-reed-double-j-fm-sydney-australia-october

Laurie Anderson at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC today
Fri. June 3 from 3 to 7pm w/ guitars from her late husband Lou Reed’s collection arranged w/ amplifiers to "create an enveloping drone of harmonics" with help from Lou Reed's former guitar tech Stewart Hurwood

Please note that the performance will be loud.

https://hirshhorn.si.edu/event/in-person-laurie-anderson-presents-lou-reeds-drones-with-stewart-hurwood/

Enjoyed this! https://www.mixcloud.com/crashingthepartyradioshow/crashing-the-party-92-lou-reed-nypl-special/

A coworker told a story last night about an incident (years ago) in which their wife was fawning over someone's dog on the street ("Oh, what a cute dog!," petting it profusely, etc.) – then as they walked away, they noticed that the dog owner was Lou.

That's so awesome! Knowing Lou, he was probably relieved they only paid attention to the dog.

He might have been relieved the dog didn't find a cat with whom to shoot up a dude's sweat.

He and Laurie Anderson used to walk past my work many mornings walking their little dog. If I was sweeping out front I'd give them a "Good Morning!" greeting. She'd reply in kind. Lou would head nod.

Oh was his dog called "Mr Waldheim" ?

I have no idea lol.

Only in the evening.

Well then. (Ignore the title, these are 1965 demos.)

https://loureed.bandcamp.com/album/words-music-may-1985

Reminding me that Life of a Dog is a wonderful Laurie album (some say the film is not so hot, but I haven't seen it). Lou gets walkies as well.

The world needed a version of Waiting for the Man with a harmonica solo.

A bonus 7-inch, housed in its own unique die-cut picture sleeve and manufactured at Third Man Record Pressing includes the only vinyl release of six previously-unreleased bonus tracks providing a never-before-seen glimpse into Reed’s formative years, including early demos, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and a doo-wop serenade recorded in 1958 when the legendary singer-songwriter was just sixteen years old. An accompanying saddle-stitched, die-cut 28-page book features lyrics, archival photos, and liner notes Also included is an archival reproduction of a rarely-seen letter, written by Reed to his college professor and poet, Delmore Schwartz, circa 1964. The set includes a CD containing the complete audio from the package, housed in a die-cut jacket.

this previously unreleased collection of songs—penned by a young Lou Reed, recorded to tape with the help of future bandmate John Cale, and mailed to himself as a “poor man’s copyright”—remained sealed in its original envelope and unopened for nearly 50 years.

lmao when that harmonica solo comes in, incredible

Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

discussed here too