Lou Reed: The Blue Mask

MMM feels like an art installation that earned notoriety due to the change in context. When you look at what was essentially a touring exhibit of Lou's guitars as well as the Lincoln Center's display of the same instruments, aurally it was apiece with MMM, and they didn't get any shit for any of that because it seemed perfectly reasonable. I'm sure if you walked into MoMA hearing the same thing in a room somewhere, you wouldn't blink.

I've grown to appreciate his '70s output a whole lot more even though it's wildly uneven, but The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, New Sensations, New York, the film Songs for Drella and Ecstasy are my favorite works. I need to revisit the Berlin film...I recall some critics who thought it was better than the studio LP, but I've grown to love the studio LP, even if everyone I know knocks it for being too harrowing or depressing.

I wouldn't say the Berlin movie is better than the original record but it certainly succeeds far better then most "artist revisiting classic album in total" exercises

Sounds like outtakes from earlier Lou Reed/VU compositions

Yes, those Yule-inclusive outtakes were from the "original" Coney Island Baby sessions in January 1975, which were shut down when producer Steve Katz told RCA that the sessions were going nowhere. Then came Metal Machine Music in the summer, and a return to recording Coney Island Baby with a different producer in the fall.

I wouldn't say the Berlin movie is better than the original record but it certainly succeeds far better then most "artist revisiting classic album in total" exercises

That sounds more plausible. I can't think of a single live revisitation of an album that would somehow "replace" the original studio version. There are live albums that feel like definitive documents for a given band (The Allman Brothers' Fillmore album, probably the Grateful Dead's first live album), but they're not the track list of a previous album.

title track still the greatest song ever

one thing about my lou love is that I don’t feel defensive about haters. it’s ok, he’s not for you. hes for me and the other fuckups

but if you’re not a fuckup it’s ok to like lou

I like Lou, I think he's great
He's a solace to the world, he's my mate

Lou Reed - Full Concert - 09/25/84 - Capitol Theatre (OFFICIAL)
Just past the first hour (of 2:17)--they're not taking a break but I am. Mainly because ! can. because the urgency of the music just seems professional, though enjoyable enough: even the one-dimensional passages fit w the glinty tensile-not-tinsel, reliably wired, legibly schematic groove things(Circuit City, not Radio Shack--this is the 80s, Jack, and Jim). "Give it to me, Quine." He does, but seems mixed down a bit: vocals are not too loud. but more prominent than necessary, so I notice the words seem recited, and quotidian goes to mundane, but always enthusiastically, I'll give him that. Better when they slow down a bit for "Legendary Hearts," then faster than evah on "There She Goes Again," and then, holy moly, "Turn Out The Light" is like Lou meets Quine-era Material, also that era of hip-hop, kinda, tp "My Red Joy Stick," appropriately, and "Sally Can't Dance" fits with all this later stuff too. He sometimes kinda zings "the ineffable Quine, but only in passing, and so far almost deferentially (Quine is playing almost all the solos, so the mix, volume level, etc. adds to impressions of 1-D. but not too bad if you turn it up on headphones).
Good bass!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOoXjYppyMM

A very hearty, all-hands-on-deck (where I can see 'em) "Walk On The Wild Side," and ditto "Satellite of Love"; now I', wondering if the coda inspired "TVC15," or vice-versa. "I love you, Satellite!" Aw funk me for a "New Sensation"---"I aint no dawg tied to uh pahked cah"--not a pahked one, no bout adoubt it. He's mingling.

Also actually singing!

And soloing--guitar sound is now louder, for some reason

"Doin' The Things We Want To" good but 0 Quine---to Waves ov Fear--mixdown effective here: Q seems like flashback around ankles--but then it's over: v. short and kind of a joeky tempo, sheeit---but it's a set-up for "I Loves You Suzanne"--which is vigorous. and I liked it as a single, but not as much after a mostly thrown-away "Waves."
"White Light" works the 1-D pretty good, good keys. Quine's good when I can hear him on "Turn To Me," but don't watch this whole thing mainly for him, as I have, although it might be a little worse without him---not bad for a mid-80s Lou Reed show,, though---"Kill Yo Sons!"

(Okay, I admit the guitars plural are getting into some nasty buzzy barbwire crawling around finale of that one----so it goes.)

Yeah OK!
The Setlist Time Stamps
0:00:57-Sweet Jane
0:05:27-I'm Waiting For My Man
0:09:50-Martial Law
0:15:03-Down At The Arcade
0:19:26-Legendary Hearts
0:23:08-There She Goes Again
0:26:47-Turn Out the Light
0:32:18-My Red Joystick
0:37:57-Average Guy
0:41:21-Street Hassle
0:46:25-Sally Can't Dance
0:52:08-Walk On The Wild Side
0:58:27-Satellite Of Love
1:06:46-New Sensation
1:14:42-A Gift
1:18:19-Doin' The Things That We Want To
1:23:31-Waves Of Fear
1:26:43-I Love You Suzanne
1:30:44-White Light / White Heat
1:34:58-Turn To Me
1:41:23-Kill Your Sons
1:46:59-Coney Island Baby
2:10:24-Rock 'N' Roll

For whatever reason I haven’t felt compelled to pursue his work past 1980.

With the exception of Lulu

I think I’m just afraid of disappointment.

Maybe you need to "get a thrill from punishment" to appreciate this era properly.

It's all about thrills here, or aiming to be--incl."Glo-ry of Love--give-to-me-baby!" Also nice intro for the Chantels, who then sing the hell out of "Maybe," backed by Lou & band, one of several not on that setlist.

Lou Reed - Full Concert - 09/25/84 - Capitol Theatre (OFFICIAL)

They also have Run-DMC's opening set from that night up on the same YouTube channel...even with the audience noise mixed down, you can hear the rap-hating fans boo. Fuck those people, but it does warm my heart that quite a few commenters in the Reed link not only attended this show but recall how it introduced them to Run DMC, much to their appreciation.

Anyway, other comments in that Reed link are great - Fernando Saunders pops in and a five-year-old comment brings this up:

A good show, but I was disappointed in the mix. I couldn't understand why they buried Robert Quine's guitar, but then I found this interview he gave to Perfect Sound Forever in 1997: "About a day before 'New Sensations' was going to be recorded, he fired me and did the guitar himself. I did do the tour with him afterwards- that was a long tour. I came to him and said 'forget whatever happened, I just want to play with you.' By this time, we had an awful band. The new drummer would only play well in rehearsals and the keyboard player (Peter Woods) worked with Al Stewart and Cyndi Lauper. There wasn't much room to improvise. At the end of 'Kill Your Sons,' I'd do a drone and Lou would do a guitar solo- we'd get pretty far out there. This keyboard player thought it was joke and play with his feet- Lou would have to come over and tell him to stop. Because I wasn't on New Sensations, I didn't have a lot to add live. I'd be doing a song, playing D and G for six minutes like 'Doing the Things that We Want To,' which I didn't really like, with no variation and the keyboard guy playing accordian. I thought, 'this is not why I got a guitar and wanted to play in a rock and roll band.' We hated each other's guts, me and the keyboard player. Lou got really abusive at the end- he'd hog all the guitar solos and made sure I got mixed out- even live. I got back from the tour and decided that was it. I assumed he knew it. He'd put me down to the rest of the band, knowing that they'd tell me about it later."

The keyboardist is a pop guy, but okay in his way (also w that one-song-only accordion). Now they're backing Jim Carroll on "People Who Died."

I think I’m just afraid of disappointment.

The Blue Mask is as non-disappointing as an LP can be (IMO)... it's not only a career highlight for Lou, but one of "those albums," y'know?

For whatever reason I haven’t felt compelled to pursue his work past 1980.

It's almost the reverse for me, at least with regards to his solo work - I played the shit out of the VU before I finally tiptoed into Reed's post-Velvets career. Coincidentally, I spent the last few days going through his '70s albums, thinking there might be more to it than I thought. The high points are still amazing, I already know them very well through a few compilations, but in most cases they really tower over everything else from the albums they came from. "Street Hassle," "The Bells," "Coney Island Baby" and "Kicks," etc...the albums that have those tracks aren't bad albums, but the remaining tracks were usually underwhelming. Beyond that, Berlin is still my favorite album partly because it's a strong, cohesive statement that hangs together consistently well as an album. Transformer is really uneven but it's got at least four classics on there. The eponymous debut has great songs, but I really prefer the older versions done by the Velvets.

The Blue Mask will always be my favorite - for sound alone, it's his best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l84hIJ3B_E

I love this era of Reed's music.

I remember that Quine interview. He might be right. He sounds like a reactionary crank, but I get it.

. I'd be doing a song, playing D and G for six minutes like 'Doing the Things that We Want To,' which I didn't really like, with no variation and the keyboard guy playing accordian. I thought, 'this is not why I got a guitar and wanted to play in a rock and roll band.'

I mean, ugh, shut up.

so fucking righteous (blue mask title track).

I don't think there's much doubt Quine was right (xxp)

He is but I instinctively recoil from dudes going I'M REAL ROCK 'N' ROLL MAAAAN

Never really thought of Quine as a rock and roll dude tbh!

Nor did I until I read that post! He woke up Lloyd Cole and Matthew Sweet.

I completely agree the sound and ambiance on ‘The Blue Mask’ is gorgeous…I always think I’ve walked in from the street into an empty basement club in the lower east side at 1am to see a beautiful intimate set…very few records capture this vibe

Yeah...although I could live w/o some tracks, some *songs*, that is. esp. "The Day John Kennedy Died" and "Heavenly Arms," but the sound carries me along---as is true of most of this show, once I more or less accept the mixdown of Quine and the ones where he doesn't play: either way (and as I mentioned, he is effective when I can hear him at all), it's the sound of a band, not a bunch of musos humoring the boss, or trying to, and a band suited to, molded to, the style of the songs, incl. their range, as seen on that set list---although it's a mid-80s arena set awright, and this "Sweet Jane" sucks and so would a lot of others w potential for intimacy.
xpost I sympathize w Quine, who seems still in pain, but by his own admission he asked to be on the tour, and he knew they would be playing material from New Sensations and other things he hadn't played on, didn't like, that there would be some fucking mid-80s arena pop rock and he knew from previous experience what Reed was like (incl. introducing Quine here as "my favorite guitarist," then talking shit about and to him offstage)---but he couldn't stay away, and I do sympathize/have been there: sometimes there really is a thin line between love and hate, which can find its way around your neck, and settle in.
Like I mentioned here or on Quine's thread, some have said Reed felt insecure, threatened by Cale's chops and artistry, and the same may be true with Quine---love-hate both ways, even, although that may be too generous to Reed.

There's a Lou Reed biography by Diana Clapton that features a long interview with Chuck Hammer, apparently Lou's previous "favourite guitarist", who played on Growing Up in Public. He reveals the emotional turmoil involved in working with Lou, probably exacerbated since he was still drinking at the time.

Mike Rathke never challenged his chops like Quine did.

Underneath the Bottle is so good. Sort of like the Heroin of recovery.

You're reminding me of Jason Isbell's "It Gets Easier," and what I said about it on last year's Nashville Scene ballot:
(re songs on Reunions) I get some of 'em right away, esp the one about sober life incl. dreams about drinking, a couple nights a week now, like, "I had one glass of wine, woke up feelin' fine,and that's how I knew it was a dream," but some are rougher, like the even realer-seeming dream of calling in sick to treat yourself down town--you deserve it, self, you been real good for so long---"It gets easier, but never easy, " why have I never heard a song about this must-be-fairly-common experience before?

Is “Underneath the Bottle” about recovery, though? The narrator has definitely hit rock bottom, but it doesn’t sound like he’s headed to any meetings…

I think Underneath the Bottle looks back on using in the same clear-eyed way that Heroin looks forward to using.

Thought Lou kicked with Tai Chi and philosophy and didn’t need any meetings.

I like the irony of how it plays/sounds (on the surface) like a “party song”… like it could almost be a tune in a beer commercial.

Such great lines, too:

Things are never good, things go from bad to weird

Seven days make a week, on two of them I sleep

Yeah, the riff/melody are great, almost joyful, but that's why I think it's a recovery song. It's joyful about having come through the other side of that stuff.

XPS and he grew a mullet.

On “Heavenly Arms,” why does Lou sing, Only a woman can love a man?

I’ve always wondered about the intent behind that line. Like, obviously Lou knew that not to be true…

Thought Lou...didn’t need any meetings

Lester Bangs wrote about seeing him at AA meetings.

why does Lou sing, Only a woman can love a man?

According to Victor Bockris, in the 80s Lou would flatly deny having even been other than heterosexual.

^^When his lyrics were collected, "Sister Ray" was retooled so it was clear the singer was receiving and not giving the fellatio, which was performed by a woman.

God Reed seems like such a fucking jerky weirdo asshole. I wonder what he and Laurie Anderson did together? what did they talk about?

Underneath the Bottle is so good. Sort of like the Heroin of recovery.

"The Last Shot" is more of a recovery song.

I like all of his drikning songs though.

"You have to be real careful where you sit down in a bawr these days"