never thought of this song as “seductive” wtf is there a Mel Torme version I haven’t heard?
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:49 (one year ago) link
not sexually seductive. the romanticism is seductive. giving your life over to the pursuit of bliss. sinking away from your problems and boarding a great big clipper ship 1,000 years ago.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:50 (one year ago) link
Isn’t it the fact that the velvets were unromantic about this shit part of what makes them special?
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:50 (one year ago) link
yeah sorry I’m out
i'm not pro- the drug heroin. but this song absolutely is powerful because it evokes the siren song of a deadly substance like that, why people would turn to it. not dishonestly -- i meant romanticism in the highest sense. the sublime.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:53 (one year ago) link
it just came on shuffle and i was surprised how it leapt out of the speakers and didn't sound like a 60s artifact
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:57 (one year ago) link
you live a charmed life treeship, nagl to rub it in
i was excited to find some used heroin (gravity records math rock band) at the shop. the 90s post-hardcore graphic design still gets me going but i'm not sure the music does all that much for me. it's a bit "what if slint, but only the shout-y parts". i guess it's suitably heavy but without the elan of antioch arrow or the virtuosity of clickitat (with each of whom they shared members) it all comes off a bit flat
still more interesting in 2023 than heroin the VU song, tho
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 00:59 (one year ago) link
When I was a teenager the song definitely made heroin sound fun and exciting (getting drunk and puking out the window of a '88 S-10 Blazer was no "when I'm rushing on my run and I feeeeeel just like Jesus' son").
― papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:01 (one year ago) link
didn't lou reed say he hated this song because he knew it had killed people?
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:03 (one year ago) link
The bit in Jarhead (the book) about there being no such thing as an anti-war movie is also pretty true of drug songs IMO.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:06 (one year ago) link
I was taken aback when someone said that reading Naked Lunch made them want to try heroin. It was my favourite book as a teenager and I never took it as anything but a warning against control systems, including drug addiction.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:49 (one year ago) link
that was probably too harsh an assessment. they had some great songs
“with no name”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM75GdNNwA8
“comes to mind” ← practically a 10 min VU epic by the standards of san diego post-hc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQYYY6DhmpA
“head cold” ← IF YOU FEED A COLD / DOES IT GO AWAAAAAYYYYYYY??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUK5Cr6-RW0
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:50 (one year ago) link
does it? will it? whatevs
― the late great, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 01:54 (one year ago) link
"heroin" the song does not move me and never has, always struck me as a corny power ballad. "waiting for the man" on the other hand.
― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:12 (one year ago) link
that is a great song too. i love that whole album, the lore around it, and the quasi-mythic idea of "downtown new york" it evokes.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:18 (one year ago) link
I find the tumble of images pretty compelling, and the denouement. It’s been excessively revered which ruined it as an experiment with form and subject, now it has to be an anthem and it sucks at that.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:21 (one year ago) link
xp “uptown,” iirc
― Vexatious litigant (morrisp), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:22 (one year ago) link
the album is definitely rooted in greenwich village culture. "i'm waiting for my man" is about a downtown guy going to harlem to score heroin.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:25 (one year ago) link
I know, just joshin’
― Vexatious litigant (morrisp), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:30 (one year ago) link
hm
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 02:33 (one year ago) link
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 03:46 (one year ago) link
or whatever, I listen to vu/lou and the world is a sewer
Bad vibes are part of the gestalt I am talking about. I agree that there is a darkness that was a necessary corrective to the utopianism or whatever of the 60s.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 12:53 (one year ago) link
― ꙮ (map), Tuesday, January 24, 2023 2:12 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
x2
― a (waterface), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 13:03 (one year ago) link
banana album their weakest album by a mile
The harsh music is what makes both the song jump out as well as deromanticising the lyrical content, somewhat.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 13:55 (one year ago) link
The dissonance is what is great about this album, when it appears. I cannot agree that this is the weakest velvets album.
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 13:59 (one year ago) link
Not when there is the black angel’s death song, with cale’s demonic electric viola
― treeship., Tuesday, 24 January 2023 14:00 (one year ago) link
Thought this thread was going to be about the superpitcher song
― xheugy eddy (D-40), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 19:18 (one year ago) link
always loved this power ballad abt a junkie boyfriendhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmAds0EKCWM
― sleeve, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 19:28 (one year ago) link
this is a really cool albumhttps://www.discogs.com/master/60897-Stephan-Mathieu-Ekkehard-Ehlers-Heroin
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 21:07 (one year ago) link
Does your heroin lose its glamour on the washboard overnight?
― calzino, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 21:10 (one year ago) link
same. thread title's in all-caps like on the record.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 January 2023 15:03 (one year ago) link
and you will see that there will be a receptionist of some description.
lol
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 January 2023 15:04 (one year ago) link