After
re-reading what I wrote about Lou Reed the other day, it seemed a bit rough and
impersonal so I thought I’d take another stab at what particularly grabbed me
about him.
Strip
away all the hype and Lou Reed’s greatest strength was his unflinching honesty.
His ability to capture a scene and get it down in verse and slip in his own
thoughts of what’s happening whether documenting drug abuse or S&M or beautiful,
unconditional love or the differing and evolving social conditions of New York
City.
I’ve
heard a lot of comparisons about Lou Reed and Bob Dylan in the last week since
he died. To me, they are not very
accurate. They come from the same
influences but are almost polar opposites.
Dylan is all metaphorical and allegorical and surreal and Reed just told
it like it is.
Musically,
I think Reed’s high point was THE BLUE MASK/ LEGENDARY HEARTS/ NEW SENSATIONS
era where he worked with a smoking back-up band including Robert Quine on
guitar and Fernando Saunders on bass.
When he stripped the music down to its foundation, that’s when his music
worked best.
Here’s
my thoughts on his solo records….
Top
tier records – LEGENDARY HEARTS, STREET HASSLE, BERLIN, THE BLUE MASK, NEW
SENSATIONS
Second
tier – SONGS FOR DRELLA, TRANSFORMER, GROWING UP IN PUBLIC, ECSTASY
The
rest fall somewhere below.
Always
felt his two best known solo albums were slightly overrated. TRANSFORMER is a good record but the singles,
the famous songs (Satellite of Love, Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side,
Vicious) are much better than the album tracks most of which seem like filler.
NEW YORK finds Reed very inspired and animated but his anger and bitterness are
too in your face as he has really stripped down the music. Very little humor there. Also comparing Arafat to the KKK is just
disgusting.
As
far as the Velvet Underground goes, all four VU albums are brilliant with the order
of preference being 1st, 3rd, WHITE LIGHT/ WHITE HEAT and
LOADED.
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