I started listening to Lou in the early 80s, my introduction being Transformer. I listened to that album over and over and over again; it was, and remains, one of my favorites.
Then I dug into the Velvet Underground catalog, which was ok but never grabbed me like Lou’s solo work did (*Loaded *being the VU standout in my book). Other favorite albums: Sally Can’t Dance, Berlin, Coney Island Baby, New York, and, of course Street Hassle. Then I strayed away from Lou for a time, never really gave his latter day stuff much of a listen.
As for the bio, it’s enjoyable enough. The writing is ok, not outstanding, and the insights are, so far, pretty tepid. I was unaware of the resentment he held toward Nico, and of the depth of the disdain he and John Cale felt for each other.
Oh, the Andy Warhol stuff is interesting if not very deep.
Fun trivia fact: Warhol’s nickname ‘Drella’, which he hated, is a combination of Dracula and Cinderella, intended to depict both sides of his personality.
I have a few I’ll read before I get to this. Listen to Fresh Air interview with the author. It sounds interesting, but I’ve always respected what Lou Reed represented a lot more than I’ve liked the musicality of his songs. And he was such a jerk.
I have been a lifelong Lou Reed fan, including the Velvet Underground, which I think is one of rock’s three most important and influential bands. I’ve seen him twice in concert, 1996 in Cologne and then 2000 in Bonn, which was probably the loudest and most intense concert I’ve ever been to (there’s an official DVD from his 2000 gig at Montreux which was recorded one day later and captures the intensity of that tour quite well. Great band too).
I haven’t read the new biography (but I’m very interested) but read another former bio and some other stuff about him and the Velvets, and yes, he was a major arrogant prick and a genius at the same time. There are some mean clunkers in his solo discography, but the highlights (which I absolutely agree are the ones listed in the OP. Add The Blue Mask to it) belong to music’s most important legacy. He was one of the few rockers you can rightly call poets. Watch out for what Lester Bangs, the great music writer, wrote about him and his encounters with the man, it’s hilarious and revealing, they both hated each other’s guts, but OTOH Bangs revered Lou Reed and was the only person in the world who honestly thought that Metal Machine Music was a masterpiece (I personally…don’t think so).
Listen to *New York *from 1989 and compare it with the state of the USA and the world at large today. Everything was already there.
After Warhol’s death Lou Reed managed to patch up his differences with John Cale long enough for them to write Songs For Drella together, which is a musical eulogy about Andy Warhol and his life, and is one of the best things Reed ever did.
Lou Reed is probably my all-time favorite and the VU is one of my favorite bands. I even like some of the Nico solo stuff. I need to read the new bio, but I’ve read a lot of others. The Victor Brockis one is good.
He was a man of many contradictions and could be a real ass. But he definitely seemed to mellow out in his later years with Laurie Anderson. From his solo work, my favorite albums are New York, Coney Island Baby, and Street Hassle. But there are hits and misses on every album.
He definitely could be a jerk, especially to journalists. But he made it clear that he would not speak about personal things or what the songs were about. Journalists continually ignored this and Reed lashed out. There are plenty of interviews where journalists were prepared and Reed was a good interview and even charming at times.
The hardest parts to reconcile are the accusations of abuse against many of the woman in his life, particularly his first wife.
I love Transformer, and still love it enough that I’m not ready to move on to his other stuff. But it just so happens that I’ve been listening to it this week. Andy’s Chest is my favorite.
I knew all about MMM over the years but have never heard it. I was amazed to find it available on Spotify. I gave it about 5 minutes and I’d had enough.
The patch did not last long. According to the bio I am reading, they still couldn’t stand each other and both vowed, upon the album’s completion, that they would never work together again.
Don’t be afraid. Do *Coney Island Baby *or Sally Can’t Dance next (and report back!).
mmm
I read a bio of Reed, not sure if it was that one. It was quite depressing and not particularly well written. All I came away with was the impression that he was not much fun to be around.
I’m a huge fan of VU and saw them live in 1969, after Cale had left. I’ve always preferred Cale’s solo work to Reed’s.
After reading Cale’s autobiography, however, I think he’s probably just as big a jerk as Reed was.
When I was 6 years old, I asked Brooks Robinson for his autograph and he replied “Get lost, kid.” Ever since then, I haven’t expected much of my idols…
I’m gonna go and take the easy way out and say: you, I and everyone else are jerks. Most of us have the luck to be jerks when there’s not a reporter that is reporting on how you’re behaving. Eric Clapton was a really nice guy when I met him at a mall, but he’s certainly been a jerk. I don’t know of any of my heroes without some stories of jerkitude in their history. Still, some can be nice on occasion. But then again, I didn’t really admire them for being nice guys, I admired them for the works they did.
Ok, got that out of my system.
I love Lou Reed’s work, for the most part. Like most musicians who are doing what I think of as “actually trying”, I don’t love his work universally. When you stretch out far, you’re bound to fall occasionally. Boy, he stretched in all kinds of directions. I love VU most of all. If Lou wasn’t on, Cale, Tucker, Morrison, or even Yule would bring something to the party that made it happen. Only “The Murder Mystery” falls flat to my ear, and it’s still a somewhat engaging thing to listen to.
Lou solo was always a mixed bag. Sometimes it was an amazing, almost perfect bag (Transformer, Berlin), sometimes a crazy mess with its amazing moments (Metal Machine Music). But he wrote two songs that can make me reliably cry. Street Hassle and What’s Good. The man knew poetry as well as any songwriter, ever.
Missed the edit window by miles, though, but just in case someone thought he was a constant downer because of my previous post. I listened to Foggy Notion and Rock N’ Roll to pick up my spirits. Not only was he a poet, but he needed no instructions to know how to rock.
Ok, full disclosure: I listened to I Heard Her Call My Name before either of those, and I was feeling exceptional after that. The other two were gummy, chewy nostalgia to bring me down from that high. (and then my mind split open!)
I don’t know. A friend of mine back in college kinda dug it. He even put part of it, about 45 seconds worth, on a mix tape for me; followed by an a cappella cover version!
It’s the Brit mini documentary? ::checks:: yeah, that’s cool.
I have to say, I have such a profound respect for the song that I listen to when I want a dose of Lou, **I’m Waiting for the Man: ** https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hugY9CwhfzE
That lyric is so damn brilliant. It’s a complete Chekhov short story, a scuzzy glimpse into the life of a junkie - how he feels, dealing with street hassle uptown, scoring and heading back home high and feeling that “tomorrow’s just another time” - over a soup of a multi-part guitar groove that sounds like Keith Richards crafted it. Just wow. And his vocal…nonstyle…fits this song perfectly. So good.