# Good God - Lou Reed is a really awful singer! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2008, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095 "2008-03-12T12:21:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/21 "2013-11-12T16:53:27Z")
If you thought he was bad in 08, he’s not getting any better now. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/22 "2013-11-12T16:58:08Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > If you thought he was bad in 08, he’s not getting any better now. Yeah, but the backup choir is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/23 "2013-11-12T17:38:52Z")
I agree totally with the OP. And yet, the news keeps claiming how he influenced so many classic rock musicians? Oh, plah-eeeeeeze! I think it was the other way around! A fly’s buzz has more chromatic scale than Lou Reed! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/24 "2013-11-12T17:50:08Z")
Lou Reed’s voice is perfect for Lou Reed’s music, however, I challenge any of his fans to listen to [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z0GkrYAT78) for more than 5 minutes! ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/25 "2013-11-12T17:53:42Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > I agree totally with the OP. And yet, the news keeps claiming how he influenced so many classic rock musicians? Oh, plah-eeeeeeze! I think it was the other way around! A fly’s buzz has more chromatic scale than Lou Reed! 😉 I wouldn’t say classic rockers as much as the alternative scene. He was a huge influence. There is no denying that. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/26 "2013-11-12T18:02:13Z")
Lou Reed an awful singer? [No he isn’t.](http://bit.ly/PHCezL) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/27 "2013-11-12T18:02:38Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > If you thought he was bad in 08, he’s not getting any better now. > [@Biotop](#): > > Yeah, but the backup choir is awesome. You know they’ve got a hell of a band. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/28 "2013-11-12T18:49:20Z")
Slight tangent: I just finished reading Howard Kaylan’s “Shell Shocked: My life with The Turtles, Flo and Eddie, Frank Zappa, etc”. In one passage he talks about a “chance encounter with the _ **hilarious** _ Lou Reed.” I don’t think I’ve seen that word use to describe Lou anywhere else. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/29 "2013-11-12T19:21:27Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > If you thought he was bad in 08, he’s not getting any better now. If you can call it singing at all. I think he just croaked. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/30 "2013-11-14T02:08:11Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > If you can call it singing at all. I think he just croaked. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/31 "2013-11-14T02:43:56Z")
Well, now, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/32 "2013-11-14T15:54:17Z")
\*\*Good God - Lou Reed is a really awful singer! \*\* And you are just now finding this out? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/33 "2013-11-14T16:55:58Z")
In a write up I read in Rolling Stone, I think, **Bono** says something like “Lou had a songwriter’s voice.” Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/34 "2013-11-14T19:17:39Z")
Lou Reed’s voice was perfect for the style of raw, unpolished proto-alternative that he played. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/35 "2013-11-15T02:34:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Lou Reed’s voice was perfect for the style of raw, unpolished proto-alternative that he played. Yup.[If this version of **Sweet Jane** doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1RwddgLqBw), report to the coroner - you are officially dead. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/36 "2013-11-15T15:40:18Z")
He can’t hold a note in a bucket in that version, his note accuracy is worse than US forces in Iraq (they duck, we duck, everybody ducks) he can’t sustain a note, but worst of all, that dreadful headless 6 string looks like it came out of a lucky bag ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/37 "2013-11-15T16:49:14Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Yup.[If this version of **Sweet Jane** doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1RwddgLqBw), report to the coroner - you are officially dead. Yeah, I saw that for the first time a few weeks ago. It really is a great version of that song. It really wouldn’t sound “right” with any other singer. That sort of monotone New York detached-cool sound to his voice is perfect for his music (although he gets a bit more emotionally involved in this version of the song.) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/38 "2013-11-15T18:23:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, I saw that for the first time a few weeks ago. It really is a great version of that song. It really wouldn’t sound “right” with any other singer. That sort of monotone New York detached-cool sound to his voice is perfect for his music (although he gets a bit more emotionally involved in this version of the song.) That is a great version by him. He’s playing one of those guitars like Johnny Winters plays (when Winter isn’t playing his Firebird). Headless guitar - I think it is a Lazer or something like that - a kind of anti-guitar-hero guitar; makes sense for Lou 😉 Hmm, that’s not it: [Erlewine Guitars | The Lazer](http://www.erlewineguitars.com/pgs/lazer.htm) As for “it wouldn’t really sound right with another singer” - you don’t like the **Cowboy Junkies’** cover? God I love that version - languid and sparse. https://www.youtube.com/embed/x4XVJj4jER4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/39 "2013-11-15T19:18:46Z")
I didn’t say I didn’t like any other versions of it. 🙂 I put “right” in quotes to give me a little weasel room here. Lou Reed’s take on it is just so emblazoned in my mind that only his version sounds just right to me. The Cowboy Junkies it turned it into a beautifully haunting song. But for me the original is definitive. ---
**Author:** ![scuro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@scuro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scuro)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095/40 "2013-12-28T19:58:57Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > Bob Dylan, through years of practice, has finally learned to carry a tune. He lands on the note within the first half of the note’s duration and manages to keep the note on pitch through the end of that note before lazily aiming for the next one. But his songwriting is excellent, and America was too stoned to notice that he couldn’t sing when they made him famous, so he gets a pass. > > What’s Lou Reed’s excuse? His songs are… well, they’re okay I guess, but like Dylan, his biggest contribution is writing songs that were made into great covers: the Cowboy Junkies covered Sweet Jane, but in Lou’s versions I swear to god he’s _FLAT_ on the chorus. And in the “heavenly white roses” bridge, I think he’s singing in a totally different key than the band. It’s as bad as the worst karaoke I’ve ever heard. When Jane’s Addiction covered Rock and Roll, I looked forward to hearing the original because Perry Farrell isn’t all that great a singer… but when I heard Lou’s version, sweet jesus, he’s all over the map. He mumbles, comes in flat, can’t pick a note, and when he does it’s the wrong choice. Walk on the Wild Side isn’t as bad, but still betrays his half-hearted commitment to maintaining a single pitch for any appreciable length of time. > > So what’s the deal? Does his influence as a songwriter give him a pass like Dylan? Did Warhol make him a star despite his lack of singing ability? Were (gasp!) drugs involved? I confess that I haven’t bought any of the albums and listened to them straight through, and I can’t “go get high and listen to X” just to appreciate it because of my job. But if I can appreciate Phish and the Grateful Dead without pharmaceuticals, then any band that takes pharmaceutical assistance probably isn’t worth it to me. Is singing ability the major point of consideration of an artists work? To a _performer_, yes, to an artist, not so much. Huge difference between the two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-god-lou-reed-is-a-really-awful-singer/441095.md?page=1)