Lou Reed likes Honda Scooters

Hey, don't settle for walkin'

Lou Reed's First Album

Lou Reed - "Lou Reed" (1972) - RCA Records

Hello Friends,

Spring is in the air and there's some Lou Reed on the turntable.

Reed's self-titled, debut solo album contains mostly leftovers and outtakes from his Velvet Underground days. Its an under-the-radar, oft-overlooked album falls between the VU classic Loaded and Reed's solo masterpiece, Transformer.  

Like most things Uncle Lou related, we totally dig it.

Ten fairly straight-forward rock & roll tunes. Not as deep, poetic or devastatingly depressing as much of his 1970's solo stuff (I'm looking at you Berlin!), but its a great collection and highly listenable.  Its like a hint at the undisputed greatness that was to come! (In some ways, its akin to Neil Young's oft-overlooked solo debut, Neil Young.)  

Side One contains the VU leftovers, "I Can't Stand It", "Walk and Talk It" and "Lisa Says" along with the new songs "Going Down" and an early-version of "Berlin".

Side Two is comprised completely of Velvety leftovers, "I Love You", "Wild Child", "Love Makes You Feel", "Ride Into The Sun" and "Ocean."

FUN FACT: We did a double-take when we read that Lou Reed used London-based session musicians as his backing band on this record including two members of the prog rock giants, Yes.  Steve Howe providing some guitar work and Rick Wakeman on keyboards.

Neat!

RATING: 4.5 Looking For Another Place For Someone Else To Be out of 5

Velvet Underground - "Venus In Furs" (1967)

Happy Halloween Friends!

Here's a fan made video for the creepy Velvet's song, "Venus in Furs" set to some scenes from Jesus Franco's sexploitation classic, Vampyros Lesbos.

Enjoy!

The Bells

Lou Reed - "The Bells" (1979) - Arista

"Lou Reed is a prick and a jerkoff who regularly commits the ultimate sin of treating his audience with contempt."-- Lester Bangs from his Rolling Stone review of The Bells-- "He's also a person with deep compassion for a great many other people about whom almost nobody else gives a shit."

Hello Friends,

Lou Reed would begin the 1970's with The Velvet Underground's most ambitious record, Loaded, and would re-define himself multiple times throughout the decade: rock star, poet, avant-garde artist, junkie & sad sac.

He winds up the decade with the 1979 record, The Bells, a record far below most people's radars.  Of course, we're big fans of almost all things related to Uncle Lou here on Vinyl in the Valley and The Bells is no exception!

Its an ambitious mashup of classic Reed songwriting among plenty of jazz, funk, R&B, disco and doo-wop.  While a lot of his contemporaries were going more "minimal" or punk, The Bells almost sounds as if Lou wanted to take over Bruce Springsteen's spot in the E Street Band.  (Springsteen actually cameo'd on Reed's previous record, 1978's Street Hassle.) The results are of course weird and, for the most part, wonderful.

The songs and characters on The Bells are all about outsiders looking for in, longing to be loved, longing to be accepted.  Deadbeat dads; exiled actors; children who have returned to their suburban homes only to realize that living on their own in the big city have turned them into psychic ghouls-- at least in the eyes of the families.  

Its like Dickens, only in reverse.

The albums kicks off with the short & jazzy, "Stupid Man" about a narrator who regretfully escapes from his home and family only to beg that his wife "to please say hello" and "give a great big kiss" to his "little baby daughter".

Ever the wordsmith, the lyrics to the next song, "Disco Mystic", are as follows:

"DISCO. DISCO MYSTIC"  (repeat about 40 times).

In nearly anyone else's hands, "Disco Mystic" would be grating, indulgent & annoying, but somehow Sweet Lou pulls it off!  Its hypnotic, catchy and if you buy the theory that Lou Reed was to 1970's New York City as Charles Dickens was to 19th Century London, its as much a comment on the narcissism, monotony and decadence of the NYC disco scene of the late 70's. 

The third song on the album is one our absolute favorite Lou Reed songs, "I Want To Boogie With You".  Its a great song for slow dancing drunk with your girl on a Friday or Saturday night.




With its manic vocals and horn-section, "With You" has a "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night"-vibe.  At any moment, you wouldn't be surprised to hear, "Live from New York... It's Saturday Night!"  (Also, this song like two or three others on this record are co-written by ex-Crazy Horse & future E Streeter, Nils Lofgren.)

The mania continues on the frantic "Looking For Love", featuring some raucous sax playing by Marty Fogel!  

The Side concludes with the bizzaro-sounding, "City Lights"-- a song that's both a tribute to the late Charlie Chaplin as well as a not-so subtle anti-censorship statement.  Its a decent song (also co-written with Lofgren) and has Lou hitting the perhaps his deepest and lowest vocals ever on record.  (Low Reed?)

Side Two begins with Reed's ode to dark and lonely New York City nights, "All Through The Night".  To be honest, this one does get a little annoying.  There's a whining saxophone riff throughout and the song seems to be (purposely) cluttered with random background/party noise, conversations and speeches.  Also, his vocals here kind of remind us of Adam Sandler a little bit.  Which is good for Sandler, not so much for Lou.

Things rebound on "Families", a more classic-sounding Reed song, which despite the rather upbeat musicianship is about a heartbreaking return to his childhood "home":

And now that dog's more of a part of this family
Then I am, too
I don't come home much anymore
No, no, no, I don't come home much anymore, mama

And mama, I know how disappointed you are
And papa, I know that you feel the same way, too
And no, no, no, no, no, I still haven't got married
And no, no, no, there's no grandson planned here for you
...

But papa, I know that this visit's a mistake
There's nothing here we have in common, except our name

And families that live out in the suburbs
Often make each other cry
And I don't think that I'll come home much anymore
No, no, I don't think I'll come home much again

The album concludes with the amazing 9 minute title track which features some fantastic trumpet-playing by frequent Ornette Coleman side man, Don Cherry.  A haunting & hypnotic space-jazz jam (think Sun Ra meets Berlin-era Bowie) that builds and builds against some incomprehensible spoken dialogue and Reed's lyrics about an actor hanging out on a ledge in New York City.  Just as he jumps (or doesn't) he proclaims, "Look there are the bells... here come the bells!"  

RATING: 4.5 families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry out of 5   

RIP Lou Reed

Holy Shit!  Lou Reed died yesterday and its still setting in.

71 years old.  Probably shouldn't have made it to 40 but still, he was an original, a true pioneer.

If the first Velvet Underground was all he ever did, he'd still be a legend.

Our rock stars are getting old kids!  

We're going to be listening to a lot of the Velvets this week.  Also, some of those great 70's LPs like "Transformer", "Sally Can't Dance", "Berlin" and "Coney Island Baby." 

And we won't forget about his 1989 masterpiece, "New York".

We'll take a pass on listening to "Metal Machine Music" but appreciate it for what it was/is.

And we'll try to forget all together about his 2011 collaboration with Metallica, "Lulu".

Ride Sally Ride

Lou Reed - "Sally Can't Dance" (1974) - RCA

Hello Friends,

Well it seems like we've been on quite the Lou Reed kick lately.

Sally Can't Dance is Reed's fourth solo LP.  Riding the commercial success of Transformer and Rock And Roll Animal, record exec's at RCA thought the time was right for Lou Reed to release a sharp and polished Rock & Roll record that would become an FM radio staple.  But for all his artistry, one thing that sweet Lou never comfortably embraced was the mainstream.

Reed took a backseat when it came to producing the record and only played guitar on one or two tracks.  The result, oddly enough, was his most successful LP yet.  (A trend that would abruptly end with his next release, the feedback/noise opus, Metal Machine Music.)

His harsh, cynical and world-weary lyrics clash with the record's glossy and slick production.  Reed captures the sleaze and grime of mid-1970's New York city better than any other artist.

The characters in his songs have all the familiar Reed traits: men and women who have fallen from grace, who have flown to close to the sun and are now just barely scraping by.  Their experiences have left them completely jaded, cynical and worse-for-the wear.    

Side One kicks off with the Bowie-sounding, "Ride Sally Ride"-- starring another of Reed's  ever popular tortured female characters with a "heart made out of ice."  Plus, we love the line, "Take off your pants, don't you know this is a party?"  Now if I had a nickel for every time I head that...

"Ride Sally Ride" is followed by the over-produced "Animal Language", the homo-erotic, "Baby Face" and the acerbic, "NY Stars".

Side Two kicks off with the super-cynical, sad and autobiographical, "Kill Your Sons", written about Lou's time spend in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager:

All your two-bit psychiatrists are giving you electroshock,

They said, they'd let you live at home with mom and dad instead of mental hospitals,

But every time you tried to read a book you couldn't get to page 17,

'Cause you forgot where you were so you couldn't even read

Don't you know they're gonna kill your sons

Don't you know gonna kill, kill your sons

They're gonna kill, kill your sons 

until they run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run away...

Creedmore treated me very good but Paine Whitney was even better, 

And when I flipped out on PHC I was so sad, I didn't even get a letter,

All of the drugs, that we took it really was lots of fun

But when they shoot you up with thorizene on crystal smoke you choke like a son of a gun

"Ennui" sounds like "Like A Rolling Stone"-era Dylan on some strong, strong downers and sung by a strung-out Leonard Cohen.  

Sally is back on "Sally Can't Dance", now a former-model, she's strung out on meth and no longer living the high life on the Upper East Side.  Instead she's bumming around St. Marks Place and getting raped in Tompkins Square Park.  Ugh... lighten up Lou.     

The final song is the great, "Billy" (featuring Reed playing acoustic and the Velvet's Doug Yule on bass duties), about a childhood friends-- one who gets good grades, plays football and goes to med school (Billy) and the other who drops out of school, plays pool and really doesn't give a fuck (presumably, Lou.)  Ah, but there's a twist.  Billy is drafted to Viet Nam, while the narrator is declared mentally unfit for the Army.   When Billy returns, he is unrecognizable, with shattered nerves, "like talking to a door."  The narrator is then left to ponder, "which one of us was the fool"? 

Forget about dancing, I'm not getting off the couch after listening to this record! 

RATING: 4.5 Dances with Picasso's illegitimate mistresses out of 5

Rock 'n' Roll Animal

Lou Reed - "Rock & Roll Animal" (1974) & "Lou Reed Live" (1975) - RCA Victor

Hello Friends,

We've got a Lou Reed twofer going on tonight!

Rock & Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live are two albums from the height of Lou Reed's glam rock phase.  Guitar-heavy live versions of some Velvet Underground classics ("Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", "I'm Waiting For the Man") as well some solo stuff from the Bowie-produced Transformer and the uber-depressing Berlin. 

Both albums were actually recorded at the same gig at Howard Stein's Academy of Music (which later became the Palladium) in New York City in December 1973.  

Why they just didn't release the entire set as a double album will remain a mystery!

"Aaah... Me Like Lou Reed"

With only 11 songs between the two albums, Reed's lyrics take a back seat to some more complex arrangements and some heavy extended jams.  (Guitarist's Dick Wagner & Steve Hunter would eventually join Alice Cooper's band.)  You can even fool your hipster friends by putting on the first song on Rock & Roll Animal (an instrumental that leads into "Sweet Jane") and have them guess as to who it is.  We're betting you'll get more guesses for Zappa, Pink Floyd or even the Dead than you will for Sir Lou. 

Shine a light on love, indeed!

RATING (both albums): 4 Jim-Jims in this Town out of 5

More Than Meets the Eye

Lou Reed - "Transformer" (1972) - RCA

Hello Friends,

Holy shit kids, Lou Reed turned 71 this weekend!  How the fuck did he get to live this long?  I think my grandparents are younger than him!  Seriously though, good for him.  A steady diet of uppers, downers, junk, promiscuity, peroxide, rock & roll and shock treatment can do wonders, I guess!

To celebrate his birthday we're listening to his second (and arguably best) solo album, Transformer.

Classic fucking record.  

With songs like "Vicious", "Satellite of Love", "I'm So Free" and "Walk on the Wild Side", it plays like a classic FM rock record, but with not-so-subtle lyrics about drug use, drag queens, blow jobs, sexual ambiguity and violence, its quite a bit darker than anything by Bad Company, for instance.  

And the colored girls go...

Recorded in England and produced and arranged by glam rock gods David Bowie & Mick Ronson (who were at the height of their 'Spiders From Mars' incarnation), the album is fuller sounding than anything Reed did with the Velvet Underground or that would appear on his subsequent solo albums like the utterly depressing Berlin or the slicker, Sally Can't Dance, or the feedback and noise opus, Metal Machine Music.

And who could forget the song, "Perfect Day"?  A minimalist, nostalgic ode to a good day in the life of Lou Reed, who is always aware of the other shoe getting ready to drop:  "You're going to reap just what you sow..."

Its also the best scene in the movie, Trainspotting.
    

  
RATING: 5 Shine A Light On Loves out of 5 

Happy Birthday Lou Reed!