Any Lou Reed love out there ?

Rock n Roll Animal--no joke one of the best guitar albums ever made.

 

Thanks for posting this. I love the passport photo. These guys are our musical heroes so fun to see the mundane. Hopefully the archive will release some interesting musical titbits (intrigued by Lou doing Dylan as in the article)...

 

I just checked the date stamp on my slides. It was 1975. Thanks for all the "Likes"

 

Yeah, in one year Lou changed quite a bit, in style and in music. Of course, no two consecutive Lou Reed records sound totally alike, there's always something different added to or subtracted from the mix, to the music's benefit. IMO.
For me, Lou's nadir was his 1973-1974 glam star concert shtick. I realize Rock n Roll Animal is many people's favorite Lou record, but that along with Lou Reed Live is his low point to me.

 

Love Lou. I did a five hour radio special last night featuring songs off every album in chronological order. It still felt short!

 

Couldn't agree more. Now, '75-'77, there's some fireworks...

 

Extend that to '79.

 

as long as you lose Lou's mullet.

 

You might be thinking of '89.
1979:


Love this record!

 

I saw him in '79 in NYC and distinctly recall some sort of mullet-type 'do even then. But my perceptions might have been altered at the time, your honor.

 

Defendant, you're free to go. Just turn over your substances directly to the judge, please.

 

Speaking of tidbits and treasures...the amazing Matrix Tapes share the wonder of hearing the Velvets live back in the day...

So yeah...The Matrix Tapes would be in my all time favorite Lou Reed releases.

 

Interesting that you consider '73-'74 his nadir considering that "Berlin" and "Sally Can't Dance" came out in those years. While I consider the former his masterwork, the latter, albeit a trashy album ( and perhaps his angriest ), has some great songs. Alternatively, I think that '78-'79 were his weakest years ( outside of '86 ), with "The Bells" and "Growing Up in Public". Why ? For me, "The Bells" suffers from a stylistic identity crisis ( and pandering to his fans by trying to sound new wavish ) whereas "Growing Up in Public" sounds like he is singing with a vocal tic and taking a cue from Billy Joel ( and his piano hooks ).

 

And yet I love The Bells and Growing Up... , different strokes and all that.

 

I certainly agree Ralph. Moreover, as the OP, I am simply happy that this post was revived no less due to Lou's birthday just passing. And like with Strummer, I enjoy your Lou commentaries as I have certainly seen many of them before.

 

I've loved Reed since I was a kid, but love and play him more and more the older I get. He was the real deal, and did what he wanted and what he could. I like that.

 

Lou was always one of my go-to guys. Transformer was a pivotal record for me. I didn't really have a clue what a song like "Make Up" was about but I knew Lou was different so he always interested me. I collected his entire catalog, saw him five times and collected loads of live shows. His 1980s albums are among my favourites especially New Sensations and New York. Some songs from other albums really were faves as well. "Wild Child", "Kill Your Sons", "Disco Mystic" and "The Last Shot" were touchstones along the way. Lou was honest except when he wasn't if that makes any sense. He had a wicked, dark sense of humour. When he died it hit me how much his music had meant to me.

 

"Rock And Roll Animal" is a Barn Burner. Rocks my speakers, that one does.

 

What's interesting about those two albums, released a year apart, is how combined they come as close as any other release to revealing the true Lou. If you take The Bells (especially "Families") as being the gay Lou, and Growing Up... (most of it) as the straight, well, there you go , two sides of the same coin and the duality he wrestled with for most of his life.
But then I have a tendency to read too much into all things Lou.

 

I love Berlin and Sally Can't Dance isn't terrible.
You should re-read my post. I thought I was specific enough when I mentioned the live stuff Lou was doing at the time. His "glam star concert shtick" is what I called his nadir. Or as Lou might say..."can't you f'n read?" (that's a joke...winky face...WINKY FACE)

The Bells and Growing Up in Public blow that live crap away, BTW. IMO.
That's not a joke.

 

I certainly did read your post Strummer. I always do read them and enjoy them . Perhaps I assumed too much. I figured that even if you didn't like those two "live" albums that, at the very least, "Berlin" and "Sally Can't Dance" would be equalizers and therefore, negate '73-'74 as his weakest solo years.

 

IMO, Lou doesn't have weak solo studio years. At least not consecutively. Not as strong maybe, but never weak. But then I absolutely love Rock and Roll Heart and dislike Rock n Roll Animal, so what do I know?

 

Are there any other episodes of Lou's radio show "Lou Reed's New York Shuffle" out there? I've only ever seen a stream of episode 1:
BBC Radio 6 Music - Lou Reed's New York Shuffle, Episode 1

 

Indeed they do.
But then I think American Poet (with The Tots) is miles better than Rock'n'Roll Animal.

 

That is really good stuff, yes!