Any Lou Reed love out there ?

Sally Can't Dance grows on you. Growing Up In Public sounds dated - agree with the Billy Joel comment above. The New Sensations-Mistrial period is where I lost interest for a while. The 90s albums don't really do it for me. Mind you, none of my heroes' 90s albums do it for me, with the exception of Dylan.

I've asked this before on this forum, but no one's been able to answer or comment - what happened to his voice, somewhere in the transition to Street Hassle? He kept making great music but we never got anything like his vocals on Transformer again. It was almost like he was trying to sing badly.

 

I've often wondered the same thing. There are some songs where it seems he's having trouble even singing in time with the music, while a track like Ride Sally Ride off SALLY CAN'T DANCE has an almost conventional, smooth vocal. The Blue Mask has some great musical interplay, but Lou's vocals can sometimes be grating.

His best talk-singing for me is Coney Island Baby. One of my absolute favorite Lou tracks and albums.

 

Lot of love for Lou. He is dearly missed. Big part of my youth was playing Air guitar to R and R Animal.

 

Mentioned this on here somewhere else before--I listened to The Bells for the first time on streaming last year, I had never heard that record. The second track, "Disco Mystic", has him affecting a really high, whiny, nasally voice.

When I first heard it, I completely laughed my ass off at it.

 

I was revisiting Ecstasy today and saw this about the cover:

"The cover photography is by Stefan Sagmeister, who instructed Reed to masturbate behind a curtain to express the feeling of unashamed ecstasy."

Wonder how Reed reacted to that request before agreeing to it? Amusement? Was he stunned? Contemplative?

 

I took it as a take off/homage to warhols blow job movie......

 

And did he comply or fake it?

 

I'm fighting the burning desire to quote the lyrics to "White Prism" ... for both cases.

 

He looks like a possum

 

The Raven and Magic And Loss are my top Lou's, and Take No Prisoners is my favourite live album, of anybody's.

Wouldn't have wanted him as a friend, but I'm grateful for his music.

 

Excellent choices.
Take No Prisoners is my favorite live record too.
And yes, by anyone.

 

American Poet was the first live Lou Reed I heard, and can't be topped as a live album. Killer performance and recording. When I eventually heard the Rock and Roll Animal stuff I was very disappointed, it's really overblown, bloated and boring by comparison.

 

Was there for most of the shows and hear myself succinctly in various places on record sitting way up there at the Bottom Line...remains my claim to fame.

 

Lucky man, you.

 

Were you annoyed that they went on late?

 

lou reed is an enigma for me......i understand his place in rock history, but i just never "heard" him.

 

No. I remember Lou lighting that cigarette and I am the one that was calling out for I Heard Her Call My Name....

 

overblown maybe....but boring? nah

 

To me it's not boring, it's repugnant.
It's those guitars.
But many people enjoy it so to them I say...enjoy!

 

Bombast. I find the best way to approach this level of rock-sincerity is to treat it with a certain level of hilarity. And after Lou quoting YB Yeats on the later Prisoners, it does become pretty funny.

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” There's irony, because Lou became more and more sincere as he left his playful 70's years behind him.

RNR Animal is an occasional entertainment for me.

 

Perfect.

 

I like it all really, the good thing with lou is the live sound was always changing in those days, I even like his inbetween band post tots/pre hunter-wager in early 1973 Moogy klingman on keyboards/tom cosgrove guitar and chocolate on drums! don't think lasted more than a few shows but funky, sloppy (they only had a week to learn the songs) and lou having a blast, worth seeking out if

 

Yeah, I've heard some of that band with Klingman on youtube, I believe. Interesting stuff. I would love some official Lou Reed archival concert releases from the 1970s. He had a lot of bands in that period and as you said, a lot of live sounds. I think it's unfortunate that all we really get from the early 70s is with the Tots (which I love) and the Animal/Live records (which I don't love). Lou was doing some great stuff on stage throughout the 70s, messed-up though he was for much of it.

There's an interesting article here that describes the Moogy band's approach to the songs:
Walk On The Wild Side (Incomplete) - Lou Reed and Moogy Klingman Band - May 2, 1973

But I really enjoy his live music from the latter half of the 70s, in particular. The Rock and Roll Heart/Street Hassle/The Bells live shows should have an audience, and a live box set would be nice. I absolutely love Take No Prisoners, but it's not enough. There's recorded shows out there, and lots of bootlegs of varying sound quality. Gimme, gimme, gimme.

 

And a full show with Don Cherry would be great.
Does that recording exist?