Best Song on Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby

What's the best song on this intimate little affair?

The romantic and vulnerable Coney Island Baby (1976) released after the bad dream of Metal Machine Music, was something of a return to form for Lou and a new side of the man emerged.

Choose your three favorite tracks.

 

The title track is one of Lou's best, and not just on this album: beauty, vulnerability and nostalgia all on display. For me, it's also where his talk-singing works at some of his most effective. The way his voice cracks at the end is especially moving.

The band he assembled during this time is very good as well, with Bob Kulick being one of Reed's most underrated guitarists.

 

Title track for me

 

1. Kicks
2. Coney Island Baby
3. Charley's Girl

 

Ha,ha. His preamble about playing football for coach... man, i gotta hear this song again now. That bit always cracks me up. Love that song.

 

I put the title track on a mixtape for an old girlfriend about twenty five years ago and she was initially bewildered by his repeated reminiscing and assertions that he wanted to play football for the coach, before all the aching melancholy kicked in. One of his finest songs.

 

Kulick has done some great guitar all over the place

 

I went with:

"Coney Island Baby"
An iconic Lou tune. Always great live and electric.

"She's My Best Friend"
I especially love how the band jams towards the end of the song and the "la la" background vocals are fun in their slightly off-kilter delivery.

"A Gift"
Lou's humor in full force.

 

She's My Best Friend
Kicks
Coney Island Baby

 

Kicks is awesome, scary, disturbing and funky.
A Gift is wonderfully funny. Lou had a weird sense of humour for sure but this is straight out hilarious. How he sing this with his tongue so firmly in his cheek is amazing.
Coney Island Baby. Simply one of Lou’s greatest, most heartfelt songs. Deeply personal and emotional. And a beautiful melody too. What more do you want?
Man I’d give it all up for you...

 

Coney Island Baby
She's My Best Friend
Charlie's Girl

I like the band on this record.

 

Prefer this album to TraNsformer

Hey,Nice to see Doug Yule on this album.

 

The title track of course is the big, canonical keeper. There's other stuff I like on the album too, but nothing as much.

 

Never liked the album cover ( gets dirty easy). I do believe his most poppy album

 

My vote as well. But a strong case can also be made for “A Gift” and it looks like some are making it.

 

Great album, hard to cherry pick.

 

i heard the live version of "coney island baby" first and this version never sounded right to me.

i went with "crazy feelin" ... but might just as well have chosen "charlie's girl"

 

Kicks
Coney Island Baby
Nowhere at All

 

I was fine with the cover but I hated how the label spread songs unnecessarily over the spindle hole.


Seriously!!! Just put all four songs below the hole!! There's not that many of them!

 

Give the radio dj the hint what track to play, crazy

 

New to Lou Reed's solo albums. "Coney Island Baby" knocks me out. Long, conversational, out of left field. It would be "Kicks" if not for that one. Perfectly executed track (pun intended). Those oblique shrieks are genius and frightening.

 

Ha,ha. Exactly. Whenever I hear this, I think back to the first time I heard this. What the hell? He repeats this thing so many times, and you know... it's Lou... so you start thinking, "Is there some hidden meaning I'm missing here?" Some lingo thing? But no, He's just thinking back to his High School days. And then how he says, "So I had to play football for the coach, and I want to play football for the coach." You almost expect him to keep this going, "I need to play football for the coach, I got to play football for the coach."

Just today I found an alternate, I guess earlier version, where he say some different things about playing football for the coach:

 

My picks too, with a bonus point for the hilarious A Gift. Always makes me grin .

 

Most of the songs on Coney Island Baby (recorded in late 1975) were played live and/or demoed in early 1975. The demos were dismissed by RCA, following which Lou changed tack and created Metal Machine Music....

 

On Take No Prisoners?