Brilliant Lou Reed documentary.

I found this sealed, mint VHS of PBS' American Masters documentary on Lou Reed, "Lou Reed; Rock and Roll Heart" the other day. Got it for $3 at a pawn shop.

This is something every fan of Lou should try and see! Tons of historic footage of the grungy and fascinating New York art scene of the 60's, fantastic interviews with the likes of David Bowie. They interview some of the people Lou wrote about in "Take a Walk on the Wild Side".

There's even a quick clip of mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, talking about the attention to detail Lou put into the nutty "Metal Machine Music" album. The engineer in the studio refused to listen to it, choosing to hit the "record" button and have someone get him when it was over.
It's amazing to me that the super conservative RCA label, home to Perry Como and "The Living Strings" would continue to release Lou's records! Good thing they did.

Excellent documentary, well done. No annoying MTV style editing, yet still energetic.
It really makes me wish I could've experienced some of this stuff when it was new.

Dan C

 

Was not Metal Machine Music the end of his RCA contract? There would have been nothing left for them to release except for existing titles. I used to use MMM to clear the stragglers out of my house when the party wouldn't end.

 

I thought he had a few RCA albums after MMM but I'm not sure. I swear there was one RCA album in the mid-80's with a very controversial video of Lou pealing his face off. But most people say that MMM was a big "F-You" to his label. I don't own that album, don't really want to, but I love Lou's attitude about the whole thing.
"New York" is one of my favorite Reed albums.

Dan C

 

I think I remember that the general theory on Metal Machine Music is that Lou had tremendous success with Rock and Roll Animal, was uncomfortable with it, and decided this was a great way to de-emphasize the hype. Coney Island Baby came out on RCA (according to sources I'm looking at) after Metal Machine Music.

 

Dan,

Does your tape run around 75 minutes? I had heard that PBS was selling, at the time, an expanded edition at that length, as the original telecast ran about 55m.

ED

 

Yeah, that's the one. Full and uncut. If it's still available, you might want to snag one. There's a lot of live footage in there too. Just too many goodies to write about. Well worth even the full price.

Dan C