Lou Reed: The Blue Mask / Legendary Hearts song by song review

that could've gone on another 5 minutes and I wouldnt complain

 

You speak TRUTH!

 

Here's the whole Barcelona '84 show. Quine is on fire, especially during "Rock and Roll" and "Waves of Fear" (well...duh). Lou plays a bunch of minimalist leads, and he also presents us with a danceable "Street Hassle"(!).
Man, I miss him.

 

Legendary Hearts - Tracks 7

Pow Wow

Oh god filler time....One of the few Reed songs that leaves me completely cold. It has a few fans here I have seen and I suppose in the right mood it is a silly fun song and there is nothing wrong with that. I have just never got into it. I mean I like filler! Some of my favourite tunes are filler, Cripple Creek Ferry, I'm in Love with a Girl etc...Also I like dumb Lou like Rock and Roll Heart and We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together. I think the performance is just not joyous enough to make it work. Also in the context of the more deranged songs on LH it feels like a rather forced "comic relief".

Lou sings the verses like a sleepwalker and only perks up for the insipid chorus. Mixed in a similar way to the title track it is all snaking fretless bass with a mass of indistinguishable jangling guitars somewhere in the background. I can't imagine Quine gave much of a toss about being mixed out of this tune, you can almost hear the indifference as he covers Reeds chords with some open tuned Byrds style parts.

I see Pow Wow as a prototype of his later inanities such as I Love You, Suzanne, goofy novelties that don't get off the ground.

 

IMO, this song is innocuous enough to be enjoyable, but it sounds unfinished, I'm not a fan of the mix and I agree that a more energetic vocal might have been a better fit. Columbus has a better cameo in "Romeo Had Juliette".

 

At least I learned one word from it, even my English teacher didn't know: Cornucopia

 

I kind of like "Pow Wow" though the above critiques are valid. I love the sound of Lou's voice as he sings the opening couplet. Of course Lou can rhyme America with cornucopia. It's kind of fun in a way many of the New Sensations songs would be. Lou Lite if you will.

 

Yeah PW might be lightweight I kinda like it and it has some good playing on it, Lou sounds abit weary though.
The lyrics are fun, inclusive, warm & peace maker (as opposed to Martial Law?).

When your people first moved to our block
Our ancestors met with culture shock
Two different monkeys from two different trees
Come on, let's stop our fightin', and come dance with me.

Kinda Lou as community leader and equal opportunities champion!

 

Pow Wow is light relief. I like friendly, conversational Lou . A comfort tune.
Agree that the recording is somewhat subdued; the chorus is catchy but he sort of mumbles through the song.

 

Considering the title of the song, I think Lou's tongue may be in his cheek here. It was more than "culture shock" when Europeans arrived on "our block" (this verse, at minimum, seeming to be told from a Native American perspective).

That being said, dancing their differences away is a more positive solution than burying a hatchet in the White man's head (a la the chief in "Last Great American Whale").

 

I like lightweight Lou, not sure why this any more lightweight than "Turn Out the Light" though.

 

agree with all of the above, towards the end it seems it might take off but never really does.....lous deadpan delivery and the mix dont help, maybe he just got tired of it. on a side note, I don't know if ive heard an album this bass-centric (if that's a word) - that's not actually by a bassist. this could be LH by Lou and Fernando

 

I think the lyrics to Turn Out The Lights are darker and more subtle, also I like Quine's riff and the groove, something Pow Wow lacks IMO.

 

To be honest, I've never paid much attention to the lyrics of "Turn Out The Lights", that song has always been in one ear and out the other for me - which is a definition of lightweight perhaps.

 

this is a great set, thanks, Has a tight Sally Can't Dance and Quine solo shines on Turn to Me as well (speaking of rather lightweight Lou songs....- that one has got a better melody than pow wow though) heres hoping our esteemed OP keeps this going thru New Sensations!

 

Maybe so, but the way he delivers the line,"your wife says: maybe it's time to have a child", is pure gold.

 

It's really hard for me to hate on Lou, so I won't be too harsh. But "Pow Wow" sounds like some instruments were added to a demo.

 

I think Turn To Me is a pivotal 80s Lou tune. Very cutting. That line couldn't have helped his marriage though.

 

ha! i always thought it could've been the hit record off the album instead of I Love You Suzanne.
(that album was my first exposure to lou reed, bought new sensations from the cut out bin of kmart as a teen. wanted to see lou when he came thru town but no one i knew liked him...., then bought vu live at max's....and was hooked)

 

Legendary Hearts track 8

Betrayed

LR does CW! There have been country elements in several Velvet Underground songs and as mentioned before I detect some in the title track of this album. However I feel this is his most explicit nod to The Grand Ole Opry and while I don't enjoy country music or this song that much it is an interesting stylist diversion and lets Quine try out his James Burton licks.

If we thought that some of the other tunes on LH suggested the marital bliss of The Blue Mask was eroding then Betrayed goes right for the jugular. A weird mix of Johnny Cash and August Strindberg we get a one sided character assassination that is worthy of Caroline Says or The Kids from Berlin. While most of it is metaphor we still get suggestions of incest, threesomes and criminal relatives. The lyrics say: Woman marries man because he is like her father and then hates him because he is like her father.

Unfortunately there isn't really anymore to it than that. A bit like Temporary Thing from Rock n Roll Heart it is just a litany of misery without any compassion or balance. Lou hates you so you get a crappy song. However it is so bleak and straight up that you would be hard pressed not to think of it as an attack on Sylvia. Does anyone know if her cousins were all convicts?

The band plods along behind him, Saunders sounds uncomfortably out of his depth and Quine tries his best to inject some interest with some pedal steel mimicking volume swells. His solo is good though, nice brittle tone and a mix of Burton and punk weirdness (check out the odd hammer ons at 1.45). He seems to have mistimed his solo and ended earlier than the band expected so he adds a harmonic and a string bend to wrap it all up! His playing on this tune reminds me of the underrated Zal Yanovsky from the Lovin' Spoonful, for example his work on Do You Believe in Magic, Daydream and Nashville Cats.

 

This song is great! It's a Freudian country song! Plus I lagree about the awesomeness of Zal Yanovsky.

 

Terrific song! Like the later "Mad", he places so much blame and takes so little responsibility that it makes the listener wonder if it is a purposeful choice as a songwriter to make his narrator a serial fingerpointer ... or if that's just Lou.

The "presence" of the relative in bed brings to mind (for me) the mother's ghost who hovers over (and damns) the potential threesome in David Crosby's "Triad" ... although Lou takes it in another direction.

 

One of my favorite songs on Legendary Hearts. I don't think it's unrelenting criticism of the woman. I think he sings her praise as a strong woman who endured a tough time growing up, but carried the psychological scars of an abusive father (I never thought incest in particular, just some form of abuse) into her adulthood, infecting her relationships.
A simple song with deep psychological insight. Awesome lyric. Awesome song.

 

wow I forgot this was on here as well, another great one. I get the comparisons with some of the berlin songs; lous wife at the time wasn't thrilled to hear songs detailing her families history in a not so appetizing light...I think Sylvia might've known more what she was getting into with Lou. the lyrics certainly stay with you 9/10

 

What I like about this discussion is the variety of opinions! I don't care for Betrayed much but others do and it makes me reconsider the tunes I like less! Lou is the perfect example of an artist whose work lives on because it divides people and provokes debate rather than bland acceptance.