Metal Machine Music: Unappreciated or justly ignored?

Buncha lightweights. MMM isn't even the worst Lou Reed album.

 

I have the CD mostly for historical purposes only. Can't say I have listened to it more than two times in the 20 some years I have owned it.

 

Whereas "The Raven" gets played weekly round at your house.

 

Seriously, the best part is the liner notes and the album cover.



Passion--REALISM--realism was the key. The records were letters. Real letters from me to certain other people. Who had and still have basically, no music, be it verbal or instrumental to listen to. One of the peripheral effects typically distorted was what was to be known as heavy metal rock. In Reality it was of course diffuse, obtuse, weak, boring and ultimately an embarrassment. This record is not for parties/dancing/background romance. This is what I ment by "real" rock, about "real" things. No one I know has listened to it all the way through including myself. It is not meant to be. Start any place you like. Symmetry, mathematical precision, obsessive and detailed accuracy and the vast advantage one has over "modern electronic composers." They, with neither sense of time, melody or emotion, manipulated or no. It's for a certain time and place of mind. It is the only recorded work I know of seriously done as well as possible as a gift, if one could call it that, from a part of certain head to a few others. Most of you won't like this and I don't blame you at all. It's not meant for you. At the very least I made it so I had something to listen to. Certainly Misunderstood: Power to Consume (how Bathetic): an idea done respectfully, intelligently, sympathetically and graciously, always with concentration on the first and formost goal. For that matter, off the record, I love and adore it. I'm sorry, but not especially, if it turns you off.

One record for us and it. I'd harbored hope that the intelligence that once inhabited novels or films would ingest rock, I was, perhaps, wrong. This is the reason Sally Can't Dance--your Rock n Roll Animal. More than a decent try, but hard for us to do badly. Wrong media, unquestionably. This is not meant for the market. The agreement one makes with "speed". A specific acknowlegment. A to say the least, very limited market. Rock n Roll Animal makes this possible, funnily enough. The misrepresentation succeeds to the point of making possible the appearance of the progenitor. For those for whom the needle is no more than a toothbrush. Professionals, no sniffers please, don't confuse superiority (no competition) with violence, power or the iustifications. The Tacit speed agreement with Self. We did not start World War I, II or III. Or the Bay of Pigs, for that Matter. Whenever. As way of disclaimer. I am forced to say that, due to stimulation of various centers (remember OOOOHHHMMM, etc.), the possible negative contraindications must be pointed out. A record has to, of all things Anyway, hypertense people, etc. possibility of epilepsy (petite mal), psychic motor disorders, etc... etc... etc.
My week beats your year.

Lou Reed

 

I like to return wow when give wow. Glad you appreciate the insight within my response.

 

Also, as Lester Bangs pointed out, namedropping LaMonte Young on the cover and spelling his name wrong was so Lou in the trashy 70s. I believe he also pointed out, regarding Lou's claim that speedfreaks hadn't started any World Wars or the Bay of Pigs, that the Nazis invented the stuff and JFK was whacked out on benzedrine.

 

Yes. I learned a lot about you and I envy your complete honesty.

 

I've posted this before in some other MMM thread, but i like to approach it as a kind of transmission from some "otherworld". Little sounds and frequencies are emerging all the time. You can focus on different tones, the resonances.

 

Didn't he call it his Blonde On Blonde?

 

Lou was such a joker.

 

Humor in music? How very dare he?!

 

Definitely inspired in part by Warhol, though not specifically Sleep I'd say.

This was the very method used by Andy Warhol, who Lou Reed considered a 'genius,' on Empire.

 

That would explain why the recording doesn't have much depth and the other sonic issues I was complaining about earlier in the thread. Genius would have been figuring out how to do something interesting like that while preserving natural stereo imaging and soundstage.

 

I'm a Lou Reed fan who enjoys Metal Machine Music but dislikes New York. His catalogue is varied enough for there to be something for everybody.

 

The quad mix might be just what you're looking for. As a Canadian I was delighted to find a Robert Ludwig mastered U.S. copy.

 

The extreme reactions in this thread prove the album's reason it exists.
Some are flat out dismissive, some are praising it, and/or are being contrarian for the sake of being so. Some have tried to listen all the way through, some are trying hard to keep up the facade of taking it seriously. Some are even using it to blast "classic rockers'" tastes.
These seem to be more about the member posting replies than the actual album.
I think that's why Reed had this concept. And like most prolific artists, he was already beyond it and onto the next thing when it was released.

I'm not really a Lou Reed fan, but I respect and am fascinated by him and his art.

 

I was referring to Electronic Sound.

 

This just in: People like different kinds of music.

News at eleven.

 

I was referring to Electronic Sound. I did try listening to MMM. Still don't find interesting or enjoyable.

 

If MMM is the worst, you really should try a few more things...

 

Is the quad mix done differently, without playing the recording backwards on another channel?

I've never tried the quad mix or even looked at what is different between the quad version and stereo version. I listen on headphones. Quad doesn't make much sense for someone who does headphone listening. Surround and quad can be done on headphones if you use DSP (like Waves Nx) or hardware like the Smyth Realiser. I have Waves Nx. I'll find the quad version and give it a try.

 

The point is to do what you are capable of doing well.

 

It's the same recording, just in 4 channels. It's sides 2 and 4 that are backwards, not individual channels.

 

Yes I have my standards. Don't attempt to do things you can't do well or at least at the required level. I have no problem with anyone trying to do something new but if you can't really do it well then don't publish it . Once you publish then critics are entitled to carp.

 

No, the point is to do whatever the eff you want, if you feel like that's what gives you an outlet. That's what creativity is (or at least should be) all about.

The fans and so called "critics" can go ride a seatless bike.