Metal Machine Music: Unappreciated or justly ignored?

Oh yes, I believe you. You have a very eclectic and intellectual taste in music, which I respect.

 

You'll find a range of familiar terms in use chum.

However, 'pal' is used a lot by people in northern England and in Scotland, often to mean exactly the opposite of its dictionary definition. If a Glaswegian calls you pal, you probably arent, especially if you've spilled his beer. I hope that's all clear.;-)

 

It isn't what he likes, it's a terrible listen, the sleeve notes are gibberish and misspelt, but he still admires it.

Sir, I salute your indefatigability!!

 

thanks mate, I always thought it was an American saying, doesnt feel right with a brit accent but I guess it had to come from somewhere....now I know not to spill my beer in Glasgow....and also not to pick my feet in poughkeepsie

 

I didn't say I don't like it, I said that listening is not enjoyable for me. Like other experiences in life or art which can be challenging (be it a medicine ceremony or body modification or 'difficult music'), the beauty and reward is in the conflict and confrontation of aesthetic or sensory assaults. Which is not what most people are looking for in music or the arts, obviously. MMM is a work of monolithic aggression and beauty, bewitching in its moral ambiguity. Like the Stargate sequence in Kubrick's 2001.

I recommend to anyone who can get through MMM, check out La Legende d'Eer by Iannis Xenakis. It has a much wider dynamic arc than MMM but traverses similar extremes.

 

I wouldn't say that. I liked her cover of Morning Dew, and to Sir With Love is a decent song.

 

"To Sir With Love" is not a decent song. It is a masterpiece and I consider it one of the greatest torch songs ever written or sung!

 

Why are you still here? You’re clearly way out of your league.

Bob Dylan is like a square Lou Reed anyways

 

I was referring to the collaboration album between Metallica and Lou Reed, which is called "Lulu."

 

I did wonder after making that post whether people would realise it was a joke, but I decided to let it stand and see what reception it got.

 

Oh you're good maaaan. It's not everyone who could squeeze so much self delusion, faux intellectualism and self regard into a single post. Brilliant.

 

lighten up, pal

ps you've done a great job with bobs hair, even the 80's mullet.

 

lulu = Lou Lou......never occurred to me till now it was a play on his name

 

I’m finding it unbelievable how aggressively detractors are targeting the album supporters in this thread. I love MMM (although I can only listen to it so often), but for some reason there are users here who would straight up call my opinion “wrong”. I don’t blame anyone for not liking the album, it’s certainly an acquired taste, so why doesn’t that go the other way?

 

I can't see how one could reed it any other way.

 

Love Lou Reed, love Metal Machine Music, saw Metal Machine Trio live and loved them, wish his last release wasn't Lulu.

 

Understood. It is an album I never tried

*blush* Awww, shucks!

 

I think a writer in CREEM (lester Bangs? not sure) once quipped that Lou Reed was a play on "lurid" which given his lyrical propensities sounds about right. (Like, you know, Perry Farrell = peripheral).

 

I shoudlve thought of it with the duality of Lous nature

 

They were managed by Peter Jenner at the time, IIRC.

 

I've really enjoyed reading this thread, by the way as I tend towards the experimental side of things.

I came to MMM too late to love it. By the time it reached my ears via a £3 CD from Fopp, "extreme" music was something to which I had been repeatedly exposed, including pure noise: Merzbow, Hijokaiden, Incapacitants and so on. As such, MMM sounded like a well-above-par feedback and drone album and I thought it was fine, no great shakes but vastly preferable to listening to him sing.

 

MMM is great for headphone listening!

There are certain records that just have the ability to put me in a dream state and this is one of them.
I have to succumb to the improvisational recording process of these sounds and I think that's where many listeners don't feel comfortable.
"How can it be music when it's just feedback sent through filters and randomly recorded?"
That just doesn't matter to me.

And that can be said for many extreme noise artist's music.

Another example:

 

Skullflower's "Tribulation" album is a good example of that - the sheer barrage becomes transcendent.

It also predates their/his right-wing period so that's a double plus.

 

Some of the cadences are nice, but the above post NAILS it—the intrinsic value to M.M.M. is the liner notes—prose as opposed to lyric/stanza. And in 75, when Lou was dead broke and living outta The Gramercy Park Hotel, and shooting speed like a maniac, this is what he gave The Katz Bros. & R.C.A.

“Passion—REALISM. Realism was the key. The records were letters—real letters from me to certain people who had and still have, basically, no music, be it verbal or instrumental, to listen to...”—Lou, Jul. 75.

For a guy notorious for messing with his audiences, Lou was serious as a chestclutcher (and truthful) with that statement.

Them liner notes drip cool.

- siyt

 

that's the most MMM like ive heard so far