It's easy to forget that most of the Velvet Underground stuff was done in the 60's. So radically different
from what was going on at the time. And so influential on what came after.
From the article - I'd love to see this stuff:
Surprises seem to come out of nowhere. A Sony Walkman lightly coated with rust turns out to be a special
edition, presented to Reed by the company, with a custom silver case made by Tiffany. A reissue copy of the
Byrds' 1966 raga-jazz single "Eight Miles High" has a handwritten note inside the picture sleeve: "Thought you
might enjoy a little more Coltrane." It is signed "Jimmy Page" – an early Reed fan who, as a Yardbird in 1968,
was covered the Velvets' "I'm Waiting for the Man" on stage.
I've never been able to tolerate Lou Reed's music; the stuff I've heard on the radio (esp "Walk on the Wild Side") strikes me as pretentious and not especially lyrical nor musical -- but I feel like I must be missing something as he is continuously heralded as a radical innovator of rock & punk music.
Help me here. What am I missing? What should I listen to in order to get a good cross-sampling of his work? Are those two tunes just "pop" or not representative of his work, or something else? I want to give him another chance, so to speak and I could use the guidance. Is there a particular song or two that showcases what he's all about?
Neil Young is another example. I can't stand his music, however, I like Bruce Springsteen and I've heard the same remarks about his work. Go figure.
(edit: lol! I always thought "warewolves of london" was Lou Reed.)
It's a little hard to get a sense for how out-there The Velvet Underground was now that the kinds of sounds they were making in the late 60s are 'normalized,' so to speak. The best thing I can recommend, if this aspect interests you, is to listen to the top 10 songs from 1969:
1. "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies
2. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by The 5th Dimension
3. "I Can't Get Next to You" by The Temptations
4. "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones
5. "Everyday People" by Sly & the Family Stone
6. "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe
7. "Hot Fun in the Summertime" by Sly & the Family Stone
8. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" by Tom Jones
9. "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations
10. "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells
And then listen to VU's "The Velvet Underground" the same year. It's like they were living on a different planet.
At the end of this experiment, you might not emerge a Lou Reed fan. But you will at least be able to appreciate the vision, and to hear the influences VU had on later artists.
Edit: Reviewing your comment, I'd like to ask you to clarify what you mean by "pretentious" in reference to Walk on the Wild Side, a song that reference a transgender actress who exhibits remarkable composure while performing fellatio? The subject matter of the song -- black women, New York sexual deviants, hitch-hiking, pimping, being strung out on drugs... it strikes me as a the precise opposite of pretentious. Capturing a time and place, the sound and atmosphere, to anyone with an ear.
Well put. As a writer, Reed went into territories that even
today would be considered taboo or at least out of the
ordinary.
I heard a quote once that the The Velvet Underground and
Nico album only sold 1000 copies when it came out. But every
one of those 1000 people went and started a band.
It just strikes me as so preposterous that I assumed that surely it must be a put on; like he chose the most outrageous thing to write about and slapped together a sing-songy, corny tune that isn't particularly well sung (he's quite a bit off pitch).
Maybe that's not the case, and apologies to anybody who really digs the music, but it strikes me that way. You asked a really good question, and that's the honest answer.
BTW. I Greatly appreciate your response about the time/place/culture in which his music was written. I'm going back to listen again with fresh ears and an open mind.
I definitely understand how it seems outrageous. One thing that helped give me perspective was to learn more about the inspiration for the characters and the band's relationship with Andy Warhol. [0] The characters in the song were based on Warhol "superstars", and Warhol even briefly managed the VU. I think outrageous is a fitting word for Warhol and that scene, especially when contrasted with the Top Ten from 1969.
One way to learn to appreciate Lou Reed is to realize he was extremely literary. His express goal was to combine the rock/soul music he loved so much with a form of poetry you don't hear often in other artists. Leonard Cohen would be a notable exception.
Read the opening stanza of "Rome had Juliette"
Caught between the twisted stars the plotted lines the faulty map that brought Columbus to New York
Betwixt between the east and west he called upon her wearing a leather vest, the earth squealed and shuddered to a halt
[...]
I could hit that light with one good arm behind my back said little Joey Diaz
He contrasts intricate word smithy with blunt harsh statements.
Read "ecstasy" then listen to the song. Read Street Hassle, then listen to it.
I showed my friend the lyrics to Baton Rouge last night at a Lou Reed tribute in NYC after we had just heard it and she teared up for 10 minutes. She claims to not really be that interested in lyrics.
Then for context on something like metal machine music, understand that people like Xenakis were exploring those ideas too. Pure tone and noise with no concern for meter or key.
He really was a visionary.
Source: I was a friend and collaborator with Lou Reed for many years.
>I've never been able to tolerate Lou Reed's music; the stuff I've heard on the radio (esp "Walk on the Wild Side") strikes me as pretentious and not especially lyrical nor musical -- but I feel like I must be missing something as he is continuously heralded as a radical innovator of rock & punk music.
Well, there's always Def Leppard or Chick Korea, whatever floats your boat :-)
Kidding aside, the VU albums where incredible, and inspired almost everybody in any left-of-field rock/pop setting.
And I don't get what's pretentious about "Walk on the wild side", in an era (the seventies) when mainstream bands (from the Genesis and ELP to Pink Floyd and Yes) had huge concept albums about the meaning of life, alienation in modern society, and/or the legend of King Arthur, like Spinal Tap without the humor.
Reed did indeed live in those circles he sings about on "Walk of the Wild side", and was even married to a transvestite for a few years in the seventies himself. It's not some suburban kid trying to play it "dark".
>Help me here. What am I missing? What should I listen to in order to get a good cross-sampling of his work?
You could go backwards. E.g. try some of his later works first, like:
There is a legendary and possibly apocryphal quote from a music critic to the effect that "Only 5000 people bought the first Velvet Underground album - but all of them formed bands".
What they were was deeply influential. It's harder to see from a future viewpoint, but a lot of what they were doing broke new ground and informed decades of other acts directly.
A lot of it is also good stuff - have a listen to some of the suggestions in these thread.
For me, I'd have you start where I started, with "Rock and Roll Animal." It's performed live by Reed backed by what was basically Alice Cooper's band, and that particular album's selections are the ones that sound most conventionally like 70's guitar-driven rock and roll. Very accessible: Intro/Sweet Jane, Heroin, and Rock and Roll are the three songs I'd pick for you if you were in a hurry.
It's interesting from there to listen to other versions of Sweet Jane, maybe other recordings of Reed's as a solo artist, or with VU, or covers. In a lot of ways, when I was a kid, listening to the newest Lou Reed record was searching for another song as good as Sweet Jane.
I guess from there, assuming you see something in Sweet Jane in any of its forms, I'd go back to him with the Velvet Underground, maybe listen to Loaded with an eye toward how adaptable and influential those songs are.
Hope this helps. In a lot of ways the value of Lou Reed and the VU is not what they did but what they inspired in others.
This is a tough one. Lou Reed isn't the most accessible musician around.
If you're looking for a single song, "New York Conversation" provides a good luck at Reed. It's a fun little song on Transformer, which is likely my favourite Lou Reed album.
That said, Lou Reed is generally best served in entire albums. If you're willing to give an entire album a listen, Transformer is a good bet. But, I'll warn you, if you found Walk on the Wild Side a little too off key for your taste, Satellite of Love will flat out hurt.
If you're willing to go a little earlier, the Velvet Underground is an amazing album, though it veers into art rock territory.
i always thought 'the murder mystery' was a cool velvet underground song, especially the way they utilize the left channel and right channel to tell different parts of the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DHvBSqfnVs
Lou Reed has several distinct periods, all of which are somewhat divisive; a person who likes his Velvet Underground period might not like the rest, for example. In particular, he was fond of alternating between straight pop, experimental rock and more ambitious concept albums.
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First, the Velvet Underground period (1960s-1970). The Velvets were highly experimental, but they hit a certain sweet spot thanks to Reed's quirky pop music sensibility. "The Velvet Underground & Nico" is the classic album, although Nico sings on many of the songs. Highlights: "Sunday Morning", "Heroin".
Pre-glam Bowie years: Before the somewhat short glam period, he had several rather beautiful albums heavily influenced by David Bowie: "Lou Reed" is something of a transitional album (it has a bunch of songs from the Velvet period), but "Transformer" and "Berlin" sound rather different and more lyrical than his later work. "Transformer" has something of a cabaret pop aesthetic that he wouldn't often do after; pretty much all of the songs are quirky, cute, flirty little numbers. "Walk on the Wild Side" is from this album, and I wouldn't say it's particularly representative of his style, even if it's probably the song he's most well known for. Highlights: "Perfect Day", "Satellite of Love".
"Berlin" is a rather heavy, heady, adult, depressing concept album about failed marriages and kids. Highlights: "Caroline Says II", "Lady Day".
Glam/noise years: Reed tried to do something new with "Rock 'n Roll Animal" and "Lou Reed Live", singing old songs with a new metal backing band. The albums feature some absurdly good guitar dueling, but they're not great aside from that.
Following this, he segued into a kind of decadent period where he hit peak drug use: "Coney Island Baby" got back to the more poppy, laidback style of "Transformer". (Stories of the recording session for Coney Island Baby paints Reed as barely present and barely able to sing.) Coney is definitely a good album, though. Highlights include the autobiographical "Coney Island Baby", and "Kicks".
"Street Hassle" is Reed seeing some influence from punk, with a rougher, dirtier, looser style than his two preceding albums. It's a kind of concept album about the kinds of deviants and lowlives he tended to populate his songs with. Highlights: "Real Good Time Together", "Street Hassle", "Shooting Star".
The subsequent live album, "Take No Prisoners", is great. It's unusual in that is uses binaural sound, so the effect is a lot like hearing it live.
At the end of the 1970s, Reed cleaned up, settled into something of a stable married life, and started producing somewhat more measured, deliberate work again. The best album from this period is "The Blue Mask", which is quite subdued and lyrical. Highlights: "My House", "Women", "The Gun".
"Legendary Hearts" is also quite good, and the start of several albums where he simply focused on simple, tight rock numbers. "New Sensations" is a bit 1980s, but good.
Continuing from this, his last great album, in my opinion, was "New York", a kind of anthology of songs about NYC. His homage to Andy Warhol, "Songs For Drella", where he plays some very low-key duets with John Cale, is also very good.
His 1990s/2000s albums weren't particularly good, although I quite liked some of the songs on "Magic and Loss".
---
Personally, my favourite albums are Transformer, Berlin, The Blue Mask, plus everything from his Velvet Underground days.
You've given a good, detailed summary. For me, the most welcoming place to start is the earlier VU stuff that's in an inventive pop vein: the self titled album, and "Loaded."
I agree that (the much later) "Songs for Drella" has some excellent, thoughtful tunes. It's worth reading the liner notes so you can understand what some of the songs are about, especially about the shooting of Andy.
i agree that Loaded is the best place to start with VU. if you don't like that then you're unlikely to prefer the noisier stuff, in which case i would say that Blue Mask is the second best place to start.
if you don't like Blue Mask, then go back and listen to Sister Ray or European Son, just to cover your bases.
if none of that is working for you then you can stick with the Boss, he's great too.
I started with the VU's 3rd, and self-titled, album. Standouts from the album: Some Kind of Love, Pale Blue Eyes, I'm Set Free, After Hours. It's a much better album than Loaded, which has some great songs (Sweet Jane, I Found a Reason, Sweet Nothin'), but Reed famously complained that he gave them an album full of hits, and they returned shit (to paraphrase). The Velvet Underground and Nico has its share of accessible songs, too: Sunday Morning and I'll Be Your Mirror stand out (Venus in Furs and Heroin are also great songs but not particularly accessible). White Light/White Heat is great, but it's almost entirely experimental noise rock.
Transformer is another good starting point. Other posters mentioned Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, and Satellite of Love, but Andy's Chest and Goodnight Ladies are also great.
How Do You Think It Feels, Oh Jim, and Sad Song are songs I'd also recommend from Berlin (like the recommendations of Lady Day and Caroline Says II).
From Street Hassle, Gimme Some Good Times is right there with his best work (as is the title song), and Wait is one of my favorite Lou Reed throwaways. There are albums as good as Street Hassle, but for my money, there are none better.
Stupid Man, With You, City Lights, and Families are standouts on from The Bells. Don Cherry worked on this album with Lou, and Transformer and Street Hassle are his only 70's albums I'd put ahead of it (similar level to Berlin and Coney Island Baby, though they all have completely different sounds).
I like 80's Lou considerably less, but Blue Mask is a great album (Underneath the Bottle and Waves of Fear are also great tracks from it). New Sensations doesn't get the love it deserves (I Love You Suzanne, My Red Joystick, and the title track are great). New York is probably his best 80's album aside from Blue Mask. Romeo Had Juliette, Halloween Parade, and Last Great American Whale are my standouts, but it's a pretty consistent album.
Outside of his work with the VU and his 70's masterpieces, Ecstasy might be my favorite Lou Reed album. The title track, Baton Rouge, and Big Sky are all perfect, and Mad and White Prism are both clever and pretty devastating.
The quote about the first VU album, only selling 5,000 or 30,000 copies but everyone one who bought one started a band, is attributed to Brian Eno (brilliant musician in his own right), FWIW.
Lou Reed studied literature at Syracuse under Delmore Schwartz (he was the first great man I ever knew, Reed sings of Schwartz in My House). No musician has been more influential to rock music than Lou Reed. When the Beatles and Stones were trying to sound like Blues or R&B Bands, Reed was making altogether new sounds.
John Cale's solo stuff is also worth checking out (Paris 1919 and Fear are good places to start).
I'll add to the other comments about the context in which they made this music, to give you a sense of where they were coming from. I read someplace, maybe even liner notes for one the Velvet Underground records, that they would fine any band member that played a blues lick.
In a sense, as I understand it, they were trying to reinvent rock'n'roll through radical simplification. The Unix way. 3 chords and the truth. If you listen to their music, you can hear them doing it - no blues, no cliche, Lou's radically simple singing, but still building amazing music.
> the stuff I've heard on the radio (esp "Walk on the Wild Side") strikes me as pretentious
It might seem pretentious, but it was very real to them. The characters in Walk on the Wild Side were real people they knew (look it up online) - far more 'wild' than my life, but really it's about empathy. The images created by those short, one-verse character sketches are amazingly rich, the clear-eyed description of the darkness in their lives, and the empathy for what many (especially then) considered the trash of society is still almost heart-breaking to me.
> I always thought "warewolves of london" was Lou Reed.
No offense, but you're not grasping Lou Reed if you confused them. It's not just the voice, but what Lou had to say. Here are some more Lou Reed songs to try:
* Sweet Jane (live in Italy) [listen to how incredibly simple the music is, but so effective]
* Halloween Parade [Look up the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade if you aren't familiar with it, and remember this was written as the AIDS epidemic was beginning and (IIRC) still the institutions weren't acting, just watching gay people die. The whole New York album is amazing.]
* Doing the Things That We Want To [a bit dated in sound, but again very real. He's talking about the inspiration of other artists: Sam Sheppard's Fool for Love, Martin Scorsese's New York movies and Travis Bickle, etc.]
I'm of the opinion that a lot of his most famous songs sound better on this live cd (lo mejor de lou reed) than the studio versions - Estoy Esperando Que el Hombre, Estoy tan Libre, Vicious, Sweet Jane, Heroina, Rock n roll, etc..
Wake me up when we can print our own tape. Until then, there's not much difference between an SSD and a tape-roll; bother are not something I can grow in my kitchen.
From the article - I'd love to see this stuff: