Some would call this a key transitional period…Lou would have called this exactly the sound he’d always had in his head!

As frequent visitors to the Halls of Rock will agree, we’ve gotten our share of mileage out of this Lou Reed…As His Music Was Meant to Sound feature. I find something especially gripping about Lou Reed, warts and all. He’s both an icon of rock cool and one of rock’s most pathetic wannabes. He’s most middle class guys who’ve strapped on a guitar and tried to rock: completely lacking in fluidity, seamlessness, grace, and all the other things real rock stars have in spades. I could go on, but those of you who know what I’m talking about can say it better than I can, and those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about are probably living in a house with no mirrors.

For those of you who don’t know the meaning behind this feature, its based on another endearing trait of Lou Reed: read almost any interview of the guy at the release of a new album, and he’s sure to launch into ill-informed technical reasons why his new album captures the sound of his music the way he’d always intended it to sound. In fact, as he’ll get around to telling anyone who’ll listen, this new album is so true to the sound he’s heard in his head all these years, that it makes his previous albums sound like shit.

As a result of these interviews, it’s with good reason that we often provide examples of Lou’s latest and greatest moments, such as the one that kicked off today’s feature.

Surely, a tongue is planted firmly in cheek. On behalf of the Rock Gods, Lou is getting his comeuppance from us. All but those who live in houses without mirrors know this.

In fairness, however, we also try to mix in some performances of Lou and his band at the time that capture what we feel, on many levels, is truly great about the man’s music. Here’s one of my favorite live performance clips of one of my favorite songs from his solo career. Robert Quine’s solo is always a turn-on!

Continue reading »

First, you know you wanted another selection from Lou’s 1974 All-Star Porn Rock Band. It’s going to be hard continuing this feature once I move beyond this era, but I’ll do my best.

I was watching a making of Transformer doc on VH1 Classics. You know, as much as I love Lou Reed and as many mediocre – some might say “humble” – albums as I do by the man, Tranformer is a generally flat listening experience for me. I’m only stoked by the album’s version of “Walk on the Wild Side”. As great a song as “Satellite of Love” is, I find the album’s version lacking in something. I’ll take any number of live versions over it.

The album’s subject matter doesn’t grab me – all that glam/butch-femme dynamic/Andy Warhol stuff ranks down there with workin’ for the weekend cock-rock subject matter in terms of my lyrical interests, but I think the real problem is Bowie. Here’s a rare example of an artist in his prime being produced by an artist he heavily influenced. As with Bowie’s production of Raw Power, I’m left cold.

That said, let’s hear what Lou and his contributors had to say about the making of this supposed classic!