RIP Lou Reed

[aigel]

I really dig Velvet Underground. Never was hot on his later work. I thought about going to a concert, but then I got scared - same as Bob Dylan - could be a major disappointment if you catch the wrong one.

Unfortunately the rock'n roll lifestyle caught up with him. I think he had a good run, considering the hard miles he put on his body. RIP

G

[id10t]

[72doug2,2S]

I loved the soundtrack to Trainspotting. This was the first time I heard "Perfect Day."

[GG Allin]

Originally Posted by RANDY P

Werd.

I don't get him, probably never will.

rjp

I'm with you. I thought his music was mediocre at best. I suppose there something I'm missing though. Maybe it's in the lyrics. I don't usually pay too much attention to those. I like music for the music. Lyrics come secondary.

Sucks to here of anyone's passing though.

[jyl]

71 is too young to go.

[Aragorn]

Have respect for him as an artist. Like all performance art, some people get and some don't.

First time I remember hearing him was in the cartoon film "Rock & Rule." He sung the song "My name is Mok."

Rock & Rule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

R.I.P.

[Don Ro]

First time I heard the Velvet Underground was when I was in Viet Nam.
This tune stuck in my head for months. >>>RIP!
.
Velvet Underground - I´m Waiting For The Man - YouTube
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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1998 Lou Reed documentary to air on PBS
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1998 Lou Reed documentary to air on PBS
.
Times & Dates:
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Schedule | American Masters | PBS
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[ramonesfreak]

Influenced my life more profoundly than any other artist. Discovered VU at 13 and at 41, it still effects my guitar playing to this day more than any other musician or band. Lou, JJ Cale, George jones ....bad year

He was a huge influence and changed the music world (and mine as a musician) for the better.



Saw him a few years ago at a small 1300 seat auditorium. I gained a new respect for him when he refused to play "Walk on the Wild Side" after a few audience members called out for it. His catalog is so extensive, diverse and groundbreaking; it's a shame that most people only know him for his one (or two) radio hits.



Gonna put on my old vinyl copy of "The Velvet Underground and Nico" in his honor.



RIP, Lou.

[GDNF2ET]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

First time I heard the Velvet Underground was when I was in Viet Nam.
This tune stuck in my head for months. >>>RIP!
.
Velvet Underground - I´m Waiting For The Man - YouTube
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
1998 Lou Reed documentary to air on PBS
.
1998 Lou Reed documentary to air on PBS
.
Times & Dates:
.
Schedule | American Masters | PBS
.
.

I caught that PBS documentary last week...Very well done..I'm embarrassed to admit this, I always thought Cake's song "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" was his too....

[Head416]

I first heard of Lou Reed a couple years ago when he did a project with Metallica (which most people hated, but I loved).

Reading about him, most of what I found said that everybody cites him as influential, but that nobody really liked his albums except for Velvet Underground and Nico.

I just listened to Transformer this week and it is a GREAT album. I love it.

[ramonesfreak]

ALL the Velvet Underground albums are great, not just the first one.

For solo records, give New York a listen. I think it's his best solo work. I bought the album when it came out and the subject matter was very specific to the time period. However, I still listen to it often and its great and still relevant.

I saw Lou live in Chicago recently and was about as disappointed as the first time I saw Dylan. Still glad I had the experience though

I first heard of Lou Reed a couple years ago when he did a project with Metallica (which most people hated, but I loved).



Reading about him, most of what I found said that everybody cites him as influential, but that nobody really liked his albums except for Velvet Underground and Nico.



I just listened to Transformer this week and it is a GREAT album. I love it.

From Wiki

New York is the fifteenth solo album by Lou Reed.[1] Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker played on the album.

"Dirty Blvd." was a #1 hit on the newly created Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks.

Background and lyricsEdit
Reed's straightforward, rock and roll sound on this album was unusual for the time and along with other releases such as Graham Parker's The Mona Lisa's Sister presaged a back-to-basics turn in mainstream rock music. On the other hand, the lyrics through the 14 songs are profuse and carefully woven, making New York Reed's most overtly conceptual album since the early 1970s. His polemical liner notes direct the listener to hear the 57-minute album in one sitting, "as though it were a book or a movie." The lyrics vent anger at many public figures in the news at the time. Reed mentions by name the Virgin Mary, the NRA, Rudy Giuliani, "the President", the "Statue of Bigotry", Buddha, Mike Tyson, Bernard Goetz, Mr. Waldheim, "the Pontiff", Jesse Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Swaggart, and Morton Downey.

Critical receptionEdit
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]
Chicago Tribune [3]
Robert Christgau A–[4]
Rolling Stone [5]
Piero Scaruffi (8/10)[6]
New York was voted the third best album of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1989.[7]

"An album which, in terms of descriptive lyrics, may easily be his best to date," suggested Fred Dellar in a top-rated A*:1* review for Hi-Fi News & Record Review. "In some ways it's a small record, merely dialogue set out over the background of two relatively unobtrusive guitars plus bass and drums. But what a dialogue, what a delivery and what a range of targets."[8]

Piero Scaruffi gave the album an eight out of ten, declaring it to be a masterpiece that "ended the pilgrimage that Reed had begun in Berlin. It ended his moral odyssey in his own city. It closed the circle. And, musically, it did so by quoting the roots of American popular music, from folk to jazz to gospel to blues to country."[6]

"Whether or not you buy Reed's line about New York being a single integrated experience 'like a book or a movie'," remarked Q in its end-of-year round-up, "this is indisputably one of the landmark albums of an inconsistently brilliant career."[9] In a five-star review of a subsequent reissue, Q's Bill Prince noted that it "signalled the beginning of the defrosting of Reed's Velvet Underground past that has so far marked out his '90s.".[10] In 2006, Q placed New York at #26 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[11]

In 1989, Rolling Stone ranked it the 19th best album of the 1980s. Mark Deming wrote in his allmusic.com review that "New York is a masterpiece of literate, adult rock & roll, and the finest album of Reed's solo career." In 2012, Slant Magazine listed it at #70 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".[12]