http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo
The 2nd track from the classic “The Velvet and Underground and Nico” album from 1967, this is a song about buying heroin in NYC when songs about heroin were not chic or cool. This drug song is not about expanding your mind, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is about the cold reality of street drugs and the desperate need for them. The relentless, driving rhythm of this song is infectious, but scary given the subject matter.
A great performance of one of the more memorable (albeit extremely depressing) songs from Lou Reed’s stellar 1973 song cycle “Berlin.” If you like what you hear, you should check out the original album, or the brilliant 2007 film adaptation (lensed by Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel) called “Lou Reed’s Berlin.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQh1lVd-Hsc
This is Lou at his nastiest… this time, hurling his bile at a woman who thought it would be a kick to “slum” and hang with him, but is now running screaming back to her more comfortable life. Rock and rollers have been doing variations on this theme for years. Hell, it was the subject matter of almost EVERY non-cover the Rolling Stones did between 1964 and 1966. But Lou adds some bad language and the kind of venom only a junkie can provide. A nice, malevolent groove. From the 1976 album, “Rock and Roll Heart.”
An absolutely lovely cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” by Alejandro Escovedo, former member of the punk group The Nuns and the alternative country band Rank and File. From the 2009 album “Bourbonitis Blues”. I don’t know who the female singer is who sings duet on this, but her voice is absolutely angelic. If someone knows who this is, please let me know … gotta give credit where credit is due.
Jonathan Richman and his band the Modern Lovers were a real anomaly in the early 1970s. Like many singer-songwriters of the era, Richman wrote very sensitive lyrics that wore his heart on his sleeve. But those lyrics were backed with some uncommonly abrasive music for the period (supplied by future Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison and future Cars member David Robinson). In addition, Richman’s songs decried drugs and promiscuity at a time when no one had even thought of the term “straight edge,” let alone thought it was cool. When you add his unfashionably short hair and nasally vocals into the mix, he seemed like the guy who was begging for noogies and wedgies.
But despite his “uncool for the time” demeanor, Richman was as ballsy as Iggy Pop and Lou Reed (two artists Richman admired) and like Pop and Reed, seemed to invite abuse by his mere presence. “Someone I Care About” is Richman’s declaration about wanting a girl that he cares about, or he wants nothing at all. A marked contrast to many bands of the era promising to give women every inch of their love or wanting their women hot, sweet, and sticky. Richman may not be cool in the classic rock sense, but the perspective is refreshing and a lot more sane. Produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground.
A common misconception is that Lou Reed was the Prince of Darkness in the Velvet Underground. While Reed is pretty dark, many would argue that John Cale was the real dark one in the VU. Don’t believe me? Look at the Velvet Underground’s output once Cale left the group. With Cale, the Velvets recorded “Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “White Light/White Heat,” “Sister Ray,” and “The Gift.” Post Cale: “What Goes On,” “Jesus,” “Sweet Jane,” “Rock and Roll.”
Cale can dress things up beautifully with orchestral arrangements and lilting vocals (his best known song is arguably his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” from the “Shrek” soundtrack) . But during the mid-late 1970s, Cale let his freak flag fly with some brilliant, disturbing, and very heavy stuff. “Chickens–t” is from Cale’s lesser-known post-Island records period, more specifically the 1977 EP “Animal Justice.” A wonderfully malevolent and sinister hard rock masterpiece.
From Ken Russell’s wonderfully bats–t crazy and psychedelic visualization of The Who’s rock opera “Tommy,” is Tina Turner’s wild version of “Acid Queen.” Even wilder was that both David Bowie and Lou Reed were considered for the part eventually played by Turner. Due to heavy drug and sex references, not safe for work. However, I should note that this was a PG-rated film back in 1975. My how things have changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6uBkJSbQO0
Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” has many interpretations. The beautiful melody and instrumentation does lead one to believe this is a love song. Though, the last line “You’re going to reap just what you sow” is extremely eerie. Some people think this is a song Reed wrote about his relationship with his then-wife and his internal conflicts with his sexuality, drug use, and ego. And that interpretation isn’t without merit.
However, many people (me included) believe “Perfect Day” is actually about Reed’s love/hate relationship with drugs. The lines “You made me forget myself,” “I thought I was someone else … someone good,” and the last line mentioned earlier really hammer the point home.
Director Danny Boyle seems to be in agreement with the 2nd interpretation and brilliantly used “Perfect Day” in his 1996 film “Trainspotting” for the scene where Ewan McGregor’s character OD’s. It’s a particularly unnerving scene not only for the visuals, but because Reed’s song is so beautiful-sounding, it makes what’s happening even more tragic. One of the best uses of pop music in a film ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV86pwOnm4w
The lead off track to Reed’s incendiary album from 1989 “New York.” I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves:
Caught between the twisted stars
the plotted lines the faulty map
that brought Columbus to New York
Betwixt between the East and West
he calls on her wearing a leather vest
the earth squeals and shudders to a halt
A diamond crucifix in his ear
is used to help ward off the fear
that he has left his soul in someone’s rented car
Inside his pants he hides a mop
to clean the mess that he has dropped
into the life of lithesome Juliette Bell
And Romeo wanted Juliette
and Juliette wanted Romeo
And Romeo wanted Juliette
and Juliette wanted Romeo
Romeo Rodriguez squares
his shoulders and curses Jesus
runs a comb through his black pony-tail
He’s thinking of his lonely room
the sink that by his bed gives off a stink
then smells her perfume in his eyes
And her voice was like a bell
Outside the street were steaming the crack
dealers were dreaming
of an Uzi someone had just scored
I betcha I could hit that light
with my one good arm behind my back
says little Joey Diaz
Brother give me another tote
those downtown hoods are no damn good
those Italians need a lesson to be taught
This cop who died in Harlem
you think they’d get the warnin’
I was dancing when his brains run out on the street
And Romeo had Juliette
and Juliette had her Romeo
And Romeo had Juliette
and Juliette had her Romeo
I’ll take Manhattan in a garbage bag
with Latin written on it that says
“it’s hard to give a shit these days”
Manhattan’s sinking like a rock
into the filthy Hudson what a shock
they wrote a book about it
they said it was like ancient Rome
The perfume burned his eyes
holding tightly to her thighs
And something flickered for a minute
and then it vanished and was gone
From Reed and Cale’s tribute to Andy Warhol “Songs for Drella,” “Hello It’s Me” is the very moving, final song on the album: a blunt, but loving eulogy by Reed and Cale for their former mentor Warhol. Goodbye, Andy.
Dave's Strange World 