Today I'm listening to his last "regular" album Ecstasy, reading the lyrics, and basically crying. How @#$%& good was Lou Reed?! A rather perfect album. Includes every element of his long career, its unrelenting, its tender, its very Lou Reed and it makes me miss him a lot. His death hit me like most others haven't, and has arguably been the hardest of the last 10 years.

try & get through "Magic & Loss" dry eyed.

Try and get through Lulu at all. 82 minutes of time on Earth that you can't get back.

There's at least three great tracks on Lulu, maybe half the album, and I can't stand Metallica. No one can say Lou didn't try things.

NEW YORK

-It doesn't get any better than that.

Yeah Lou; thanks for thread; just keeping his name out there is good; so many periods; so much stuff that is personally important to me; i really appreciate the guidance here in the things that you love from him; cause i tend to KNOW fo sho where i always go to usually for him; and i do ab miss some great stuff along his very long long road of accomplishment; i'd def say brilliance; but i also have equal respect, in a different way cuz they're not writers; for Sterling Morrison and Mo; the unheralded Velcets; the not quite so fashionable ones who were the heart and true soul in many ways; Lou did NOT do this alone; that environment and sensitivity was there. He went home to Mama pretty fkd up a lot of times and left that band at their peak promoting LOADED, a super super super super super incredibly super album all through every track imo...

but i lived and died for White Light White Heat and the banana original LP; early on they were making this incredible dense junk noise that only certain dogs could really hear; i swear it was like that at first., they were nothing and they were really spomething because they were obviously originally out there deynamic dramatic dangerous for realz, like the stones well not LIKE the stones but you know; like that eoms album; some real clear heavy shyit behind the scenes not that boy scouts of america; or come to think of it; let's don't go there...


and Rock and Roll Animal; man did you guys in UK and Euro get that?
I think you might have even more than here;?
you guys had that harder blues-rock that went crazy,
kind of influence with some great great heavy seminal bands....
so maybe i don't know; not so big here but to me,
that
"rock and roll animal" live;
well it might have even been recorded overseas; i dunno;
and i guess that guitarist is a rocket launcher too,
but it just still knocks me the eff out;
and look at him during this period; the total heroin poof 42nd street wifeyboy who's about to bitch off and def walks out with the tude and power;
b4 a note; he's killed you;
or she has or it has; no he's all man that Lou Reed; in the bvest sense imo; a powerhouse of soul what the eff that New York LP out of the blue????
i think david bowie gets quite the run for the money and pound for pound action with this kinda guy on the scene since 1966 mah dear friends I say respectfully; I met him once; just briefly but totally casually where he was comfortabled and unguarded and a very very easy real cat to love...that brown eyed blue eyed gaze intense direct; his face relaxed; he wasn't fkd up; i wasn't even on medical cannabis those days...and didn't drink either, so tho brief, casual, a little funny; i'm sure he didn't remember my name that evening particularly, def not a few days later; not claiming a real connection w him personally; justa brief talk, a laugh at a get together so casual we could just talk without fans coming up. I find that so annoying every day; heh heh...he actually had heard a song i was involed in from a friend of mine who he was visiting! but he didn't say lol it was any good or that he liked it; he musta meant to tho!!! my charisma probs distracted him.....ouch...it's like the ghost of my ex wife just smacked me in the back of the head and said This is why I left yyou....
well however it happened I"m grateful....


reed:
holy geezer; wtf; like only incredible; he was still in it heavy at peak; i mean singing with pavorotti was not out of the question; so he did it.
Pavorotti veins popping in his head 'EEETTSSS SUCCCHHH A PURRRFFIICTTT DAAAAAAYYYYYYYY I LUVVVVVVVVVVV TO SHRRRRRRRRRRITTTTTTT W YOUUUUUUUUU
holy shit loud reed hands a verse off to him; holy moly; what's next lou?
tights and alvin ailey? a race change op along with a sex change? nope. that loud reed was all man i tell ya....on the record; tough little punk for a long island kid or wherever....mamas boy....fkn King was mamas boy too....
lennon too come to think of it....
holy shit mick for all we know...

k just had doris right? that bert thing he tried to reconcile; love and acceptance all that; but he was probs pretty crippled by it in some way or maybe i shnould not play psychotherapist; i've beenlisteing to 'pscyotherapy' buyt the ramones, and hey, they always inspire the research scientist in me. i geuss they do that for everyone tho.

tho now that i've started.... ..... well...
maybe it ain't so much that mick didn't need no brother cuz he already had one; that smirky little buzzard.....like ol' needy keith was the inference...but maybe dr. hopkins wonder anyway...it twas mick had teacher dad and loving mom; and maybe well i dunno about doris; other than someone murdered his cat or something....he think he's still pissed off...
maybe ruby tuesday was about that cat, you never know...goodbye ruby tuesday who could hang a chevy on your neck....who knows you know???
john wrote julia sea shell eyes calling...keith wrote "I'm paying for dinner, and I might as well mop in here" ...so you know... clues.


lou....

'she started playing that (falsetto way up an octive FINE FINE) musick, you know her life was saved by rock and roll. rock and roll.

despite all the complications you could go out and dance to the rock and roll station....

and it was alright
and it was alright
and it was alright


[www.youtube.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-24 10:39 by hopkins.

I was listening to Ecstasy this morning too. Good Sunday morning album by the way.
To me it's among his best albums (Berlin, Street Hassle, New York...).

Lulu is kind of hard to get into but it has its moments of greatness. The "Metallica sound" doesn't help but behind the wall that's the usual Lou Reed : sensitive lyrics, perfect singing/talking, carefully structured songs, touching melodies... I guess it depends on your mood, but if you're a fan it's really worth the headache... ;-)

he was always branching out with new ideas

The sound of the remastered Box is amazing.

He bummed a cigarette from me once. I was like "here Lou, take the pack".

So, what are people's favorite Lou albums?
The 4 Velvet Underground albums are all outstanding, so it's simething else and by a group.

My top 5:

New York
Coney Island Baby
Transformer
Songs For Drella
Berlin

No particular order really

1. Berlin
2. Rock & Roll Animal
3. Magic & Loss
4. Live in Italy
5. Animal Serenade

My favorite Lou Reed vinyls:
1. Berlin
2. Transformer
3. Coney Island Baby
4. Street Hassle
5. The Blue Mask

Berlin
Transformer
Growing up in public
New sensations
Magic and loss

I prefer the VU to Lou's solo work, but I like all of the early solo stuff; first album through Rock and Roll Animal; including the live WLIR broadcast from Dec. 1972, which was for a long time a must-have Lou bootleg, but is now I believe considered an official release. Also, The Blue Mask is a remarkable achievement that any mature rocker would be proud to have made.

Saw him at the Hammersmith Odeon in early 75 (guess that was the Coney Island Baby tour?--amazing intense show.

[correction: Sally Can't Dance tour.]

Ashamed to admit that I wasn't into the Velvets or into Lou at all until Bowie turned me on to him with Transformer.

I came across this last year sometime; if you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat--12 mins of Lou doin the graveyard blues:

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-24 20:05 by LongBeachArena72.

I also am a big fan of the Ecstasy album. In particular, I love the subtle horns in Tatters and Modern Dance is pretty damn great. "It's all downhill after the first kiss." So true!

I'm hopeful that Anthony DeCurtis' upcoming biography will be a good one.

My top 5 Lou albums w/ key tracks:

1. Legendary Hearts - Martial Law, Bottoming Out
2. New York - There is No Time, Busload of Faith, Dirty Blvd
3. The Blue Mask - Heavenly Arms, Underneath the Bottle
4. Coney Island Baby - Crazy Feeling, Kicks
5. Ecstasy - Modern Dance, Big Sky, Tatters

His live LPs are pretty great too. Animal Serenade and Live in Italy in particular.

When I went to hear Keith Richards talk about his new book at the New York Public Library a few years ago, Lou Reed was sitting just a few rows in front of me with comedian/actor Richard Belzer.

And they left before it was over ...

Almost impossible to do his top 5. Mine would be:

1. Transformer
2. Berlin
3. Set The Twilight Reeling
4. Ecstasy
5. Lou Reed

Which seems unfair to many other incredible albums like Street Hassle, New York, The Blue Mask and several others but thats just how it shakes out for me. And his live albums are some of the best by any artist ever. All extremely different and varied, all equally brilliant. Rock And Roll Animal is arguably the benchmark for every live album, Take No Prisoners is equally outstanding for completely different reasons, and Animal Serenade is an underrated live record that is amongst the greats. A true career retrospective with a great band and a fantastic and talkative Lou. His other two, Live In Italy and Perfect Night, are also fantastic but admittedly more ordinary. Still essential, but those other 3 are the tops for me.

Man had an unbelievable catalogue.

Coney Island Baby
Street Hassle
Legendary Hearts
Transformer
New York

Lou's best work was with the VU. The 70s solo records are inconsistent. Sometimes, he doesn't seem to be fully there (e.g., Sally Can't Dance). But once he sobered up, he never mailed it in, even when he misfired.

I'd take these as his best studio albums:
Berlin
New York
Coney Island Baby
Blue Mask
Transformer

But the song Street Hassle is his greatest solo achievement.

I have mixed feelings about RnR Animal: the band is stellar, maybe too proficient, but Lou is blotto. And this is how a lot of people remember him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-25 01:53 by ab.

As a sidebar to The Who's Endless Wire tour, there was the Racher Fuller presentation In The Attic, in which Pete Townshend and Lou Reed duetted in an acoustic format.



Waiting For The Man: [www.youtube.com]



White Light White Heat: [www.youtube.com]



Pale Blue Eyes: [www.youtube.com]

Quote
stonehearted
As a sidebar to The Who's Endless Wire tour, there was the Racher Fuller presentation In The Attic, in which Pete Townshend and Lou Reed duetted in an acoustic format.

So awesome, SH; had no idea these guys had ever played together; THANKS for posting!

My fav five songs (changes, naturally dynamically - as of today)

1. Wagon Wheel
2. Bottoming Out
3. Satellite of Love (Lou Reed Live Version)
4. Sunday Morning (comes and goes - it gives me the Heebie - Geebies)
5. Lady Jane

Thats amazing Stonehearted! Had never seen it before and it was phenomenal. Two legends.

Top 5 songs?

1. Intro/Sweet Jane
2. Vicious
3. Animal Language
4. Egg Cream
5. Hangin' Round

Top 5 songs


Caroline says II
The bells
Kill your sons
Rock´n´roll heart
Doin´the things that we want to

Top 5 albums:

1- Tie between New York, Transformer and Berlin.
4- The Blue Mask.
5- Coney Island Baby.


Top 5 songs:
1- Halloween Parade.
2- Underneath The Bottle.
3- Hangin' 'Round.
4- Dirty Boulevard.
5- Andy's Chest.

JumpingKentFlash

I was lucky enough to see him live in Manhattan at the St James Theater 1989 just days after the release of the New York album. Never forget that concert, for a guy living in Argentina so far away from the rock and roll world it was a dream come true, I was at the right time and right moment there, he blow me away.

Bye
Fernando

Stephanie Says
Sweet Jane
Sunday Morning
Sweet Nuthin'
(I Love You) Suzanne


oh...sorry, those are my favourite ones that start with S.

Love Lou solo and with the Velvets of course. Lots of great stuff already mentioned. I'll throw that I dig his first solo LP, and my overlooked gem is "Oh Jim"/"Sad Song" from "Lou Reed Live" (recorded same gig as "R&R Animal"), The guitar/band interplay is incredible, and Lou's drugged out don't give a shit performance actually enhances the material oddly.