Lou Reed's worst concept albums
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107909
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Topic: Lou Reed's worst concept albums
Posted By: uduwudu
Subject: Lou Reed's worst concept albums
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 06:19
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It's not given to many to release albums (both extended works) that have received simultaneous critical and popular disfavour but Lou managed it. Twice. I think that is some kind of record. Well, both were double volumes. i.e. not a record company plot but yer actual creativity.  Which, if any of them do you dislike the most? Your valued input is encouraged. Oh yes. RIP Lou. P.S. If there is any which match these for quality do please mention. I've not experienced every album for various reasons which I need not explain just yet. If at all. P.P.S. I'd include the Velvet's first album for sheer appalling quality of production but latter-day revelations proved the songs were ok once they learned how to play 'em. I do not mean Lou's lie albums when he had a superb band distracting me from his ability to sing out of tune. P.P.S. Do avoid Lou's former colleague Nico's 2nd and 3rd albums (the record company gave up hope after that). Unless you like endless dirge death music . No, not the good stuff with metal / goth / dress up pop appeal. Oh no. They have no redeeming features (choruses, tunes, interesting bits, any sort of entertainment value, lyrical insight, any sodding thing). Not even pro-Nazi revelations. Nothing but self-pitying whining with har-(moan)-ium accompaniment. No wonder the recording staff resorted to smack use to get through these... sessions. There were extra tracks as well. They have no mercy. P.P.P.S. RIP Nico. This is like a, er, concept poll innit. Themed, in parts too. Hopefully more fun than listening to any of these audio travesties. Just, not by much - I know. By the way Responsible PA Person, if this does not count as a prog rock poll then hide it in the just for fun section. I just saw the polls and went ahead regardless. Hmm, sounds like that Nazi revelations thing.... |
Replies:
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 06:35
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Neither, both are fine. ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 06:58
| I like both too. |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 07:37
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Sorry, but Lou Reed is a knob..........from Venus In Furs, to Lulu, to Wild Side......... KNOB !!!!!! |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 07:51
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Vote or veto, the choice is yours. |
Posted By: Hercules
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 09:00
His music is just awful in every respect. ------------- A TVR is not a car. It's a way of life. |
Tom Ozric wrote:Posted By: Upbeat Tango Monday
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 09:14
Weird noises and a single riff looping for more than ten minutes...hell, no!  ------------- Two random guys agreed to shake hands. Just Because. They felt like it, you know. It was an agreement of sorts...a random agreement. |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 10:18
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I didn't hate Lulu, I just found it... "bizarre": I couldn't tell if it was a Metallica album with Lou Reed singing or a Lou Reed album with Metallica as a backing band. Not sure if I'm very clear with that sentence...  Let's be clear: for a Metallica album, it was far from the quality of their early albums (Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets); for a Lou Reed, it sounded out of his style.Yet, strangely, I find the combination of the heaviness of the instrumentation and the outcentered vocals of Lou Reed worked well enough not to shock me. About Metal Machine Music, even if I know it was a way to end his contract with RCA by saying them to go... "enjoy their inner selves", I still enjoy it. Yes, I enjoy it: it reminds that Reed knew the music of LaMonte Young, and I even tend to think that MMM is the kind of albums that Fripp or Richard Pinhas (Heldon) never dared to record yet...  |
Posted By: AZF
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 12:18
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Lulu fan signing in! Very, very hard to find other fans of it. But it wasn't the disaster so-called collective knowledge has it down. I've lent the album to people who were poets and they thought it was OK. Lent it to non-poets and they were more lukewarm about it. You couldn't fill out stadiums playing it from start to finish, but you could fill out a good couple of theatres. MMM however, I have to be in a certain mood for that. Probably the bravest album released in turns of what it consists of. And no "Berlin" in the poll? EDIT: Oh WORST concept albums. That explains no "Berlin" then! |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 15:36
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Good to see both are fine, is polling well- Lou would be pleased.... ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 18:16
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Never cared for Lou Reed. The songs that he wrote that were actually worth a damn were played better by someone else, and his best album, Transformer, is only redeemed because David Bowie's fingerprints are all over it. This version blows away the original: As does this: I guess it's just a matter of not being able to stand Lou's voice. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 18:35
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Who is Lou Reed? -------------   
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Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: September 24 2016 at 18:48
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^ Just some cool guy who started off in the Brill Building..................... ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: Progosopher
Date Posted: September 25 2016 at 15:11
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Metal Machine Music has some value as an experiment, especially for its time, but Lulu is an abomination. Hudson River Wind Meditations sounds pointless to me, important only to Reed himself. ------------- The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty" |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: September 25 2016 at 16:06
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Hmm...Lou Reed.....being an old fart I was there when VU came out. Some of that was interesting and some of his early solo things early are ok , but I always thought he was a poor singer and musician who wrote a handful of cool songs. The only album that I still would play would be Rock and Roll Animal....best actual rock album he did. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Terrapin Station
Date Posted: September 25 2016 at 16:09
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The only Lou Reed album that I don't care for is Metal Machine Music. The rest I like or love, including Lulu. |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: September 25 2016 at 22:41
Yes, that and Lou Reed Live as both were taken from the same concert. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: September 27 2016 at 13:09
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Lulu ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: CryoftheCarrots
Date Posted: September 27 2016 at 18:28
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As concept albums from Lou are concerned both are fine by me but not to the same standard of the outstanding Berlin. Or New York for that matter. ------------- "There is a lot in this world to be tense and intense about" MJK |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: September 28 2016 at 08:29
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I'll give him and Metallica some points for the Lulu idea but recording a couple of guitars feeding back, releasing it as well, is only mitigated by the fact that some people can be talked into anything. Not only liking this rhythym-less, melody bereft disharmonic mess but using it as a real influence. Real effluence actually. |
Posted By: aglasshouse
Date Posted: September 28 2016 at 12:53
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Eh, I'll pass. Lou Reed's not a bad musician per say but his solo stuff isn't exactly the best. To a greater (or in this case lesser) extent his concept albums fall into the same category. ------------- http://fryingpanmedia.com |
Posted By: hellogoodbye
Date Posted: September 28 2016 at 16:17
| Berlin is a masterpiece |
Posted By: uduwudu
Date Posted: September 29 2016 at 02:41
But this does not excuse MMM. Interesting voting. I must rig a new electoral ballot some time. So much fun.  |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: October 03 2016 at 01:46
I (bravely) sampled a chunk of Metallica's Lulu - utter crap. Seems Lou is still whacked up to the eyeballs with smack.........Poor dude. What were Lars and Co. thinking ?  Oh, did he pass on ?? Coz I never heard the news. Guess that says it all....... |