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Uncle Lou is the BEST (Velvets, solo, otherwise). From my EP book about his 1975 live EP "Vicious +5:" 1975 Lou Reed is one of my favorite Lou Reeds. Heās grumpy. Heās drunk. Heās mad at everybodyāRCA, Bowie, journalists, his fans, his clothes, his haircut, his band, his bank account, the world, the solar system, and himself. Heās also very funny. His interviews at the time wouldāve challenged Richard Pryor and George Carlin for best comedy albums:
Are you happy being a schmuck?
Give me the answer you want to hear, and Iāll repeat it.
I want people to take drugs... because itās better than Monopoly.
RCA was mining the bejesus out of his December 31, 1973 Rock ānā Roll Animal show at Howard Stein Academy of Music. Rock ānā Roll Animal was a 1974 hit. So why not release the rest of the show a year later and call it Lou Reed Live? They did. (Iām modestly surprised they never released the sound check. Thereās still time, I guess.) This EP is more of the same show. Loud. Lou shouts a lot. Now cheaper! Unfortunately, this EP leaves out āSad Song,ā the final and best track from Lou Reed Live. Why is āSad Songā the best song? Because at the very end, someone in the audience yells out, āLou Reed sucks!ā You know damn well Lou left that bit in on purposeāhell, he probably demanded it. Like I said, 1975 Lou Reed is very funny, and I havenāt even mentioned the laugh riot that would come later that summer: Metal Machine Music.
coreydubrowa have been a velvets fan for so long (maybe my favorite band ever actually) and I have only scraped the surface of Louās solo stuff. But Iām correcting that wrong right now!!! But love Sad Song so much. Love āA Dreamā with John Cale. Love that he has an album dedicated to Poeās The Raven. Love that he was a Pisces like me. What a curmudgeonly genius
lindsayhthomson Any band I ever played in or started had at least one Velvets cover (or more) or was just insanely indebted to that group's legacy and sound. Yes, we were one of the 30,000 people who bought the Velvets' debut and then started a band. Ha. I can't recommend Berlin, Transformer, Blue Mask, New York or New Sensations enough, if you're just digging in.
coreydubrowa wow thank you for sharing your knowledge!! Canāt wait to check these out
