ALBUMS: Velvet Underground White Light/ White Heat (1968 )Transformer (1972); Lou Reed Live (1975); New Sensations (1984); Mistrial (1986); New York (1989)
MVC Rating: VU 4.0/$$$$$;Transformer4.5/$$$$$; Live 3.5/$$$$$; New Sensations 4.5/$$$$$; Mistrial 4.0/$$$$: New York 4.5/$$$$$.
Punk, hipster, gender bending street crawler. Lou Reed was quintessential New York City underground. His band Velvet Underground sold few records when they got together in the late 60’s but remain guiding influences for punk/alternative music. Lou Reed left the band after just a few years.
He kicked off his solo career withTransformer, and opening line ‘You’re so vicious, you hit me with a flower.’
‘Walk on the Wild Side’ touches on transgender youth, sex and drugs and the scene where this flourishes. In that song Reed introduced millions to his talk-sing streetwise voice as an edited version hit the radio and charts.
Holly came from Miami, F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, “Hey, babe
Take a walk on the wild side”
Said, “Hey, honey
Take a walk on the wild side”
When rap came along it wasn’t lost on Reed that he had been doing a Beatnik style rap since the 1960s.
Hip hop gonna bop till I drop.”
Watch out world, comin’ at you full throttle
Better check that sausage, before you put it in the waffle
And while you’re at it better check that batter
Make sure the candy’s in the original wrapper
That song like his other 1980’s songs maintained a biting commentary edge. But he seemed less angry than when he was ‘Waiting for the Man.’
In New Sensations he rides his motorcycle out of the City to a country place where he mingled with the country folks — and he enjoyed it.
There were some country folk and some hunters inside
Somebody got themselves married and somebody died
I went to the juke box and played a hillbilly song
‘Ooh oooh, new sensations…
New York was the last album I bought of Reed’s, and it is excellent with ‘Busload of Faith,’ ‘Dirty Blvd,” the ‘Last Great American Whale’ and, my favorite, ‘Strawman,’ a rocking rant that opens:
‘We who have so much to you who have so little to you don’t have anything at all ... Does anybody need a million dollar movie.
‘Does anybody need another million dollar star. Does anybody need another billion dollar rocket, does anybody need a $60,000 car. ..‘