R.I.P. Lou Reed

[TheReturn]

He passed away today. He's known for his music first as a part of The Velvet Underground and later as a solo artist.

Some of his music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNknGIKkoA

Even though it's not my generation's music, I really enjoy it.

Rip.

[Zan Tabak]

Rip

Always liked the song 'Strawman'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXCTqvioiY

[gigantes]

i need someone to explain that guy to me. i know the basics, but don't really understand what it was all about.

[KevinNYC]

i need someone to explain that guy to me. i know the basics, but don't really understand what it was all about.

His influence is immense as the main force behind The Velvet Underground and then solo, he was one of those guys who shaped future of music. The used to say that only 30,000 people bought the Velvet Underground first album. But every one of them formed a band.


If you going looking for roots of a band like Nirvana, you're going wind up with Lou Reed. The Velvet Underground tracks I would start with are

Heroin
Waiting for My Man
Sweet Jane
Rock N Roll

For his solo work I would try

Walk on the Wild Side
Perfect Day

Velvet Underground was probably the band most associated with the Art world since Andy Warhol was their manager at one point.

I saw Lou Reed having breakfast once.

[Dolphin]

i need someone to explain that guy to me. i know the basics, but don't really understand what it was all about.

Well he wrote and sang Venus in Furs....that's good enough for me (my personal favorite rock song). lol

[gigantes]

thanks, mates. :cheers:


i was reading the yahoo obit and noticed that great line about one chord being sufficient, three being massive overkill or something. i don't know if it's actually true of his songs, but it's a pretty funny statement.

also, some critic apparently said that he was scared to review lou's stuff because reed would work a savage retort in to his songs or something, totally humiliating the critic. that's some art right there. :D

[KevinNYC]

thanks, mates. :cheers:

Just re-listening to Heroin after a long time. It has to be the most seductive song about drugs ever.

Also Jonathan Richman wrote a tribute song about them. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw4w-kdu_34)

They were wild like the USA
A mystery band in a New York way
Rock and roll, but not like the rest
And to me, America at it's best
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

A spooky tone on a Fender bass
Played less notes and left more space
Stayed kind of still, looked kinda shy
Kinda far away, kinda dignified.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Now you can look at that band and wonder where
All that sound was coming from
With just 4 people there.

Twangy sounds of the cheapest types,
Sounds as stark as black and white stripes,
Bold and brash, sharp and rude,
Like the heats turned off
And you're low on food.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.
Like this...

Wild wild parties when they start to unwind
A close encounter of the thirdest kind
On the bandstand playing, everybody's saying
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Well you could look at that band
And at first sight
Say that certain rules about modern music
Wouldn't apply tonight.

Twangy sounds of the cheapest kind,
Like "Guitar sale $29.99,"
Bold and brash, stark and still,
Like the heats turned off
And you can't pay the bill.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Both guitars got the fuzz tone on
The drummer's standing upright pounding along
A howl, a tone, a feedback whine
Biker boys meet the college kind
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Wild wild parties when they start to unwind
A close encounter of the thirdest kind
On the bandstand grooving, everybody moving
How in the world are they making that sound?
Velvet Underground

[Dolphin]

Just re-listening to Heroin after a long time. It has to be the most seductive song about drugs ever.

Also Jonathan Richman wrote a tribute song about them. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw4w-kdu_34)

They were wild like the USA
A mystery band in a New York way
Rock and roll, but not like the rest
And to me, America at it's best
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

A spooky tone on a Fender bass
Played less notes and left more space
Stayed kind of still, looked kinda shy
Kinda far away, kinda dignified.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Now you can look at that band and wonder where
All that sound was coming from
With just 4 people there.

Twangy sounds of the cheapest types,
Sounds as stark as black and white stripes,
Bold and brash, sharp and rude,
Like the heats turned off
And you're low on food.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.
Like this...

Wild wild parties when they start to unwind
A close encounter of the thirdest kind
On the bandstand playing, everybody's saying
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Well you could look at that band
And at first sight
Say that certain rules about modern music
Wouldn't apply tonight.

Twangy sounds of the cheapest kind,
Like "Guitar sale $29.99,"
Bold and brash, stark and still,
Like the heats turned off
And you can't pay the bill.
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Both guitars got the fuzz tone on
The drummer's standing upright pounding along
A howl, a tone, a feedback whine
Biker boys meet the college kind
How in the world were they making that sound?
Velvet Underground.

Wild wild parties when they start to unwind
A close encounter of the thirdest kind
On the bandstand grooving, everybody moving
How in the world are they making that sound?
Velvet Underground

My ipod was stolen months ago. Have refused to buy one and thus have been listening to old cd's in my car. The only ones I care to listen to (that aren't scratched beyond being able to listen to) are Maiden's Piece of Mind, Priest's British Steel and The Velvet Underground and Nico. I can't count how many times recently where I've been driving into the city to party with friends and Heroin comes on....which is entirely contradictory to how I'm hoping the night will go lol (never done heroin btw)....but it's such a good song that there's no way I'm turning it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGqwy_DQnS4

Another favorite of mine off that album.

[KevinNYC]

From the Obituaries

The punk, glam and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, '80s and '90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by the likes of REM, David Bowie, Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.

Def Jam founder Russell Simmons tweeted: "New York lost one of our greatest gifts today."
...........

With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."

[KevinNYC]

Rolling Stone lists the 20 essential Lou Reed tracks they even include Metal Machine Music which an album completely of noise as a **** you to his record label.....but I didn't know this.


After leaving the Velvet Underground in 1970, Lou Reed went to work for his dad's accounting firm as a typist. If he had never played a note of music again in his life, the four albums he made with the Velvets would be enough to establish him as one of rock's leading songwriters and visionaries.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/20-essential-lou-reed-tracks-20131027#ixzz2iyKbXmz3

[KevinNYC]

Also the anti-Communist "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia was named after The Velvet Underground

Lou Reed, who died today at 71, was a legendary musician—but not a big seller. The first album by the Velvet Underground, his seminal band, sold only 30,000. But, according to Brian Eno's famous line about the band, every one of those 30,000 buyers started their own rock band.

But while Reed's fans may have upended popular rock music over the past few decades, his greatest impact may have been with an act that sold even fewer records than he did: The Plastic People of the Universe, a Cold War-era Czech act that briefly flourished before being prosecuted and harassed by the country's Communist Party government.

That prosecution, in turn, helped push Vaclav Havel to write the Charter 77, a demand for human rights that became an international cause celbre. The uprising that helped overthrow the regime, in turn, took its name from Reed's old band: The Velvet Revolution. Havel spoke during the revolution about Reed's influence on him, and appeared with him after he had become the Czech president.

When Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa were invited to The White House, Havel wanted Lou Reed to play.
http://topicsofcapricorn.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/milan7.jpg

Paul Begala, the former top Clinton aide, just tweeted: "When Vaclav Havel came to White House, he asked Pres. Clinton to invite Lou Reed. Lou rocked the East Room & blew several minds. RIP."

Hilary Rosen: Memory: Was w/ #LouReed playing LOUD at the Bill Clinton/Lech Walesa State Dinner. WH staff worried about the shaking chandeliers."

[HarryCallahan]

Rolling Stone lists the 20 essential Lou Reed tracks they even include Metal Machine Music which an album completely of noise as a **** you to his record label.....but I didn't know this.

Really? I actually rather liked that album.

[OldSkoolball#52]

Velvet Underground albums are just good listenin'


:rockon:

[BasedTom]

Even though he was a 71 year old ex-heroin junkie, his death came as a complete surprise to me. For some reason, he seemed a permanent part of this Earth.

I was REALLY getting into the Velvet Underground and his solo work these last few months. It's been the soundtrack to my work and school commutes, and those aimless moments of hanging around campus and the city. I loved the lyrics, the band's style, how they experimented and innovated.

It's weird that the voice on those albums is now that of a dead man. The poetic part? He died on Sunday Morning (the title of the first song on the first TVU album). I like to imagine that he knew that in his final moments.

RIP Lou Reed.

[KevinNYC]

One of the last things he did was this review of the New Kayne West album
http://thetalkhouse.com/reviews/view/lou-reed

[KevinNYC]

CNN with a surprisingly good obit. (http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/opinion/matos-lou-reed/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter)
Simply put, it's impossible to imagine the past 50 years of rock without Lou Reed, who died Sunday at 71.
Glam rock, punk and various strains of '80s and '90s indie and alternative rock would simply vanish without his example. Every New York rocker in a black leather jacket, from the Ramones to the Strokes, stands in Reed's shadow. David Bowie's early gender-bending persona was explicitly in Reed's debt.
His songbook was a building block for rock's front ranks in the '80s and '90s: R.E.M., Nirvana, U2. Even peers of his band the Velvet Underground looked up to it. The Rolling Stones' 1968 song "Stray Cat Blues," Mick Jagger later admitted, came from trying to emulate sound of the Velvets' "Heroin."Yet Reed was the first rock star that wasn't actually a star. Only one of the four classic albums he made with the Velvet Underground from 1967 to 1970 -- 1969's "The Velvet Underground" -- made the "Billboard" album chart, peaking at just 197.
He would not climb high on the chart until 1972, when his solo single "Walk on the Wild Side" -- produced by Bowie -- reached No. 16, a position he never again came near.
"If something of mine ever got popular, maybe I could've stuck with that," he told Spin in 2008. "But that was never the point. I had other goals."


Also on HULU you can see Elvis Costello (http://www.hulu.com/watch/519795#i0,p0,d0) interview and perform with Lou Reed

[KevinNYC]

This Yahoo article (http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/lou-reed-most-cited-influence-rock-n-roll-234749432.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory)mentions the following bands as influenced by Lou Reed or have covered Velvet Underground/Lou Reed songs.

U2
Brian Eno
Punk Rock in general speficially, The Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls
Morrissey/The Smiths
New York Dolls
The Pretenders
Buzzcocks
Jonathan Richman/The Modern Lovers,
Depeche Mode
Eurythmics
Porno for Pyros.
Mott the Hoople
Cowboy Junkies
David Bowie
Duran Duran
Billy Idol
Big Star
Tom Tom Club
R.E.M.
Elvis Costello.
OMD
Cheap Trick
Vanessa Paradis
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page (cover)
Death Cab for Cutie
Joy Division
Nirvana
Here She Comes Now.
Roxy Music
Hole,
R.E.M.
Patti Smith,
the Kills
Alejandro Escovedo
Sheryl Crow & Emmylou Harris.
Beck
Runaways
Jane's Addiction
TalkingHeads
Sonic Youth


And just off the top of my head, he misses
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Yo La Tengo
The Pixies
The Breeders (Kim Deal once blamed her sister's Kelley Deal's heroin addiction on Lou Reed.)
The Feelies

[KevinNYC]

http://www.bestkaraoke.ru/images/stories/img4cb2323e7f655.jpg

[Out_In_Utah]

Damned shame. He will be missed.

[TheReturn]

My personal favorite song of The Velvet Underground: Pale Blue Eyes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK4DeMYtumc)

[rufuspaul]

This Yahoo article (http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/lou-reed-most-cited-influence-rock-n-roll-234749432.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory)mentions the following bands as influenced by Lou Reed or have covered Velvet Underground/Lou Reed songs.

U2
Brian Eno
Punk Rock in general speficially, The Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls
Morrissey/The Smiths
New York Dolls
The Pretenders
Buzzcocks
Jonathan Richman/The Modern Lovers,
Depeche Mode
Eurythmics
Porno for Pyros.
Mott the Hoople
Cowboy Junkies
David Bowie
Duran Duran
Billy Idol
Big Star
Tom Tom Club
R.E.M.
Elvis Costello.
OMD
Cheap Trick
Vanessa Paradis
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page (cover)
Death Cab for Cutie
Joy Division
Nirvana
Here She Comes Now.
Roxy Music
Hole,
R.E.M.
Patti Smith,
the Kills
Alejandro Escovedo
Sheryl Crow & Emmylou Harris.
Beck
Runaways
Jane's Addiction
TalkingHeads
Sonic Youth


And just off the top of my head, he misses
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Yo La Tengo
The Pixies
The Breeders (Kim Deal once blamed her sister's Kelley Deal's heroin addiction on Lou Reed.)
The Feelies

One of my favorite bands. Ian Curtis was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground and David Bowie.

You can clearly hear Reed's influence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqPaOU02iBw&feature=player_embedded

Justifiably Joy Division is often referred to as the Velvet Underground of post punk.

[Thorpesaurous]

I'm gonna be honest. I gave Lou Reed, and The Velvet Underground, a really good shot, and just couldn't get into it.

I was a big Alt-Rock sort of a guy in the 90s, which led me backward to a lot of classic rock, 70s bands. I don't think it was that odd a path to take in my day. You hear about bands you like citing bands they like, and you start listening to them, and back you go. After really getting into Bowie, I found all the Lou Reed conversation, and wound up buying like 10 CDs on Amazon, which was the way I was doing it back then. I'd binge buy stuff every month or so. Find a band I was into and just spend 100-200 bucks on their stuff.

I really tried, but other than the few big songs, Heroin, Wild Side, Pale Blue Eyes, many of which were mentioned here, and Satellite of Love, I just couldn't get into it. I don't even know a lot of the songs mentioned here because I just never caught on.

Obviously still really unfortunate.

[rufuspaul]

I understand what you're saying Thorpe. I'm much more into the bands that cite VU as an influence rather than VU itself. Therefore I'm grateful for Reed (and Cale for that matter) even though I'm not as big a fan of their stuff.

[Dolphin]

VU's first album was their best. Second album was second best and so on. There was a unique eerie sound to the first and somewhat in the second that attracted me. The musician ship was simple, but unique and groundbreaking for its time. The problem with the latter albums imo is that while they were still simple, they lost the unique "weirdness" of the first two albums. As for his lyrics, Reed was just as good from the beginning of VU into his solo career well into the 80's.

Thinking of the artists or acts that truly made fans think "this has never been done before", Reed and VU are up there with Dylan (song structure and lyrics), The Beatles (how to make a hit song), Rolling Stones (modernized sound of rock music), Black Sabbath (the dark metal sound), etc. Note I'm not saying Black Sabbath is equal to those artists and bands in case you don't think they belong, but they did practically invent the early metal sound (imagine hearing Sabbath's self titled track when nothing like that had ever been heard of before....bet a lot of people thought satan had arrived on earth lol). No one wrote about what Reed did or at least no one who anyone remembers today. The first album was groundbreaking sound wise with what instruments they used and how, but that faded with each album as I said earlier.

[Lebowsky]

My ipod was stolen months ago. Have refused to buy one and thus have been listening to old cd's in my car. The only ones I care to listen to (that aren't scratched beyond being able to listen to) are Maiden's Piece of Mind, Priest's British Steel and The Velvet Underground and Nico. I can't count how many times recently where I've been driving into the city to party with friends and Heroin comes on....which is entirely contradictory to how I'm hoping the night will go lol (never done heroin btw)....but it's such a good song that there's no way I'm turning it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGqwy_DQnS4

Another favorite of mine off that album.

My favorites off that album are also Venus in Furs, and especially Femme Fatale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8IV6lJSm1c&feature=kp). Such a beautiful song.

[Dolphin]

My favorites off that album are also Venus in Furs, and especially Femme Fatale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8IV6lJSm1c&feature=kp). Such a beautiful song.

Love Femme Fatale. The one track Nico sang on that I think wouldn't be better if Reed would have just sung it. It just suits her singing it.

My top five would be:

1. Venus in Furs
2. Run, Run, Run
3. Heroin
4. Femme Fatale
5. I'm Waiting For the Man

The riff in Run, Run, Run is one of my all-time favorites. Top 10 for sure. Very rock and roll'esque from an earlier generation sounding.

[KevinNYC]

I understand what you're saying Thorpe. I'm much more into the bands that cite VU as an influence rather than VU itself. Therefore I'm grateful for Reed (and Cale for that matter) even though I'm not as big a fan of their stuff.

I think part of that is how you react to Reed as a singer.

Here's one of the earliest directly VU influenced songs and one of my favorites of all time.
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgRYncR1Nog


Here's a very good live album of VU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls2VwwFh2R0

I forgot how much I enjoyed the song What Goes On.

[gigantes]

after re-listening to some of his music, i think i'm getting a clearer picture. so he was one of those endlessly-creative pioneer guys who didn't necessarily stick around to perfect any one form. his music is very pleasant to me, but not something i'd really stick with. but...

Brian Eno / Roxy
Morrissey/The Smiths
The Pretenders
Depeche Mode
Eurythmics
Mott the Hoople
David Bowie
Duran Duran
Billy Idol
R.E.M.
Elvis Costello.
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page (cover)
Joy Division
Nirvana
Hole,
Patti Smith,
Sheryl Crow & Emmylou Harris.
Beck
TalkingHeads
The Breeders (Kim Deal once blamed her sister's Kelley Deal's heroin addiction on Lou Reed.)
...for sure i liked all of those who stood on his shoulders, or however you'd put it. i respect his work. so i could see being back at u.penn frat parties in victorian houses, trying to look cool whilst sipping my keg beer and being very much helped along by mssr reed and co. =)

and they really should have used him in bakshi's american pop!

[DetroitPiston]

Lou Reed's Perfect Day was one of my favorite songs especially when I was younger.

Plus, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6L0UD_zn4A

[nightprowler10]

RIP

Didn't know he was still alive actually. I only have his solo greatest hits album (definitive collection I think) which was really good. It didn't have a lot of his classic songs though, so I think I may need to go on an Amazon shopping spree.

[gigantes]

these two seem like cool homages to lou.

me like...



https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cMjlhIWxfFI/mqdefault.jpg
Pavement - Summer Babe (Winter Version) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMjlhIWxfFI)




https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OM_Wt9NsbiA/mqdefault.jpg
Lost Boy ? - Hemorrhage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM_Wt9NsbiA)

[Akrazotile]

Poo Pee'd :cheers:

[Smoke117]

That sucks...one of the greatest songwriters of all time. They played perfect day on fear the walking dead last night.

[Derka]

I could only get into some of his stuff, but what I did manage to get into I often tout as some of the best rock of his time.

The Lulu record with Metallica was horrendous pile of shit.

RIP all the same Lou!

[Coach Eddie]

RIP

[ROCSteady]

You guys don't know shit.


He died in 2013

[Derka]

You guys don't know shit.


He died in 2013
No shit. This is an old thread. Still worth posting in two years after the fact.

[gigantes]

oh well. i guess y'all didn't like those songs, then?

[lil jahlil]

RIP