RIP, Lou Reed.

“It just feels so insincere and like a cop-out. To me, ‘RIP’ is the microwave dinner of posthumous honours” ~ Lou Reed

Well…fuck you then, Lou Reed. I mean…jeez.

I originally was going to end the post like that. I got complicated feelings about Lou Reed but it’s a little much to make it into a punchline. And it’s not really fair to make a Velvet Underground review only about him. But this is the format I have chosen to talk about my bullshit. The man’s dead and this is the only physical release I own with his music on it. (If John Cale just died I would be forced to reach for the same record. Yes, this would be a serious gaping hole if I was a serious collector of serious music.)

There’s a practical reason this is my only Velvets record, it was cheapest. (Altho it is currently somewhat pricey on Amazon.) Might have even got it for free. Had a few neighbors at one point in the 90s who just dumped boxes of vinyl on the curb as they replaced their collection with CDs. It was not a more enlightened time. The sleeve is in decent enough shape, but I like the record itself. I like that they were on Verve. It’s like, wow, legit!

Songs off the first album with Nico, and Transformer are really my favorites. But those songs are just always kinda around. Never felt the need to own those records. And you usually never see them for less than full-price.

Altho I like the record a lot, I rarely flip it over. B-side does not win this time, those songs really do sound like leftovers. This is a basically comp of outtakes; every song on the 1st side however, seem like classics it’s hard to believe they didn’t use. (Reed re-recorded all of them solo. I prefer these versions by a long mile.) I used to have the CD reissue of Loaded (sold it); the second disc has different versions of I’m Sticking With You and Ocean. I’m Sticking With You is a cute song that Mo sings but it’s kind of a goof. Ocean—it’s just perfect on this record. The cliche in my head I’m trying to avoid is “understated masterpiece”. I think ‘masterpiece’ is overselling it, but other versions are a little too overthought or overworked. I believe all my feelings about Lou Reed can summed up by listening to the VU and solo versions of Ocean back to back. At least until recently. Going thorough some of of his stuff I never listened to and posts about details of his life I kinda feel bad for him now.

I Can’t Stand It is one of the great Rock ‘n’ Roll songs of all time. It makes the song Rock ‘n’ Roll (from Loaded) corny by comparison. I dunno, some of his schtick I don’t really buy. Especially the later stuff. He just went off in a direction I don’t care about at all. The atmosphere of some of these Velvets songs is so great, you really have to credit the rest of the group. The way way Ocean ends, this version…that’s just one the best things ever recorded. It just hits a perfect unnameable emotion every time. The words don’t tell a story or nothing. No idea what it really means. Perfect.

I also really do love Metal Machine Music too, but I got it off Soulseek. %