As frequent visitors to the Halls of Rock will agree, we’ve gotten our share of mileage out of this Lou Reed…As His Music Was Meant to Sound feature. I find something especially gripping about Lou Reed, warts and all. He’s both an icon of rock cool and one of rock’s most pathetic wannabes. He’s most middle class guys who’ve strapped on a guitar and tried to rock: completely lacking in fluidity, seamlessness, grace, and all the other things real rock stars have in spades. I could go on, but those of you who know what I’m talking about can say it better than I can, and those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about are probably living in a house with no mirrors.

For those of you who don’t know the meaning behind this feature, its based on another endearing trait of Lou Reed: read almost any interview of the guy at the release of a new album, and he’s sure to launch into ill-informed technical reasons why his new album captures the sound of his music the way he’d always intended it to sound. In fact, as he’ll get around to telling anyone who’ll listen, this new album is so true to the sound he’s heard in his head all these years, that it makes his previous albums sound like shit.

As a result of these interviews, it’s with good reason that we often provide examples of Lou’s latest and greatest moments, such as the one that kicked off today’s feature.

Surely, a tongue is planted firmly in cheek. On behalf of the Rock Gods, Lou is getting his comeuppance from us. All but those who live in houses without mirrors know this.

In fairness, however, we also try to mix in some performances of Lou and his band at the time that capture what we feel, on many levels, is truly great about the man’s music. Here’s one of my favorite live performance clips of one of my favorite songs from his solo career. Robert Quine’s solo is always a turn-on!

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