{"id":21238,"date":"2014-03-07T19:10:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T00:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=21238"},"modified":"2014-03-07T19:10:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T00:10:06","slug":"lou-reed-redux-is-this-how-he-was-meant-to-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lou-reed-redux-is-this-how-he-was-meant-to-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"Lou Reed Redux: Is This How He Was Meant To Sound?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"You<\/a>

You think this is disturbing?<\/p><\/div>\n

Back in the fall when Lou Reed died I read any number of the tributes to him. I\u2019ve written before about how I\u2019ll take John Cale\u2019s post VU career over Lou\u2019s by a wide wide margin but I confess to falling prey to the hype.<\/p>\n

I gave up on solo Lou after 1992\u2019s Magic & Loss<\/em>. I realized I hadn\u2019t enjoyed his last several before that, was buying them out of habit. Since then I picked up the off reissue of older stuff that I didn\u2019t have on CD or for some bonus stuff but none of his new material (The Raven<\/em>? Metallica? Tai-chi?).<\/p>\n

Then he died and I read all about his genius. Had I been wrong? Had I been missing out?<\/p>\n

I decided to give Lou a second chance via those cheap Original Album Classic sets that the record labels have been putting out in recent years, you know the ones, 5 albums that you can pick up for about $15 via Amazon resellers. There are 4 such Reed sets and I picked up three of them, duplicating more than a few albums in my collections but filling in enough holes and getting some post-Magic & Loss<\/em> stuff to make it worthwhile for the price\u2014or so I figured. (I only picked up 3 sets because the fourth for some reason was going for $40, more than I wanted to invest.)<\/p>\n

Over the last few months, I\u2019ve listened to Lou Reed<\/em>, Transformer<\/em>, Berlin<\/em>, Sally Can\u2019t Dance<\/em>, Coney Island Baby<\/em>, Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Animal<\/em>, Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Heart<\/em>, Street Hassle<\/em>, The Bells<\/em>, Growing Up In Public<\/em>, New York<\/em>, Songs For Drella<\/em>, Magic & Loss<\/em>, Set The Twilight Reeling<\/em>, and Ecstasy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What torture!<\/p>\n

Somewhere at about Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Animal<\/em>, Lou decided to stop singing and did more reciting of lyrics. I don\u2019t know why as this clip from 2012 shows he still could sing if he wanted.<\/p>\n