For Lou
By: thisisnofunatall
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Fk7PQLYZw
Live Version of “Heroin” by Lou Reed & John Cale at Bataclan (Paris 1972)
Probably 75% of what goes in my ears started with the VU.
The above clip and quote came to me via email from my buddy Alex the day after the news of Lou Reed’s passing. As for the video, it’s a gem of a performance. Cale droning away on his viola in a serene Tony Conrad mode while Reed speak-sings his junky confessional. This is from a 1972 performance at Le Batalclan in Paris. I found a Pitchfork review of this iffy concert. Maybe not the best date for the three involved (Nico sings a few, too) but the intimacy of Cale and Reed’s playing here is touching. And for that reason I think Alex’s link is the best tribute to Lou I’ve seen over the past couple of days since the announcement of Reed’s death.
As for Alex’s quote, he couldn’t be more right. The Velvet Underground tore rock n roll a new one. It’s hard to imagine the whole “alternative” music genre even existing without these pioneers. I’ve always loved the “no blues licks” VU rule, recounted here in an interview with Julian Schnabel .
It’s also hard to imagine myself, personally, ever getting anywhere on the guitar without this band. The Velvets guitar work was so much more attractive to me than the shit much of my contemporaries were playing in high school. Lynrd Skynrd, Steely Dan, Yes. Ugh. I was so uninterested in that stuff. But figuring out how to play the bar chords to “Sweet Jane” – that was my challenge. I used to play “Loaded” on my turntable late at night with the volume on 1 so as not to wake up anyone in the house. I revered that album knowing that every guitar player I admired – Pete Buck, the Edge, Thurston Moore – cited VU as an influence. “Loaded” was my lodestone.
To any “serious” guitar player this will seem laughable. “Loaded” is no “Are You Experienced,” Lou no Jimi*. But Lou was downtown New York cool before Tom Verlaine, Chris Stein, or Johnny Ramone hit the stage at CBGB. His guitar playing had it’s own spit and strut, his strumming just as idiomatic as his Brooklyn accent. You need look no further than the 14:57 hypnotic maelstrom of “Sister Ray” for proof of Lou’s brutal brilliance.
I have to wonder what guitar Lou was playing for that session. Was it his black ’64 Gretsch Country Gentleman? And what amp? Maybe a VOX AC100 Super Beatle? There’s some helpful info here for gear heads. But more importantly, who in 1968 was playing guitar like THAT. ’67 was the summer of love. Psychedelic rock, man. Compared to, say, Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” “Sister Ray” is a black panther. Lou and Sterling’s guitar work is all attitude – aggressive, frustrated, brutal, avant skronk attitude. Legend has it that the engineer left the control room while they recorded this. He missed out. Big time.
For the past week I have re-immersed myself in Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. I wanted to hear the albums I loved again. I ended up discovering recordings I had overlooked or just never got around to hearing. Trolling youtube I found this, a bootleg recording of VU live in 1969 recorded through Lou’s amp. I’ve always wondered who played what on this song. Did Lou cover rhythm or the solo. Well, here’s the answer.
We all know Lou Reed was an incredible lyricist but he should be also remembered as a raw, thrilling, innovative guitar player. He could play searching, scorching leads and wasn’t afraid to let the feedback take his notes to another place. From noise opus “Metal Machine Music,” a genre definer in it’s own rights, to the song cycle “Songs For Drella,” Lou created some of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic pop music of the twentieth century. And lest we forget, he was the first to record a pop song in a trivial tuning. Do the Ostrich. Lou, you will be missed but never forgotten.