Did anybody see the the Spin Interview with Lou Reed (or read it what I'm trying to say)?
I always been a Lou Reed fan but I don't think I would want to meet him anywhere. He tears up the interviewer and makes them look like idiots and himself an asshole of sorts. His go around with Lester Bangs is legendary. He got into it with a NY Times person earlier in the year about his Sirius radio show.
But then again I don't think we have to worry about ever crossing paths with the guy much less interview him and having him ham on me about Berlin, his much maligned 1973 album to which he did a new live version of every song off that album.
I heard bad things about that album and didn't care much for the selections that made it to his 1995 Different Times compliation. But FYE had the remastered Berlin in the cutouts for half a year and since there was no takers, I decided to revisit it and come to the conclusion that while it's not the masterpiece that Lou wants you to think it is, it's not as bad as the critics make it out to be. It's one of those albums to which the songs sound better in context on Berlin than on any other best ofs to which the songs came up.
Lou Reed does things his own way, if you like it fine but if you don't (especially Berlin) you'll join the enemy list. Heck if you like any of the Velvet's stuff or New Sensations you would get a look of disgust and a few triades thrown your way. Lester Bangs called Berlin "the most depressing album" he's ever heard but then again Bangs loved Metal Machine Music which is nothing more than four sides of feedback guitar on vinyl or a hour's worth of it on CD. It's still in print while New Sensations or Legendary Hearts is out of print in the US (some things you can't explain). I don't think Reed is a walking contradiction as people make him out to be, he knows what he wants and he sticks to the principals. Even though he's now married to Laurie Anderson, he still is King Crabbass number one but I do admire his musical tastes, playing the Easybeats' Falling Off The Edge Of The World a hundred times at the local jukebox back in the VU days.
Perhaps I'll check out the Live Berlin album, which came out on Matador Records, which also means that he's no longer on Sire Records and probaly better off for that. And I'll still play the VU albums when I get a chance and (yes) New Sensations too. But if Lou does get my number and wants to do an interview, just tell him I took the garbage out and never came back.
And a final thought, I wonder who was the wise guy that yelled out "lou reed sucks" at the end of Berlin's Sad Song off the Lou Reed Live album of long ago. There's probaly four million suspects out there in New York that could have.
Maybe a critic.
