“This record is not for parties/dancing/background romance. This is what I ment by ‘real’ rock, about ‘real’ things. No one I know has listened to it all the way through including myself. It is not meant to be. Start any place you like. Symmetry, mathematical precision, obsessive and detailed accuracy and the vast advantage one has over ‘modern electronic composers.’ They, with neither sense of … Continue reading Critical Collage: Metal Machine Music
“But here at home, the fans of both artists [Lou Reed and Frank Zappa] continue to bicker. Only a few years ago, the Canadian music critic, Carl Wilson, wrote me to say kind words about my book on Randy Newman. I wrote back to thank him and asked him if he read Dangerous Kitchen. ‘I don’t read books about Frank Zappa,’ was his quick reply. … Continue reading Zappa (16): Frank, Lou, Celine, and Carl
Still coming across a lot of interesting stuff re: Lou Reed, but rather than continue to jam the site with separate Lou Reed posts, I’ll just gather all the interesting ones I can find in this post. (And I’ll ‘bump’ it via the comments box if more get added.) There’s just too many good ones I don’t want to lose track of. If you come … Continue reading Reed Obits
The second RC Podcast, a tribute to Lou Reed (though with more music not by Lou than by Lou) could charitably be called some kind of technical disaster (second half, especially), but you can’t say it’s an unambitious technical disaster (and some of it came out pretty good, anyway). Apologies to Lillian Roxon for drowning her words. LISTEN ARTISTS/CRITICS: Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, Four Seasons, Shangri-Las, … Continue reading RC Podcast #2: The Streets You Crossed
Frank Kogan: “Eventually, in New York, in the early ’80s, I finally went back and got on top of the ‘Sister Ray’ groove. Was the first groove I’d ever mastered, and it was actual power. But back in the ugly college ’70s I felt the guy more. He was a truth teller who didn’t like himself much, which brought out the wrong truths — he … Continue reading On New Dylans and Self-Dislike
I’m not embarrassed to say — and hardly alone, I suspect – that my first meaningful encounter with Lou Reed was via Lester Bangs. I had heard of Reed before then, was familiar with “Walk on the Wild Side,” which I thought was just a slightly more offbeat radio song than the dozens of offbeat radio songs then dominating the airwaves (though something or someone … Continue reading Lou Reed
RockCritics.com 