Lou Reed - RCA LSP 4701

Reviewed by G. Mazengarb

Jim Morrison once said he liked living in Los Angeles because in 100 years the whole world would be like that. Velvet Underground seemed to have a similar vision of New York-it was their world, it is their world, the world of dirty needles and stinking gutters. They were the innovators of fag-rock before David Bowie started relating to spacemen and Alice Cooper to beer and switchblades. Songs like "Heroin":

I don't know just where I'm goin'
But I'm gonna try for the Kingdom if I can
Because it makes me feel like a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I tell you things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son......
Heroin is my wife—
When that smack is in my blood.
And the blood is in my head,
Then I'm better off than dead.

And the homosexual leanings of songs like "T'll be your mirror" come on as some of the nastiest little ditties I've ever heard, espousing homosexuals by putting everyone else down. All in all, catering to an old-fashioned freak-out.

And Velvet Underground was Lou Reed. Now Lour Reed has released his very own solo album, which he slips into with a track that says he is tired of life in the Under ground, and all those freaky scenes:

I live with 13 dead cats
And a purple dog that wears spats
And I can't stand it any more"

while flashy guitar breaks wind screaming through and around the lyrics—but he doesn' come on too heavy, in fact it's almost pleasant. Next comes a song called "Going Down" kinda sad, gentle and sincere:

—Times not what it seems
It just seems longer when you're lonely in this world
Everything it seems would be brighter
If your nights were spent with some girl
Yeah you're falling all around,
You're crashing upside down,
And you know you're going down, for the last time"

Another Rock n' Roll Suicide-not bitter but almost wistful. He's good at working guitar against piano, and then sliding his voice somewhere in the middle. Musically it's sounding pretty good so far.

The next track, "Brown Sugar"—what?? No its not it's called "Walk and Talk it"— but it sounds like "Brown Sugar", I can almost see Jagger singing it and the song itself shows the same sentiments as "Rocks Off", just kind of kidding you about listening to it, a rocker for rock's sake. But it's not a take off of the Stones, it makes it the hard way by sounding like something else and standing on its own. A dedication to the Stones? (I know he prefers David Bowie)—I remember in Velvet Underground he ripped off "Hitch-hike", but that was just nasty.

It comes out almost as a good-time L.P. apart from the last track called "Ocean" which sinks into a bit of the old heavy Velvet Underground vibes. Most tracks develop into sincere personal statements.

For the people who like flashing names, Rick Wakeman of "Yes" tinkles away on piano, and helps provide some indication of how good the music really is—it really is.