Lou Reed pulls no punches: The Glitz & Glam, Grit & Grime of "New York"
It's six minutes past Midnight on Friday night in London. There are two dogs at my feet, I have a tumbler of Wild Turkey on the ready...but, I feel like I am skulking the back alleys and boulevards of New York City.
I'm in the mood to stand in shadows in a drizzling rain, smoke cigarettes and ask strangers for the time. I don't like cigarettes, but I feel like smoking a few right down to the filter. I don't really care what time it is, but I am anxious because I know something is about to happen...and I just don't want to caught by surprise.
Whenever I think of NYC I think about wee hours of the morning and a "real rain that will come and wash all this scum off the streets". I saw Taxi Driver before I ever went to NYC It had a profound effect on me. I can't think about NYC without thinking of those early morning scenes of cabs driving along desperate streets with clouds of steam seeping up from manhole covers and Travis Bickle telling he is "waiting for the sun to shine".
Every time I go to NYC I feel small. When I walk out of Grand Central Station, I get the feeling that I just drank Alice's potion that makes here shrink to the size of a short-stem rose. Though I have been there many times, I am stilled awed by the city and the stories it tells. That is what I find exciting...the stories that come from the glitz and glam, grit and grime dichotomy of this end-all-be-all, King Archetype of the "Big City".
NYC: Iconic. Ironic. Exotic.
You know who spins a true-grit, tell-it-like-it-is NYC story? Lou Reed. He pulls no punches. He walks that glitz-grime dichotomy line like cat burglar.
I am on my third front to back listen of Lou Reed's "New York" album and I can't get off the ride. Actually, I don't want to get off the ride. I don't listen to Lou a lot, but when I do, I get stuck in. Especially into this album. How can I not? Lou tells me that I have to.
On the back of the album (and I am listening to this on vinyl), Lou informs us: "It's meant to be listened to in one 58 minute (14 songs!) sitting as though it were a book or a movie".
Those instructions are printed on there in black and white. Like a book, you can't read just one chapter. Like a play, you can't watch just one act. Like a crime you can't convict on one clue. This is an album. A front to back, start to finish, sum of parts album. Make the time for it...
On the back of the album Lou also tells us, "You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, drum". Damn straight, Lou.
And that is a good way to sum up this album: NYC stories of glitz-grime told in black and white honesty using the bare bones of the rock and roll sound.
"I'll take Manhattan in a garbage bag" - "Romeo and Juliette"
I took Lou's advice and I have been listening back to front and getting caught up in his NYC travelogue. Lou vents harsh on aids, the homeless, political hypocrisy and the zero-empathy, relentless struggle of growing up on the grime side of the NYC equation. It's an intelligent and biting tongue Lou uses with great effect.
The album hit the streets in 1989 (21 years ago!?!). When it was released, Lou said, "this is as good as I get". That is the blunt honesty that runs through all of Lou's work. That blunt honesty is what makes this album work for me.
Does anybody need another million dollar movie.
Does Anybody need another million dollar star
Does anybody need to be told over and over
Spitting in the wind comes back at you twice as hard
- Strawman
Here are a few of my fave bow-down tracks of the album:
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There is one other Lou album that forces me to listen to it: "American Poet". It is a 1972 live NYC radio show performance. This is balls-out rock and roll. Lou told us on the back of the New York album jacket: "You can't beat 2 guitars, bass, drum". He's obviously been following that edict for along time. Listen to these '72 performances...they are pure rock and roll!.
"Walk it and Talk It" is Chuck Berry on pills. "White Light/White Heat" straight up Eddie Cochran. And "Rock and Roll" is, well, 2 guitars, bass and drum bare bones R&R truth.
Make sure to have a listen to these as well:
Comments (4)
There's a down town fairy singing out Proud Mary
as she cruises Christopher Street
And some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean
where the docks and the Badlands meet.
Only in New York . . .
Hmmm...after typing that, not sure if it came off as intended. Anyhow: http://tinysong.com/kegJ
Head full of candy bags
costume shops and punks in drag
Head full of tricks and treats
Places where junkies meet
And it leads me through the streets at night
That’s alright I just watch, I don't go inside
It's all the same old shit again
I got a Halloween head
I got a Halloween head
Lord, I got a Halloween head
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