There are two general reactions to Metal Machine Music. The first is that is utter unlistenable crap. The second is that Lou Reed was playing an elaborate prank on RCA’s classical label and enjoying it should be done while basking in irony. Here is the thing though I actually and earnestly like it and I can say that with the full confidence that I heard it without any preconceived notions of what I was hearing. You see, even though I had heard of Metal Machine Music for ages I never actually heard it until one day when I was driving past Rice University listening to KTRU and some DJ was actually playing Metal Machine Music in its entirety. The thing is I just tuned-in just after the top of the hour so I missed the DJ introducing the piece. So there I am in my car listening to this drony music which, to me, sounded very much like low drones in some Eno /Fripp collaboration and I’m really digging it. I drive the entire time wondering who it is when I get to my destination and I call up the DJ and ask. He informs me, to my surprise, it’s Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. In spite of its reputation, I actually liked it and not with any ironic detachment but actually – honest to god – loved it. So in the end I was glad I missed the introduction and had to call the DJ because I wonder what kind of reaction I’d have had had I known what it was?
Also on the uncool Lou Reed albums list is New Sensations which I utterly love to death despite my better judgment. Here is how uncool I am. First and most damning, this album actually had some mild commercial success complete with an embarrassing video (Link) that made the rounds of MTV. Secondly, I’m supposed to like the darker and more serious albums like Berlin with it’s doomed characters and seedy settings or perhaps one of the albums that just preceded this one like The Blue Mask but I just can’t. Berlin is just overwrought with Bob Ezrin’s 70′s production and The Blue Mask wouldn’t be worth my time if Robert Quine’s guitar weren’t there playing off Reed’s. This album, meanwhile, is hardly heavy. In fact, this album is horribly goofy and laid back as if Lou Reed had had enough with the darkness and just wanted to write songs about dancing, chillin’, playing video games, and having fun. Hell, he pretty much proclaims in the title track singing lines like “I want the principles of a timeless muse/ I want to eradicate my negative views/ And get rid of those people who are always on a down.” It’s not that Reed’s New York got any less dangerous but Reed keeps it just off the screen with a distanced kind of humor. High in the City’s lyrics are the best example where Reed hits the street in a cheery mood while making asides like “Watch out for that guy on your right/ Seen him on the news last Saturday night” or “Hey, look they’re setting fire to that jeep” with this what the hell are ya gonna do bemusement that’s horribly charming. That’s what makes this album so great yet horribly uncool – it’s Reed’s happy album and happy isn’t cool. Then, as if to cinch the uncool, Reed ends his album with Down at the Arcade whose guitar riff is a shameless cop of the Spencer Davis Group’s Gimme Some Lovin and the lyrics have to be some of Reed’s goofiest. Consider this verse:
Down at the arcade the defender is there
Down off of Broadway he’s there playing his games
It’s very dangerous putting money down on Robotron
Oh, I’m the Great Defender
And I really know just how to get along
Yeah that’s right Reed just tried to rhyme “get along” with “Robotron.” That just falls somewhere between the stupid and the genius which is my favorite line to see someone try to straddle – gravitas be damned.
Video: Here are three songs from a 1984 BBC Live performance by Lou Reed which starts with the cheeky A Gift (from Coney Island Baby) followed by two songs from New Sensations – Doin’ The Things That We Want To (which is probably my favorite from the album) and I Love You Suzanne (the one of the afore mentioned embarrassing MTV video). On hand is guitar great Robert Quine (Richard Hell & The Voivods) and bassist Fernando Saunders (who is probably the reason I own a fretless bass).
you made me curious about New Sensations as i only ever heard Love You Suzanne. personal opinion : he peaked early with Rock And Roll Animal and Transformer.
i agree with you about Berlin i bought it several years ago, and while it’s certainly “good” i have only listened to it from start to finish once and will probably not put myself through that again.
What’s next on your listening list, Swing Out Sister??
Sly Guy
“Just like there is someone out there who really digs the Stone’s Satanic Majesty’s Request from beginning to end(!!) and doesn’t skip forward to She’s a Rainbow or 2000 Light Years from Home.”
And she’s sitting right here in your living room.
My favorite “uncool” record: Terry Reid’s “The River”. It’s uncharacteristically un-rocking and un-showy. Restraint is the name of the game on that one.
Swing Out Sister? Oh man, no way!!! I’m working on a tome about the greatness of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy!!
Rosa,
Why am I not surprised?!
If i have to choose, I would choose Satanic Majesty’s as the stones best record.
I also have New Sensations and I have no problems with it, not my favorite, but I like it and I never even realized it was ‘uncool’.
And here i’m going to pick a bone. Why didn’t you just say, here are two underappreciated albums i like, why bring coolness/uncoolness into it, what is this high school? didn’t we already have an extensive comment thread at some point discussing ad nauseum the coolness of uncoolness, the coolness of coolness and all other possible permutations? You’ve said you don’t like party being used as a verb, I think if that’s the case, you might want to consider dropping coolness as anything but a description of temperature or a meaningless expression of glee.
‘tome’ and ‘trope’ – ramon is very sophisticated despite his rabid uncoolness. though maybe he can come up with another word, starting with ‘t’, that describes underappreciated/uncool?
CA,
Uncool/Cool – I’m just being cheeky about that. But these records do get a “Huh? Really? You really really like those albums?” from most people. For MMM people always assume I like it because it’s weird or as a joke and New Sensations in all honesty is a minor record that there really is no reason for me to be so charmed by it.
Ramona,
I’m not so much sophisticated as I am lazy…My usage of trope is largely due to my being too lazy to do the HTML special character to add an accent over the e in “cliche.” To do this I would have to type strung together the following characters “& e a c u t e ;” to get é. Fuck that! I’m just gonna use “trope”!
I like MMM for the same reason… I think it and other drone/noise albums are of a piece really. It does have a couple of pretty good songs on it, but overall I was never that fond of New Sensations, though I was a fairly big Lou Reed guy for awhile there… I was a big fan of Blue Mask for a good while there, but admittedly about half the album is good and the other half really sucks. Robert Quine and Fernando Saunders on that make me happy… I remember my first band with Mike, Horshack, played “Waves of Fair” pretty regularly in our sets…
Yeah, Charlie, maybe I’m being a bit harsh on the Blue Mask – the title track, for example, is pretty rocking. But, man, when that album sucks it doesn’t mess around.
I love how you worry about the accent in cliche (as if anyone gives a shit), but you can’t spell worth a shit, nor is your grammar even passable.
In summation. Gay.
And that is not a trope. Nor was the mask idea for that matter. Dipshit.
Actually I’m less of a bad speller as I am a shitty typist. My worst offense is the progressive these. Goddamn if that “ing” always comes out “ign”. Worst of all, somehow my spell checker thinks it’s legit – how I added “ign” as a suffix on a spell checker I have no fucking clue!
Anyhow, yeah, masks are a literary cliché that I find a bit heavy handed. Otherwise I liked the post.
BTW – Nice seeing you guys at the Nat Bladwin/HOA show. That show was great! See I didn’t bore you guys with another post about great local shows.
But that show was awesome. HOA was excellent even without the power book. Also, given how much I didn’t like Dirty Projectors, I really was surprised how much I dug the Nat Baldwin stuff. Both those sets were worth being a zombie then next day at work.
Nat Baldwin blew.
Yeah, blew the roof off the place.
Okay, I’m one of the nimrods who likes Neil Young’s TRANS. I actually think it’s got some really great songs on it: Transformer Man, Mr. Soul, Computer Age, Sample & Hold and Computer Cowboy. Well . . . maybe not Computer Cowboy. At any rate, it’s cheesey and far reaching but it’s not a bad album.
The bad Neil Young albums are: Reactor, Landing On Water, Hawks and Doves, Life, and Everybody’s Rockin.
Here’s how you justify that you’re an uncool deuce: you say you like Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks, “Everybody’s Rocking” record and that the cover is his greatest display of artistry ever committed to photograph.
By the way, Lou Reed has made stinkers but they’re not even in the same ballpark as Neil Young’s post-TRANS period.
Thank god someone likes Trans. I really mean that. As much as I think it kind of sucks I was always charmed by it’s quirkiness.
I still remember hearing some KLOL DJ introduce it all excited because this was the new Neil Young record and after the song there was this long “Ohhhhh Ummm, O…K yeah that was good wasn’t it?” That alone made me have some love for that album.
But that’s the cool thing about Neil Young’s failures is that at least he was going for it with those Geffen albums. The weird thing is that over the arc of his career those albums actually kind of fit – not that they are particularly good – just that they fit into a really interesting narrative.
Just last week I saw that new Neil Young film where Neil young is singing all the actors parts. I’m still not sure if that was good or not. Neil’s just a weird cat who just throws anything out there which I love. There is no suck or not suck there is only do.
Yeah Rosa I was going to say, Satanic Majesty’s is in my heavy rotation.
How the fuck could you say he blew the roof off of the place?
Because of his verbal incontinence? One two many Stellas? I left that place with my fingers literally in my ears and it didn’t keep his annoying vocal garbage out of my head. I begged John to sing something to get it out, and I was actually grateful for the Pat Benatar he came up with…. it was that bad.
Well you did set me up there.
No, seriously, his band was really good. But yr right I did have a whole lotta Stellas as well as a few Gin and Tonics. But, to be honest, I came into Rudz really tired yet the crowd was great and the HOA set just really put me in an over the top good mood. During that set I actually remember thinking ‘Oh yeah so that’s why I got an LP4 hall pass and made the effort to come down – this is amazing!’ Listening to that set kind of was like smoking a lot of dope and listening to psych records in your dorm. So maybe all that took place before Baldwin’s set contributed to my enjoyment but I think also that you were focusing on his vocals where I was more focused on the instruments and those guys were really smoking!
In the end though, you and John looked to have been having a good time regardless of Baldwin’s set. I know I certainly was. That’s all that’s important no?
We were having a good time, but that had more to do with the photosensitive albino banker, the matronly victim of contrceptive insertion, Blue Moon Ale, Boddington’s, and our search for the reluctant braggart, not to mention the Garcia Marquez sunbtext everywhere we looked.
I thought Nat’s band was okay enough, and I agree that his vocals were fairly bad, though I didn’t mind as much as Claire did.
As for HOA, I am honestly baffled as to the intensity of her appeal for you or anyone else for that matter. Quite frankly, she does absolutely nothing for me at all. In fact, I am beginning to suspect you have taken leave of your sanity in your quest to make her the new ______ (fill in the blanks). It was more forgettable than anything to me, neither good nor bad, just forgettable, which is, of course, the kiss of death. I must be the only one though, because from the sound of it, she and Christ have been kicking it up in music heaven or some such shit.
Sorry. Nothing personal.
Ok John, if you would, I’d like to learn more about the Garcia Marquez subtext….
“photosensitive albino banker..Garcia Marquez sunbtext everywhere we looked.”
I have absolutely no idea what yr talking about. Well except for the Blue Moon. John Black from Whorehound turned me on to that beer – it rules! That I get totally!
And no offense taken. Mlee was working without her powerbook so I was, on the one hand, enjoying the stripped down nature of the performance and, on the other hand, literally filling in the missing arrangements in my head.
But that being said i don’t expect everyone to be blown away by HOA; I know many people who are ho hum on stuff I absolutely love. All I can do is say “Wow isn’t this amazing?” and at least have people give an honest go of it. So it has nothing to say to you? Well cool at least you checked it out. I think that’s 9/10th of anything having people actually listen. Me? I put HOA against any national act because i hear a singular and unique voice while to you it’s dull. Hey I find Ted Nugent as well as a lot of that 70′s “meat and potato” rock horribly dull so that’s life. Whatevs eh? As much as I would like to believe that the brilliance of HOA is apriori, it’s all subjective.
Quite frankly, she does absolutely nothing for me at all.
Me too.
Oh and PS…
Yeah,
Mlee and Christ’s band rules!!!!
Have you heard Jesus on the guitar?!! He plays guitar better than Hendrix and as if that ain’t enough he can score more goals than Wayne Gretzky!
Jesus is way cool!
When they score their first gig, Boston and Ted Nugent will be reduced to the shouldering ashes of suck they truly are! That’s the kind of shit that goes down when you rock with the son of god.
Every time you type HOA i can’t help but think, Houston or Alive….
I think you’re mixing genres too much. While I only saw HOA once, briefly, I saw enough to know that comparing her to Ted Nugent is like comparing french fries to space capsules.
If you’re into a particular genre, you’re going to defend it…that’s normal and there’s nothing wrong with that. I am not interested enough in that genre to make a call, other than that HOA seemed talented and competent.
“Fernando Saunders (who is probably the reason I own a fretless bass).”
Awsome, I drilled myself with Rock and roll Animals growing up.
one of my favs (bass playin’wise) and yes, we ,should bring back fretless , I am not ashamed of digging it’s un-coolness.
All I hear is “fretless is douchy”
I played the de Schmog “Fairy tail” with one.
That is” douchy”
Guess fret-less bass is yet another Indie Rock Casualty.
Then again a 40 year old in an INDIE ROCK BAND is the eptomy of uncoolness.
The irony of geekness.
Guess I better find some skinny pants and a tight “T” to complete my gift to the scene.
Fretless bass rules. Ask Ramon about the converted to fretless Gibson Grabber. Still around, and once upon a time used by us in Bongtooth (masterfully, I might add, if it wasn’t such a lie). I love that damn thing.
Yup I still have that Gibson Grabber and it still rules!
The funny thing about playing a fretless is it always seemed odd to have those damn frets in the way when you play a standard.
But yeah Jman, I hadn’t thought about it but there aren’t many fretless basses in indie rock – it’s about someone fixed that. I can’t recall if Basses Loaded had a fretless but, goddamn it, they need one….that and one fo those goddamn chapman sticks and freaking Taurus pedals!!
Les Claypool ruined the fretless bass for indie rock.
I hate that fucknut and his whole schtick.
One more for the good side of indie fretless bass. Brian Beattie of Glass Eye.
Oh and if we come to a negative verdict on the coolessness of fretless bass then Jman has to go down with the ship because he built his from scratch.
But he was 2 cool for school back then so I think we just solved this case. Fretless bass is cool.
As long as jazz fusion or funk metal isn’t involved but then nothing can make those things cool anyway.
Hey now, I’ll stand behind the funky Miles Davis fusion stuff.
Funk Metal/ Rap Metal/ Nu Metal – god are we lucky that shit keeled over and died a quick death!
That’s something we can ALL agree on, for sure. I’m not sure it’s really dead, though. It may just be a flesh wound.
Ramon – I think you have to put your love of Miles Davis’ fusion stuff on the uncool albums by cool artists that you like list.
I can deal with Bitches Brew to a point. And I don’t believe there’s any fretless on there. But if we ever do the overrated music podcast, BB is my submission.
I have to agree that Bitches Brew is overrated, but only because the Miles fusion stuff that came after (only up to his initial “retirement” in 1975) is so much better. Dark Magus, Live at the Fillmore, Pangaea… these albums are incredible.
Okay Charlie. I’m gonna take your word on that. In fact I was looking for something to listen to today and so I’m gonna set up a Miles Davis fusion Pandora station. Thanks.
Oh and you better be right dammit.
Still, curse MD for starting a sucky genre.
Just be careful… I would imagine Pandora’s not going to differentiate between his good 70s fusion and his utterly awful 80s fusion.
It’s worse than that Charlie – pandora won’t recognize any of the songs from Dark Magus, Live at the Fillmore…
Pandora has it’s limitations for sure.
Got LatF up on last.fm though. Cuhraazeeee
Well I, for one, dig Bitches Brew and I also recommend Big Time which is also great.
My favouite uncool alum?
Dylan and the Dead
think a reeealy bad greatest hits concert
i think rolling stone said it ought to be punishable by law or something
but i love it
I dig Bitches Brew alright, it just kind of pales in comparison to what came after… I guess for me, that one’s a case of bad timing. When I first heard it, I was pretty solely into free jazz and the more mainstream “classics” guys like Monk, Mingus, and pre-fusion Miles. Then, later, I got into Dark Magus and Pangaea, and I was able to backtrack from there into getting into Bitches Brew, while still thinking that it just wasn’t as good as what came after it. So basically I refused to like it when it was the only 70s Miles fusion I’d ever heard, and then when I got into that stuff, it was just the least of those albums to me. But it’s alright, and Big Time is too. I just think in general (with exceptions, like On the Corner) Miles’s fusion works better in a live context.
By the way, apropos of absolutely nothing, this is the funniest music-related text from a Wikipedia entry that I’ve ever seen:
“On January 31, 2007 Edward Butcher flew back to his home town in the UK. In a statement released later by the band it was announced that he didn’t like the type of music that the band was playing and has been quoted as saying “I can’t stand our current sound, broseph”, and that he was to be no longer a part of the group. Ed has since joined UK metal band, Eternal Lord. He has since gone on to amass 632 Fabrege Eggs.”