Any Lou Reed fans here?
Thanks to Dan Steely there was recently a great thread on rock biogs.
I´m planning to read Anthony Decurtis´s 2017 or Howard Sounes´s 2018 biography on the mighty grump and great songwriter. Anyone who can recommend one of them? Anyone who´s read both?
Clearly no help to your enquiry but your Lou Reed could, were you to position the publication in a specific room of the house, double up as a Loo Read.
I was given Mick Wall’s Lou Reed: The Life one Christmas.
It was very poor.
Has anyone read the Victor Bockris?
Yes, Wall’s book was very poor. Felt like the last 30 years got five pages or something.
Aidan Levy’s was very good though. Highly recommended.
I read Bockris’ first book (?). Not great
Sounes is good. Enjoyed Bockris coz it is salacious and I am a bit tabloid when reading about my musical interests.
Maybe I´ll give Sounes, who I find a good writer, a chance.
Never heard of Bockris. Is it mainly about Velvet Underground?
He did one about the VU that I liked and I think 2 (?) about Lou Reed. First one did not impress me too much as I didn’t believe much of it.
I think I prefer Lou solo to VU. Anyone with me on this?
Higher peaks, at least for me. Obviously some not so peaky material too, which is inevitable during a 40 year career.
No. Lou’s ratio of great to crap was certainly less than 50%. VU pretty close to 100%.
But that means there’s still more good solo stuff, right? Numerically speaking.
Hi, glad you throught the thread I started was great. I have read both Sounes and Mick Wall. Sounes I enjoyed. The thing about him is he is an investigative reporter so great on private life etc (I believe he was the man who discovered Dylan had taken a secret wife in the 1980’s) but less so on music but all in all it was a good read. Wall, I believe wrote his book straight off the top of his head in hardly any time straight after the death (spotting an opportunity). It is slightly impressive in a gonzo kind of way and would suit those who know nothing about Reed (the target audience) and/or those who know a lot and are looking for a quick precis with some interesting angles (ie He thinks the Lulu collaboration is a classic!)
Although it was about 30 years ago long time ago I enjoyed reading Victor Bockris’ Uptight about the Velvet Underground. I can still feel the genuine sadness I felt when he decribed the night of their final gig.
Oooh! I didn’t know that the grizzled New Yorker had worked with the tiny Scottish songstress. Sounds like a match made in heaven! A bit like Kylie and Nick Cave.
“You know you make me wanna shoot up”
I recently read Steven Gaines’ book on The Beach Boys, Heroes & Villians. He thinks Party is better than Today and doesn’t like Love You at all (to be fair, it’s a live it or hate it kind of album).
But the book is a really good read, focusing a lot on Brian and Dennis, which is fine by me. If you don’t know about Al Jardine, you won’t be better of after reading though.
But how anyone can enjoy Lulu is beyond me. And since I’m a fan of both Lou and Metallica I’m twice offended by that album.
Sounes is good for debunking the myth that Metal Machine Music was actually avant garde music and not a scam to finish a record contract. He just put his amps guitars and gadgets in a room and let the white noise go with the door shut and the tapes on.
Those Germans who recreated it were complete mugs.
..or operating a scam of their own.
I’ve said this before, but if MMM had been recorded by a German artist it would have been lauded as a masterpiece.
Turns out I have the Anthony Decurtis on my shelf, must be from last crimbo. When I get onto it, I’ll let you know.
@Neela I’ve just finished the DeCurtis. Pretty good, well worth a read.
I’m probably in a minority, but I’d have liked more detail on recording the studio albums. I am a recording nerd, though.
I have literally just this moment learned that Perfect Day *isn’t* about heroin.