Dalen Wrote:
Radcliffe Wrote:
The Loaded version of "Sweet Jane" is one of my all-time favorite songs by anybody. Lou's solo work blows dead crows.
Rad, i thought you'd be into it. why ya think it stinks?
I love his solo material, and prefer much of it to VU actually [especially his s/t, transformer and ecstacy].
Truthfully, "blows dead crows" is a bit of an overstatement, but I reckon if I'm gonna take a swing at a sacred cow I might as well swing big.
His s/t debut,
Transformer, and
Coney Island Baby are all fairly listenable, but all the best songs are leftovers from his VU days - not that the origins of a song matter all that much, but it says a lot that Lou was virtually unable to write any new music throughout the '70s. In fact, in the '70s Lou was reduced to an ill-advised cartoon of heroin chic as an attempt at mainstream superstardom. His subsequent contempt for his own audience always rubbed me the wrong way.
I find
Berlin to be inexcusably grim,
The Bells and
Street Hassle sonically annoying attempts for relevance, and even mildly interesting albums like
The Blue Mask are soiled by rotten songwriting (only salvaged, if at all, by Robert Quine). All of his albums since the '70s, in my opinion, are trivial and minor. Some contain an okay song or two, but none of them are strong enough to be construed as the work of a major artist. Even
New York, which many point to as Lou's latterday redemption, is basically one song played 14 different ways and features some of the clumsiest lyrics this side of Bright Eyes. I mean, I like the guitar interplay on "Romeo Had Juliette" - and I like it enough to play it occasionally still - but Lou's decision a long time ago to not even attempt to sing reduces everything to a short jam with bad poetry recited overtop.
I've got 8 albums by Lou (not counting all the VU discs), so my criticism isn't based on simply being a hater. Over the years I've kept on trying to like the guy. But over those same years I've just come to the realization that this particular emperor stepped out of his clothes 3 decades ago.
