Lou Reed is gone.
It was shocking news to get via Facebook this past Sunday. My first thought was
"What?!?!?! Was he sick??" My second thought was what Lou Reed do I
need to listen to? For me the answer was simple and clear. Here's my little story
of how Lou and his music entered my life.
I can't really remember how it happened but sometime around when I was
12 or 13 I acquired some of my Aunt
Lucia's records. She was my dad's little sister and based on the stack of
albums, she must have been a teenager in the seventies. Stuff like Edgar Winter (the album cover was so
creepy I had to turn it over), Jackson
Browne, Lou Reed, a bunch folk
rock records by bands I'd never heard of at the time. Some of these records
really appealed to my adolescent sensibilities but the one record that really
made an impression on me was "Lou Reed Rock N Roll Animal."
Being somewhat precocious in my desire to hear and learn about new (for
me, at least) music, I had heard of the Velvet
Underground (an older high school kid at my church youth group persistently
encouraged me to listen to the Underground and The Ramones) but I had no idea what they sounded like, and I
certainly didn't know that Lou Reed had become famous as their frontman. I had
no idea who Lou Reed was. All I had to go on was the picture on the cover
(record artwork - yet another reason for why vinyl is the best!). Who was this
really weird, blurry and androgynous guy with the creepy makeup and why did he
look like someone my parents would want to keep me away from? Of course later,
as I learned more about rock music from this time period, I learned that this
photo of Reed was pure Glam, coke, and heroin. The makeup, the sparkles, the
coked-out, gender-blurred pose. And the triple lead guitars that make this
record a classic also had that coked-up, Glam Rock guitar sound. But I didn't
know all that as a 13 year old. I just knew that this dude on the cover was
really weird and that this record needed to be played on my sister's record
player.
The record starts with an Intro (with writing credits given to one of
the guitar players - Steve Hunter).
Pure unadulterated rock and roll. Layered guitar lines, popping pre-prog Rickenbacker-sounding
basslines. And then about halfway through the piece you can hear the crowd erupt
in cheers - this is a live record, recorded at "Howard Stein's Academy of Music" in New York right before
Christmas 1973 - something big must have happened on stage. My guess was that
the band had started the show and then the Maestro, Reed himself had walked out
to join them. Instantly, I knew that Reed must be a big deal to warrant that
kind if ovation. Then the Intro kind of morphed into a chord progression that
the audience knew because they started cheering immediately. This tune was
called "Sweet Jane" and
the crowd was ready for it. Then the singing started.
But it wasn't really singing. It was almost like talking in pitches. And
the guy didn't really have a good voice but there was something really
captivating about it. And that chord progression was straight up hypnotic. And
straight up rocking. And there was that chorus: Reed singing "Sweet
Jane" over and over again, kinda not even in tune. And the smoking,
glammed-out, cocaine guitar solos in between chorus and verse. Wow! I didn't know
what this song was about - who was Jane and why was she so sweet? - but this
tune was on fire. Of course, soon, after reading every rock and roll book in
the public library, I deduced that this song was a classic "drug
song" - Sweet Jane being Mary Jane, marijuana. And then a few years later
I learned that this live solo version was actually a cover of Reed's original
version that he did with the Velvet Underground.
The whole "Rock N Roll" record was really enjoyable for me
(some true classics on here) but the real treat for 13 year old me was this
mystical song entitled simply "Heroin."
Some of the lyrics to the song were written inside the album sleeve:
When the smack
begins to flow
Then I really
don't care anymore
About all the
Jim-Jims in this town
And everybody
putting everybody else down
And all the
politicians making crazy sounds
All the dead
bodies piled up in mounds
I knew it was going to be heavy but I didn't know how heavy until the
needle hit the groove and the track started. After Sweet Jane, the guitars
shift into Drop D tuning and Heroin starts slowly with the guitar strumming
those two chords that make up the entire song. Lou starts talk-singing. He's
lost but the one thing that makes sense is the needle in his vein. The music
builds in intensity, and the tempo quickens as Lou is "rushing on his
run," apparently feeling "like Jesus' son" (what does that even
mean to a 13 year old?). Then the refrain and the thesis statement of the song
"I guess I just don't know." And then, in the purposeful absence of a
drumbeat, enters the guitar melody that is the centerpiece of this arrangement
of Heroin (I'm guessing now that Steve Hunter wrote it). First in unison
floating like some shiny liquid, the Rickenbacker bass giving the line its
pulse, then the line is harmonized in thirds and an added octave. Floating
upward, immune to gravity. It sounds triumphant, majestic, and free, soaring
like a bird that has caught a jet stream of air and can just extend its wings
and coast. That's what I did when I first heard this. I spread my arms and
flew.
Then the rush ends. Another verse with Lou deciding to nullify his life.
What was wrong with this guy?! Why so bleak? A build to a weird organ solo.
Back to Lou fantasizing through another verse. The tempo quickens and the
volume builds. Lou spits venom, and enter again the angelic, floating cocaine
guitars. It's the Gibson guitar tone of the 70's rock gods. And then the quiet
phase again. Her-o-in. It's his wife and it's his life. The rush is coming
again. The drummer pushes the tempo, Lou shouts the lyric from the record
sleeve (Jim-Jims and dead bodies) and sends Steve Hunter into a frenetic but
lyrical (and at times, Duane Allman-inspired?)
guitar solo. The song hits its rock and roll two chord peak. The heroin is in his
blood and Lou doesn't care. And just as the peak needs a release, we get the
floating guitars again, but this time they're hitting their highest intensity.
It's freaking euphoric. It was two chords and the truth. And my mind was
fucking blown.
Side B of the record is great too, but Sweet Jane and Heroin make one of
the best sides of a record in 70's rock and roll, if not all of rock and roll.
I wore this album out! The mystery of his self-inflicted, fuck-it-all
addiction, the creepy, goth/androgynous Lou on the covers, the freedom of
flying through the euphoric sound of the guitars. That was the shit for me. And
it came at a great time for me. I was already escaping into music and this
record was what I needed to fly around my room.
I'm always
grateful for records like this. Records that helped me through my childhood.
They still work their magic for me today - good rock and roll should always
make you feel young and free. Of course, later I got into the Velvet
Underground and learned to love the original Heroin and Sweet Jane. And I got
into other Lou Reed solo albums, including "Lou Reed Live" which came
from that same 1973 concert that "Rock N Roll Animal" produced. But
that first album of Lou's that I heard and loved is the one I seem to go back
to the most. It seems crazy to me that Lou is dead. Only 71. But liver disease
was the unfortunate result of all the smack Lou shot into his veins. Thanks,
Aunt Luci for the records. And thanks, Lou Reed for being a Rock N Roll Animal.
