![]() ![]() It was a hypnotic sound that many admiring musicians adopted as their own. It was as if the lack of resolution reflected a life without lasting satisfaction, as if the lack of resolution would keep the listener-and himself-in suspense about what might happen next. Reed played changes as if he were reluctant to let the harmony resolve he was more likely to go to the minor sixth than to ever return to the one. ![]() It was as if the instrument was steeling itself for something unpleasant. When played fast, it was a clipped, brittle riff, edged with distortion. When played slow, it alternated single-note chiming with brusque chording and lots of vibrato. It was a stridently non-blues, non-pop guitar style to match the anti-romantic lyrics. Those who did listen to Reed, however, often started their own bands.īut Reed’s brilliance as a lyricist often overshadows his other crucial contribution: one of the most original rhythm-guitar sounds in rock ’n’ roll history. ![]() His commercial impact was greatly limited by his subject matter, for it seems that the general public would much rather hear songs about a Tambourine Man and Strawberry Fields than songs about heroin. The fact that all four of the above songwriters were telling the truth doesn’t lessen Reed’s importance as a much needed corrective to the decade’s rose-tinted optimism. When he sings in “Heroin,” “I’m goin’ to try to nullify my life, ’cause when the blood begins to flow, when it shoots up the dropper’s neck, when I’m closing in on death, you can’t help me, not you guys,” he’s giving us a visual, tactile and psychological description too vivid to ignore. Reed’s contrarian attitude wouldn’t have mattered much if he hadn’t had such extraordinary verbal skills to convey it. When Reed sang songs about drug addiction, S&M sex and domestic violence with the Velvet Underground, he was pointing to the abyss and daring us to look in. While the others were suggesting that the world was full of wonderful, stimulating sensations that a conformist society had overlooked, Reed was suggesting that the same world was filled with depraved behavior that the same society had hidden. In the 1960s, when groundbreaking songwriters such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul Simon were all working within the romantic tradition, Lou Reed stood out as a defiant anti-romantic. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |