Lou Reed - Lou Reed (1972)

[Taverner]

This album should be compared with Doug Yule-era Velvet Underground's "Squeeze." Here, we have a lot of outtakes from "Loaded" as well as a few new tunes. Lou Reed brings out the top session mucisians (like Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe) to bring his vision to fruition. And it failed miserably.

Yet, unlike "Squeeze" this is a lost gem. At the time, people may have been expecting something different from a Lou Reed record - but keep in mind this guy was a "Poor-man's Carole King" before he was a Velvet.

These were all quality songs, left off "Loaded" for some reason or another. And a lot of them appear on "VU" the so-called 'lost' album.

You've got "Ocean" - probably one of Reed's best written songs. "Andy's Song" whose lyrics are pure hallucination, where the pop melodies are pure and gold.

Why this album didn't sell well is shame - people were expecting something along the lines of "White Light/White Heat" and they got more melodic music than even "Loaded."

Although I am comparing it with "Squeeze," which is what VU would do if Yule wrote the songs, "Lou Reed" is the flip side of that - something Reed would do if not in VU - I think the proper comparison is Carole King's "Tapestry" - pure pop melodies as envisioned by their creator.

[mitchum]

1. I listened to it yesterday...

no big surprise there :)
It is very underrated. There is a lot of sweetness and whimsy there. And he was a hell of a melodist.

[Taverner]

2. Oh definitely - and in some ways he can be put up against McCartney and Chilton...

And its interesting to see what the Velvets would have sounded like if they could actually play really well :)