Tag Archives: Lou Reed

Song of the Week – The Ostrich, The Primitives

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Ignored             Obscured              Restored

In 2017, Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis released what many consider the definitive biography of Lou Reed. Although I bought a copy when it first came out, it somehow slipped through the cracks and sat unread—until now.

Diving into Lou Reed: A Life, I uncovered fascinating details about Reed’s early years. After graduating from Syracuse University, Reed found himself adrift, caught between avoiding the draft for the Vietnam War and launching his music career. He ended up writing songs for Pickwick Records, a low-budget label that churned out tracks designed to capitalize on the latest pop culture trends.

During the early ’60s dance craze, with the Twist leading the charge, Pickwick tasked Reed and his co-writers with creating something in that vein. The result was “The Ostrich,” credited to a fictional band called The Primitives.

This track is a raw piece of garage rock, featuring a primal beat, pounding bass line, and Reed’s hoarse vocals—a foreshadowing of the stripped-down sound that would define the Velvet Underground. However, the lyrics, meant to teach listeners a new dance, are laughably absurd and far removed from the sophisticated themes the Velvet Underground would later explore. Yet, lines like “You take it forward, put your head between your knees/Do just about anything you please” suggest that Reed might have been sneaking in a bit of subversion even in this commercial project.

But there’s a more profound reason why this novelty song holds a significant place in rock history.

“The Ostrich” garnered enough attention to earn a spot on a local television show. The problem? The Primitives didn’t exist outside the studio. A band had to be quickly assembled to perform live, and among the musicians recruited was John Cale. Without “The Ostrich,” Reed and Cale might never have met—meaning there would have been no Velvet Underground.

It’s impossible to imagine the world of rock ‘n’ roll without the seismic impact of the Velvet Underground. Reed and Cale’s partnership reshaped the landscape of music, influencing countless artists and genres that followed.

So, while “The Ostrich” might seem like a quirky footnote in Reed’s career, it’s a crucial piece of rock history.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Caroline, No, The Beach Boys; Caroline Says II, Lou Reed

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Ignored            Obscured              Restored

This is the first of a new series I’ve created that I’m calling the Contrast Series.  The Contrast Series will compare and contrast songs with similar titles and/or themes.  To start I’ll discuss The Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No” with Lou Reed’s “Caroline Says II”.

“Caroline, No” is the final track on the Beach Boys’ seminal album, Pet Sounds (1966).  Pet Sounds was conceived by Brian Wilson as a “teenage symphony to God.”  The music was very technically complex, but lyricist Tony Asher said the words needed to be “topics that kids could relate to.”  “Caroline, No” is the perfect example.

It is unclear who inspired the lyrics.  Wikipedia says Asher wrote them about a former girlfriend named Carol Amen.  But other sources say that Wilson provided the inspiration as a combination of three different girls, including a high school friend named Carol Mountain.

In any case, it is a stunningly intimate song about lost innocence.

Where did your long hair go?
Where is the girl I used to know?
How could you lose that happy glow?
Oh, Caroline, no

Who took that look away?
I remember how you used to say
You’d never change, but that’s not true
Oh, Caroline, you

Break my heart
I want to go and cry
It’s so sad to watch a sweet thing die
Oh, Caroline, why

Could I ever find in you again
Things that made me love you so much then?
Could we ever bring ’em back once they have gone
Oh, Caroline, no

“Caroline Says II” was included on Lou Reed’s Berlin (1973), the follow up to his breakthrough Transformer.  Berlin was initially panned by the critics who were expecting (and wanted) more Transformer.  According to MOJO’s Gus Stewart:

“In Rolling Stone, Stephen Davis denounced the album as “a disaster” and “patently offensive,” declaring the end of “a once-promising career” with the kiss-off, “Goodbye, Lou.”

But in time the album has earned respect as a Reed classic due in part to songs like “Caroline Says II”.

The song begins as a simple, acoustic guitar number then adds piano and strings.  But this is no song about lost innocence.  It is a brutally realistic snapshot of domestic violence.

Caroline says
As she gets up off the floor
“Why is it that you beat me?
It isn’t any fun”
Caroline says
As she makes up her eyes
“You ought to learn more about yourself
Think more than just I”

But she’s not afraid to die
All of her friends call her “Alaska”
When she takes speed, they laugh and ask her
What is in her mind
What is in her mind

Caroline says
As she gets up from the floor
“You can hit me all you want to
But I don’t love you anymore”
Caroline says
While biting her lip
“Life is meant to be more than this
And this is a bum trip”

She put her fist through the window pane
It was such a funny feeling

It’s so cold in Alaska

Jordan Potter, of Far Out, describes the song’s finale – “As she puts her “fist through the window pane”, a shiver in the spine is palpable, as if the air of Alaska had entered the room.”  I can feel the chill!

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Busload of Faith, Lou Reed

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Ignored            Obscured             Restored

Today’s SotW was written by guest contributor Michael Paquette.  It’s his third post this year!

This song seems even more relevant now than it did when it was released in 1989.  Lou Reed’s 15th studio release New York was highly critically acclaimed.  It even spawned a reunion of the Velvet Underground due to its popularity.  The Village Voice rated it the third best album of 1989 in its annual Pazz and Jop critics poll.

Lou Reed had a bit of a rocky period before being signed by Seymour Stein to his Sire label in 1989.  Sire records had earned a reputation for its progressive taste and having the ability to translate those tastes into mainstream media.  The label propelled the careers of the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Smiths, the Pretenders, the Cure, and Depeche Mode.  Notably, the label signed an underground dance artist from New York named Madonna and turned her into a superstar.  Lou Reed definitely fit the model.

New York is a stripped down, raw, and hard hitting album.  The band consisted of Lou Reed, guitarist Mike Rathke, bassist Rob Wasserman, and drummer Fred Maher.  Lou reached out to Maher who had been playing in England with the band Scritti Politti, a new wave act.  Maher was behind the drums on Reed’s New Sensations release.  Lou asked Maher who might be a good producer and Maher, noting that Reed had had several tempestuous relationships with former producers responded with “how about me.”  Thus, Maher produced this release.  The album was done in six weeks and Maher said he found Lou easy to work with.

The raw, stripped down sound was not to everyone’s taste.  The singer songwriter James McMurty asked John Mellencamp what he thought of the work and Mellencamp replied that it sounded like it was produced by an eighth grader but I like it.  The AIDS epidemic was raging at the time of the release and these were people Lou Reed had long standing ties to, gays, IV drug users, and artists.  The song “Halloween Parade” pays homage to this era.

The song I chose from this breakthrough work is “Busload of Faith,” a song that is conceptually bold and simple. A stark reminder of where we are in this politically divided nation.  

The song opens side two and begins without apology.

You can’t depend on your family

You can’t depend on a beginning

You can’t depend on an end

You can’t depend on intelligence

You can’t depend on God

You can only depend on one thing

you need a busload of faith to get by

When the album was recorded Lou had given up drugs and alcohol.  With his life turned around he felt he had the stamina and concentration to produce a concept album.  The album was a great artistic success for him even though it was not a huge hit.  It remains my favorite album of this legendary artist.  It was voted the 19th best album of the 1980s by Rolling Stone magazine.  Lou performed all the songs on the album at the Theatre Saint-Denis in Montreal which was released as a DVD entitled The New York Album.

It was released as a box set in September of last year with a second CD of previously unreleased live performances of his 1989 tour and some alternate mixes.  Bob Seger covered “Busload of Faith” on his 2017 release dedicated to Eagles’ Glenn Frey called I Knew You When. This song continues to work as a political anthem.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Pale Blue Eyes, Velvet Underground

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

It’s coming up on 5 years since Lou Reed passed away. When he died, many of my readers were asking me to pay him a tribute with a SotW selection. At the time, Reed received so much press that I didn’t feel like I had anything new or worthwhile to add to the coverage.

With the distance of time, I’m ready to weigh in by sharing my passion for a beautiful song that Reed wrote for the Velvet Underground’s third, self-titled album (1969) – “Pale Blue Eyes.”

The song has a very sparse arrangement – an organ lingers on long notes, simple bass figures, an electric guitar strums simple chords (and bends a few strings) and a tambourine keeps time with single shakes on the 2 and 4.

The delicate music is a perfect complement to the lyric about a passionate relationship that sounds like it’s ending. But the kicker comes in the last verse where Reed reveals the person he loves and wants to keep so badly is married.

It was good what we did yesterday
And I’d do it once again
The fact that you are married
Only proves you’re my best friend
But it’s truly, truly a sin

The influence of “Pale Blue Eyes” is justified through many great bands that have covered it. R.E.M. gave us a version on their 1987 rarities album, Dead Letter Office. (DLO also had 2 other VU songs on it – “There She Goes Again” and “Femme Fatale.”) A diverse group of other artists has performed the song live, including Patti Smith, Hole, Alejandro Escovedo, The Killers, and Crowded House(!).

“Linger on…”

Enjoy… until next week.