New York is the only Lou Reed solo album that I know well in its entirety. And I mean lyrics off by heart singalong well.
It's an amazing sounding album, the guitars in particular benefit from the meaty production. It's also an album with great lyrics providing plenty of anger, some weary sadness, but also a lot of humour - which people don't always associate with Lou Reed.
Here's Halloween Parade, one of the first songs I thought of when I heard the news on Sunday.
I was lucky enough to see Lou Reed play a decent song selection in 2004 at the Benicassim Festival in Spain on 07.AUG.2004. At the time I would have liked to have heard more than one song from New York, but overall it's not a bad setlist.
He also appeared as one of a string of guests at the Gorillaz Glastonbury-headlining show in 2010, singing Some Kind Of Nature, though as with other guests it seemed a bit of a waste to wheel them on for one song unannounced.
The set list from the Benicassim show, also available as an official DVD - Spanish Fly:
1. Turn To Me (not on the Spanish Fly video) - 2. Modern Dance - 3. Why Do You Talk? - 4. Venus In Furs - 5. Sweet Jane - 6. Jesus - 7. Romeo Had Juliette - 8. Satellite Of Love - 9. Ecstasy - 10. The Blue Mask - 11. Perfect Day - 12. Walk On The Wild Side.
Several years after New York, and during my student years, perhaps the only CD album I bought on the day of release, and one of the only albums I bought (as opposed to taped off someone else, or borrowed) was Lou Reed's next album Set The Twilight Reeling. Despite the decent reviews, it was fairly disappointing overall, and nowhere near as good as New York. On the plus side it made me investigate older stuff instead. In a way, that sums up Lou Reed's career - unpredictable, inconsistent, not to be missed.
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