"Interviewer: Why do you say that New Wave music is folk music?SM: Maybe I'm trapped by certain beliefs, but in the early '60s, on college campuses, you went one of two days. Either you were a very sensitive young person, who cared about air pollution and civil rights and anti-Vietnam or you were a very unsensitive young person, who didn't care about civil rights because all the blacks he knew were playing in his band or in his audience. I was a very unsensitive young person and played very unsensitive, uncaring music. Which is Wham, Bam, Pow! Let's Rock Out! What I expected my audience to do was tear the house down, beat me up, whatever. Lou and I came from the identical environment of Long Island rock 'n' roll bars, where you can drink anything at 18, everybody had phony proof at 16; I was a night crawler in high school and played some of the sleaziest bars. You can't quite imagine them in Texas - people didn't carry guns, that's the only difference.In the '60s I had King Hatreds. I was a biker type and hung around with nasty black people and nasty white people and black rock 'n' roll music. On the other hand, you had very sensitive and responsible young people suddenly attuned to certain cosmic questions that beckon us all, and expressing these concerns through acoustic guitars and lilting harmonies and pale melodies. I hate these people."
― metalmickey, Friday, 28 May 2004 07:29 (twenty-two years ago)
― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 28 May 2004 07:35 (twenty-two years ago)
― zappi (joni), Friday, 28 May 2004 07:41 (twenty-two years ago)
Him and Mo played Reading Uni a year or so before the first VU reunion in Paris. Mo was great, I'd met her before and chatted to her briefly (five mins). Sterl had a few people around and was anecdoting about the old days and stuff. I made a jokey comment I forget which and he shot me a look which said "We're not all here to listen to you, are we?". To be honest, I wasn't offended as such, just that he struck me as being quite nervous/shy, and was seemingly still on-stage....
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 07:46 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)
Interviewer: Who in New Wave makes you "afraid" of it being folk music?SM: Look at a recent Rolling Stone - it's happening to Elvis Costello: "You're rocking to Elvis Costello, but did you ever sit down, Jack, and listen to the lyrics?" Well, no Jack, I never sit down and listen to lyrics, because rock 'n' roll is not sit-down-and-listen-to-lyrics music! Why is it that the Velvet Underground's celebrated lyric-smiths never published a lyrics sheet? Was that to make you strain to hear the lyrics that you could never hear? No. It's because they were saying, "Fuck you. If you wanna listen to lyrics, then read the New York Times." It has nothing to do with the intellectual apprehension of content.
Interesting...
― metalmickey, Friday, 28 May 2004 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)
― metalmickey, Friday, 28 May 2004 08:22 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)
(from an interview with Ignatio Julia, my copy is the reprint in the "Velvet Underground Companion" -- an excellent read)
― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 28 May 2004 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)
There's a cover of "Help, I'm a Rock!" on the first West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band LP, which came out in 1968 (1967?). Sterling really shoulda searched that out.
― Vic Funk, Friday, 28 May 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)
He never wrote no lyrics though...
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)
― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)
ah, this is going to be my epitaph...
― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)
These are really entertaining, nonetheless.
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)
― briania (briania), Friday, 28 May 2004 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)
(x-post)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)
― earlnash, Friday, 28 May 2004 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)
http://www.statinstabili.it/images/musica/Velvet_Underground/velvet%20underground.jpg
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:16 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)
how can you tell?
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)
― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)
well this quote is from when his music career was long over, no?
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)
Yeah, but his form of inconsistency is a bore, too.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 28 May 2004 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)
Sterling Clover will rock as much as Sterling Morrison when he spends a decade as a tugboat captain.
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)
Sure, but this can also lead to music as bogus as any rock-as-poetry schmaltz, if not as comforming to recieved ideas of what constitutes rock pretension.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 28 May 2004 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)
This is true, but it doesn't make what he says any sharper.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 28 May 2004 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)
― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 28 May 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 28 May 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)
"They're just there to be heard in a fragmented way to create a mood."
But if you write a set of lyrics with a certain overall poetic syntax, that syntax is obviously significant to you or you wouldn't have created it in the first place. That said, I do like the idea of "they're just there to be heard in a fragmented way." That's been my own history with rock and roll, anyway. I've enjoyed sort of knowing what songs are about, sort of knowing that a song like "What Goes On" seems to have pretty cool lyrics even though I never paid much attention to them.
I just got the new Fall album, though. Note that Fall albums never have printed lyrics (and that the lyrics are fragmented). There is, however, the "Fall Lyrics Parade" project online and they already have all of the new album up. And I sat and looked at the lyrics on the computer as I listened to it the first time through. I only did this, though, because I thought I might write about the album and I was just trying to be efficient. I've enjoyed getting Fall songs by a slower process in the past. Now, though, I probably never WOULD get much out of a new Fall album if I didn't do this because I'd never get around to listening to the thing much! That's not because the new Fall album isn't great, but because there are like six other great new albums that I also haven't gotten to listen to much.
And, hey, I enjoyed listening to the album that way, so there you go.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 28 May 2004 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)
And besides; I think in any great band, the lead guitarist should be all FUCK LYRICS FAG-FACES, LETS RAWK and the lead singer should be locked in the bathroom with a pen and tears streaming down his face, or in any good band in my book at least.
― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 28 May 2004 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)
great - which bands does this hold true for? GN'R? Darkness? Zep? Sabbath?
― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 28 May 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)
― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 28 May 2004 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)
― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 28 May 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)
"John and I were very happy with "Sister Ray"-type music. Although I'm teaching English now, I don't really care about lyrics in music. I like energy and emotion, yelling and grunting. Snarls and hisses like in 'The Black Angel's Death Song' - that's Cale hissing. Lou placed heavy emphasis on lyrics, while Cale and I were more interested in blasting the house down."
and
"Cale's departure allowed Lou Reed's sensitive, meaningful side to hold sway. Why do you think 'Pale Blue Eyes' happened on the third album, with Cale out of there? That's a song about Lou's old girlfriend in Syracuse. I said, 'Lou, if I wrote a song like that I wouldn't make you play it.' My position on that album was one of acquiescence.'
The man did have a point. Imagine how utterly worthless a Costello album stripped of vocals would be. (Not that one with vocals is much of anything.)
― kjoerup, Friday, 28 May 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)
-- hstencil (hstenci...) (webmail), May 28th, 2004 8:15 AM. (hstencil) (later) (link)
actually, this makes perfect sense to me.
anyway, i think there is a slightly suspect primitivist notion behind some of what he's saying, but i'm willing to guess that he's exaggerating for effect. he's trying to foreground those aspects of rock and roll that he thinks are important, and yes, that aspect of the VU that is often overlooked.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)
I've always thought that Sterling did more of the solos on the records than, for some reason, he gets credit for.
― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)
― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)
― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)
Well maybe vocals are crucial, but I could use different lyrics. I was just listening to Armed Forces the other day and wished that his hooks weren't connected to pretentious puns that add up to "Don't Tread On Me, Bitch."
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)
Indeed but if you believe the credits on "Loaded", and maybe you shouldn't, he played virtually everything else too: lead guitar, keyboards, drums.
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 12 June 2004 06:09 (twenty-two years ago)
Arthur has reprinted the interview from whence this thread sprang: http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=3960Funny stuff! Though yeah, I think Sterling probably just enjoyed being provocative. The dude was in the Velvet Underground, for god's sake. They were born contrarians.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 28 January 2009 04:05 (seventeen years ago)
*bump*
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 October 2021 00:36 (four years ago)
He's credited as co-writer on a few VU songs, but they're almost all group compositions (probably indicating that they started as jams). The exception is "Chelsea Girl", the only song credited to Morrison/Reed. My assumption is that he came up with the melody and chord progression to Lou's lyric, because they're not typical of Lou's work. It's a shame he never wrote another. Supposedly they both play guitar on the song, but I only hear one on the record, and that doesn't sound like Lou either.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:07 (four years ago)
Sorry, the song title is "Chelsea Girls", the album is Chelsea Girl.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:08 (four years ago)
Was just thinking exactly the same thing about that song within the past 24 hours
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:28 (four years ago)
always my favourite Velvet
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 23 October 2021 01:42 (four years ago)
a helluva guitarist
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 October 2021 02:34 (four years ago)
Yes, great rhythm player and his solos and fills are very distinctive despite being straight ahead rock and roll stuff, without Lou's avant pretensions.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 October 2021 09:59 (four years ago)
His solo on "Rock and Roll" was the best moment of the reunion.
― Mark G, Saturday, 23 October 2021 12:00 (four years ago)
He has a couple fabulous moments on Luna's Bewitched.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 23 October 2021 12:07 (four years ago)
The earnestness of trve kult rockers at the top of the thread is embarrassing. Might as well be quotes from a press release for a new The Hives record.
― Hannibal Lecture (PBKR), Saturday, 23 October 2021 12:29 (four years ago)
He has a couple fabulous moments on Luna's _Bewitched_.
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 October 2021 12:30 (four years ago)
“Chelsea Girls” totally sounds like Sterling-only on guitar, as noted above. Maybe Sterl wrote the music and Lou wrote the words. Not too many people left to ask, I guess.
― Through with “What’s the Buzz” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 27 October 2021 03:56 (four years ago)
Wait, I take it back, at the very beginning I can distinguish two guitars.
― Through with “What’s the Buzz” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 27 October 2021 03:58 (four years ago)
Now I can hear two guitars all the way through.
― Through with “What’s the Buzz” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 27 October 2021 04:01 (four years ago)