Perfect Day

Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson, earlier this year.

A former co-worker once said that the three things that sell books, music and movies in America are sex, death and anger. I've yet to see him proved wrong.

In light of the recent passing of Lou Reed, I've been seeing quite a lot of well deserved tributes and accolades being thrown his way, the best of these being the heartfelt note written by his wife, Laurie Anderson. Nonetheless, and I hate to say this, but so many of these acknowledgements have come off as somewhat contrived.

Now, I both understand and welcome those who may be late to the party, but grow to appreciate the work of any artist or musician long after the fact because, for instance, they weren't yet alive at the time of the music's release, or were just too young for it. That's not only completely fine, but also accounts for most of us. But if something like that is the case for you, then please don't pretend that you've been a hardcore lifelong fan all along. That rings false and smacks of status-seeking hipsterism. Even the few serious Lou fans I've known that owned a copy of Reed's notoriously abrasive "Metal Machine Music" album could not honestly say they endured a continuous front-to-back listen, and even they weren't ever going on about how profoundly Lou's music had impacted their life. So when I hear things like that, it sounds disingenuous at the least. If all the people who are now saying how Lou's music meant so much to them had been buying his records all along, then both Lou and his legacy would have been much better off.

I also find it interesting that according to the online media data tracked by the analytics company, Musicmetric, Reed jumped from adding around 1,500 Facebook fans this year to adding a whopping 37,864 just on the Monday following his departure! What newcomers now expect from his Facebook page is not clear.

In the early 1970's, I was in junior high and already heavily into the music of the day, although neither myself or my friends had yet paid much notice to Reed's work in The Velvet Underground. I can tell you with certainty that if we had heard them at that time, all of us would have hated their music. The Velvets would prove to be an acquired taste. In fact, it wasn't until decades later that we all figured out that without The Velvet Underground, the Indie Rock explosion of the 90's would never have been possible.

Like many others, our first dose of Lou came later in the form of "Walk On The Wild Side", the first single from his 1972 album "Transformer". It was one of those songs that became a hit almost in spite of itself. While the song had a unique and hypnotic sound, the lyrics were far beyond what even progressive FM radio was willing to promote, despite the worldwide success of The Kinks' tale of transvestism, "Lola", from 2 years earlier. A heavily edited version finally took hold at radio. But "Walk On The Wild Side" wasn't the only thing the album had going for it. Not by a long shot.

Mick Ronson and Lou Reed, 1972

By 1972, the world had seemingly gone mad for David Bowie and all things even distantly related to him. Bowie had often cited both Reed and The Velvet Underground as profound influences. Given that the two were on the same record label, RCA, it was inevitable that they would work together. Indeed, "Transformer" was produced by both David Bowie and Bowie's guitarist and arranger, Mick Ronson. Bowie had referenced The Velvet Underground in the cover notes for his album "Hunky Dory" and regularly performed the VU songs "White Light/White Heat" and "I'm Waiting For The Man" at his concerts. Bowie even began recording "White Light/White Heat" for inclusion on his covers album, "Pin-Ups", but it was never completed. Ronson ended up using the backing track and finishing the recording for his solo album, "Play Don't Worry", in 1974. Although Bowie's attachment to the project was the draw, Ronson played the major role in the recording of "Transformer", serving as the co-producer and primary session musician, contributing guitar, piano, recorder and backing vocals, and notably contributing the lush string arrangement for the favorite Lou Reed song of many, "Perfect Day".

The lovely & talented Duran Duran, in the early 80's.

Fast forward to the mid-1980's. Technology had taken great leaps and a sharply digital edge began to dominate the production sounds of the Pop charts. The resurgence of Dance music was a cyclical dismissal of the simplistic lessons of late 70's Punk, and another enormous wave of British bands had overtaken the world's airwaves, record stores and televisions. Chief among these was Duran Duran, named after the villain from Roger Vadim's French science-fiction film, "Barbarella", Dr. Durand Durand. The band was easily one of the most successful of the 1980's, largely due to their heavy rotation in the MTV-driven video revolution. Since then, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, achieving sales of over 100 million records.

The cover art for "Thank You".

In 1995, the band released their inevitable cover album, entitled "Thank You", which included their version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day". In a video interview provided with the album's press kit, Reed himself said he considered Duran Duran's recording to be the best cover ever done of one of his songs. Whether Lou was sincere or just being kind and/or grateful, I don't know, but the Duransters certainly acquitted themselves well enough. At least on this track they did. Most album length cover projects should have been 5-7 song EP's, and this is one of those. Often, albums like this are simply too much of a good thing, which is far better than an overdose of one bad idea after another.

Here's Duran2 with Lou Reed's "Perfect Day". We hope you somehow manage to have one of your own.

Surprisingly, the entire album catalog of Duran Duran remains in print. This catalog includes several different attempts at a definitive collection, of which only one succeeds, and it is both worthy and capable of plugging the Duran-a-rama vacancy in your music library.

I'm certain there's been a bit of a run on albums from Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground as of late, but that is certainly not any indication or inference that those recordings are going out of print and are never to return. Quite the contrary. That is an urban myth the record companies want you to believe so the post-mortem buying frenzy will continue. You longtime Velvet fans probably have everything already, but for our newer or more casual listeners, I will recommend the so-called "banana album", or this excellent 2 disc anthology.

Lou Reed himself, however, is one of those rare performers whose work has not been well served by 'best-of' collections. So, while "Transformer" is a very good document of the glittery early 70's, as is the fabled live album, "Rock & Roll Animal", my recommendation for a definitive Lou Reed album is the gritty 1989 masterwork, "New York". In the opinion of many, Lou was never better than on this one, and I concur.