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Add to RSD Offerings an all-star Lou Reed Tribute Album from Light In The Attic

Add to RSD Offerings an all-star Lou Reed Tribute Album from Light In The Attic

Yet, whereas Reed’s time with The Velvet Underground was foundational and revolutionary, his solo profession—which he launched into within the early 70s—would show to be much more intensive. Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen kick off this period with a punk-drunk, loved-up efficiency of “I Can’t Stand It” (off Reed’s 1972 self-titled debut). “Lou Reed is why I write songs, why I learn books, and why I arise for myself,” proclaims Ludwig. Olsen provides, “Lou Reed is my earliest affect, my introduction to punk rock. This tune was an awesome alternative to creatively work with Maxim.”

 

Later in 1972, Reed launched his landmark sophomore LP, Transformer. Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, the album is a foundational title within the glam-rock canon—and options a number of of the artist’s most iconic hits. Among them is the counterculture anthem, “Walk on the Wild Side, wherein Reed cooly sing-speaks about then-taboo matters like drug use, gender fluidity, queer tradition, and intercourse work. Here, the tune is reinterpreted by one other grasp of lyrical storytelling, Rickie Lee Jones, whose languid efficiency is each whimsical and engaging, together with her whispery vocals, stripped-down percussion, and a piano match for a late-night lounge.

 

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts—who adopted in Reed’s footsteps as rock rebels—additionally discovered inspiration from Transformer—providing up a spirited, punk-infused rendition of “I’m So Free, whereas the Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright gently delivers an intimate efficiency of the melancholic “Perfect Day. Wainwright, who not solely considers Reed an affect but additionally a superb buddy, displays, “He’s one of many few individuals whom I miss as a lot now as when he left… His normal aura would at all times lend one thing actually distinctive to the room.”

 

Another spotlight comes from 90-year-old blues icon Bobby Rush, who contributes a delightfully funky cowl of “Sally Can’t Dance”—the title monitor off Reed’s 1974 Top 10 best-seller. “If Sally cannot dance, let me be the one to show her the way to dance,” laughs Rush, who shares that he “got here from a dancing household and background.” The Blues Hall of Famer slyly provides, “Sally will know the way to dance once I get via together with her.”

 

GRAMMY®-nominated singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, who provides a bluesy efficiency of “Coney Island Baby” (taken from Reed’s 1975 LP of the identical title), recollects how necessary Reed’s work was to her as a younger people artist and a “small-town dreamer.” “A tough city tune poet of astounding vulnerability and brutal honesty, he noticed—and described—the world because it was. Pure emotion. Pure actuality, immense compassion.” She continues, “His phrases had been uncooked and actual. But there was at all times melody. And at all times a (coronary heart) beat.”

 

Several artists selected to deal with Reed’s work from the 80s—an period wherein he left the town for the nation, discovered solace in sobriety, and moved additional towards the mainstream—all whereas reaffirming his place as certainly one of music’s most vibrant and necessary voices. His output throughout this time included such critically acclaimed titles as Legendary Hearts(1983) and New Sensations (1984), each of that are honored right here. Celebrated Americana artist Lucinda Williams performs a heartfelt cowl of “Legendary Hearts,whereas alt-rock mainstays The Afghan Whigs pay homage to the latter album’s pop-forward single, “I Love You, Suzanne. Los Angeles trio Automatic, in the meantime, performs the synth-forward title monitor.

 

Speaking to “New Sensations, the group explains, “This tune is about sobriety. The identical manner Lou was in a position to describe—with intense element —the sensation of doing heroin, he does with this tune in regards to the feeling of being sober: the heightened senses, having fun with easy pleasures, experiencing new sensations. This tune captures that feeling of heading out on a journey of discovery, whether or not you’re on medicine or sober, it’s two sides of the identical coin.”

 

The latter many years of Reed’s profession included the 1992 idea album Magic and Loss, which targeted on themes of mortality, following the demise of two shut mates. Bentley recollects, “While Lou didn’t actually present… feelings in public fairly often, it had shaken him down deep, and he wanted a option to reply in tune.” The ensuing album—a Top Ten bestseller within the UK—featured a few of Reed’s most susceptible work, together with “Magician, written from the perspective of somebody grappling with a terminal sickness. Reflective and melancholic, the monitor is carried out right here by Nashville Hall of Famer Rosanne Cash who shares, “Lou appeared fearless to me; like he’d quite die than be a people-pleaser. I took inspiration from that.”

 

The 90s additionally introduced many moments of pleasure for Reed, nevertheless, together with his relationship with artist Laurie Anderson. Bentley recollects that when Reed met his future spouse, it was “Life-changing… Their union gave Lou an inspiration to grow to be even bolder and to discover different sides of his skills… It equipped Lou with a renewed spirit.” When Reed married Anderson in 2008, he wrote “The Power Of The Heart. It can be his closing solo composition. Sweet and introspective, the love tune was initially recorded in 2010 by Peter Gabriel and is roofed right here as a digital and CD unique by rising Bay Area singer-songwriter, Brogan Bentley.

 

The Power of the Heart is the most recent providing from Light within the Attic which follows shut on the heels of a number of releases of their Lou Reed archive sequence, produced in partnership with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, together with the multi-GRAMMY® nominated Words & Music, May 1965 and the current re-release of Lou’s closing solo album, Hudson River Wind Meditations.

 

The sheer array of expertise featured on The Power of the Heart not solely demonstrates how influential Reed was as a musician but additionally how beloved he was as a human. Whether these artists knew Reed personally or had been merely moved by his work, their performances are all, actually, from the guts. What can also be sure is that his mark on the world will at all times stay. “There are many moments when Lou Reed’s soul nonetheless rushes via me like a heat wind on a immobile day,” writes Bentley. “It is likely to be a sure chord I hear, a phrase spoken along with his distinct New York accent, and even only a glancing reminiscence of the way in which he smiled when he was glad adopted by a restrained cackle which assured all was proper in Reed’s world… His spirit is there, undiminished with a cosmopolitan peaceable knowledge he had by no means stop looking for.”

 

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March 1, 2024 at 08:24PM

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