In June of 1972, Lou Reed released his first solo album. The self titled album featured ten songs, several of which were unreleased songs that he had previously written with Velvet Underground. At this point in 1972, Velvet Underground were not as renowned as they now are and the songs that are found on Lou's first solo album were not released in any form yet. The album was recorded in December of 1971 and January 1972 at Morgan Studios in London, England with Richard Robinson in the producer seat. The album featured five songs that were recorded during the Velvet Undergrounds Loaded album sessions (“Walk and Talk It”, “I Love You”, “Love Makes You Feel”, “Ride Into The Sun”, and “Ocean”) and “I Can’t Stand It”, “Lisa Says”, which would later surface on Velvet Underground outtake compilation album VU. There are also songs such as “Going Down” which is one of the two new compositions created for this album, and the song “Berlin” both of which would later be re-recorded for the Lou Reed album Berlin. One of the clear highlights found on Lou Reed, is the song “Wild Child”. This raucous track is done in the spirit of Lou’s influential Rock music style.
The album cover for Lou Reed was done by UK artist Tom Adams, who has a large body of work, but is perhaps best known for his work designing the covers for novels. He has created covers for the novels of Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, John Fowles, and many others. On Tom Adams website (http://www.tomadamsuncovered.co.uk) he had this to say of working with Lou Reed:
"It was good to meet Lou Reed and talk about his brilliant music and poetic lyrics. I'm not sure I did them justice but it was great to be involved in his first UK album."
The album as a whole has often been said to be an album that the record company Lou was on at the time, didn’t know what to do with. If you look at the studio musicians recruited for the album, among the ranks you will find Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman of the Prog Rock band Yes, which is perhaps an indication of the reason for the album sounding the way it does. But if you listen to the album closely, it is simply an album of discovery, Lou Reed is exploring several songs structures and arrangements within the songs found on Lou Reed. There are of slower, sparsely spaced song arrangements, but there are also upbeat Rock songs that rise and fall with the album. It was at the time a highly anticipated release, when Lou Reed was released it went to number 189 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The album, while it is often forgotten about, is a historical document of where Lou Reed would take his music and an indication of a musician in transition. Lou Reed’s next release Transformer, would be in December of the same year (1972) and was produced by Mick Ronson and David Bowie. Transformer had both greater critical and commercial acclaim.
The Play List:
1. The Spys - Welcome to the Cruel World
2. Prehistoric Cave Strokers - Urine You're Out
3. The Gories - I Think I've Had It
4. C'Mon - Mirrors
5. Papermaps - Exit
6. The Modernettes - Teen City
7. Dirty Looks - 12 O'Clock High
8. Jemmy Leggs - Fireworks
9. The Leisure Units - Best Way
10. The Raveonettes - Recharge & Revolt
11. The Wolfmen - The Cowboy's Dream
12. The Mekons - Abernant 1984/5
13. Ghost Wave - Sunsetter
14. Sun Wizard - Golden Girl
15. My Son The Hurricane - Honour Among Thieves
16. Peter Case - Round Trip Stranger Blues
17. The Mods - If You Got To Go
18. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - No Hiding Place
19. REM - Aligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter
20. Hater - Downpour At Mt.Angel
21. Lou Reed - Walk And Talk It
22. Lou Reed - Wild Child
23. The Damned - New Rose
24. The D4 - What I Want
To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for April 5. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.
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