I never knew: Lou Reed dominates!

[anarky]

Let me explain a bit.

I've never been much of a Reed fan, aside from hearing (and liking) "Walk on the Wild Side" back when classic rock radio wasn't "All Van Halen, All the Time!"

Years ago, I got a CD compilation that had Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man." I dug it, and picked up a copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico. Aside from that song, and "Femme Fatale," the album didn't do much for me. (And the latter was more for Nico's weird voice than for the song itself.) So I figured that I just totally disagreed with the critics on the dude, and, since they liked Reed's solo stuff, I probably wouldn't. It was probably art-rock bullshit like the VU.

I recently copied a massive stash of CDs from one of my bros-in-law. He had Different Times: Lou Reed in the 70s. I still didn't have "Walk on the Wild Side" (surprisingly enough), so I ripped it from him. (Unless I know it sucks, I tend to rip whole albums if I'm getting them from someone. It's a time difference of maybe three minutes, and I can trash it later if it sucks.)

I'm just now listening to it for the first time. Good God almighty, this album totally fucking rules. For the most part, totally unlike what I expected. There's some great rock on there, and a lot of low-key songwriter type stuff that could've been put out just last week.

I'm not ready to kick Mr Petty out of the "greatest rocker of all time, unless you count country, and the Johnny Cash kicks his ass" spot. But this is some amazingly good stuff.

[jjreason]

Huh. I actually kinda like that record with the bananer on the front. I haven't listened to much Lou Reed solo stuff (or much else from Velvet Underground for that matter).

[kidhuman]

Velvet underground is some good shit. One of my favorite songs is pale blue eyes.