sad songs - a Lou Reed album Ballads

-Life In Andy Warhol's consumptive aura was in the years 1965-68 have been very stressful. Former female stars of the circle to Warhol as Edie Sedwick or Nico had either died, vegetated in run-down apartments alone to himself or had disappeared without a trace ...
It was high time for a re-orientation, if you wanted to keep his life. The result of the LP was surprising: Lyrical and sad thoughts about life to soft sensual sounds that you can certainly hang in the background to candlelight.

.... The complexion is still pale, but not close to death. By dark and lonely street canyons and apartment buildings of the Lower East Side of Manhattan for the first time appears in a little light. At night you can hear still a whimper and cry from the stairways ... But needles in the bathroom no longer existed. The music is available in most tracks. With the exception of "The Murders Mystery", an ultra-experimental title that was worthy of the "White Light White Heat".

Einzele SONGS:

Candy Says
A feather-light piece of floating guitars. Since Doug Youle has a similar voice as Lou Reed, one hardly knows ,, who sings. The text is poetic and fragile: "I have come to hate my body and all it requires in this world" refers to the sexual identification problems of Candy Darling (died 1975), the New York Underground was a movie star at the time. The umoperierte and very feminine Candy can be seen in his film "Flesh" with Joe Dallessandro.
Candy as a person played a role in the film "I Shot Andy Warhol" around the circle of the radical feminist Valerie Solanas murderous. Candy appeared five years later on in "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed.

What Goes On
Impresses with its long and narcotic organ Fade out (Doug Youle). Although the beginning is a bit louder and electric guitar-heavy, the long meditative organ sound fits well into the worn concept of plate. Here is really only the good mix of Velvet Underground Boxed Sets and its CD version of the third LP recommended.

Some Kinda Love
Good guitars of Reed and Morrison. The sluggish sparingly instrumented song could also be of Donovan. Were it not again the monotonous drum sound of Maureen Tucker and readily tuntige chanting. One of the few songs by the Velvet Underground, which have a slightly homoerotic undertones. Lou Reed contends in his nasal uninvolved tell the story before. Some Kinda Love is built on a dialogue and sounds at the end of the last verse as a musical highlight.

Pale Blue Eyes
Pale blue eyes are still sad and almost motionless. Besides Candy says this is the calmest song has the Reed ever written. An ode with quiet guitars and meditative voice.
It is about the theme of love. You hardly that lyrically a dose of irony and Weltschmerz is hidden. Although Reed ie recognize this time the positive power of love to, but in social reality it looks more an absence and impossibility of this. Much like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, he had to transfer the morbid ambition on this thinking as much as possible people.
But a very nice candlelit Song:
"Linger on, you Pale Blue Eyes" is trying to give a little dignity and poetry of an emotional void with expressionless-pale sad eyes.

Jesus
An acoustic Sad Song. The monotonic shear-like Gitarrenfiiguren (like I'll be your mirror) are typical of this group.
"Help me in my weakness, cause I am falling out of grace" sounds honest and without irony, even though Reed is actually officially the Jewish faith and then known certainly not mutated to Jesus Freak. Beautiful choral singing, though a bit repetitive.

Beginning To See The Light
Do not like it quite so, a little too loud and disturb the atmosphere of the other songs of the text "How does it feel to be in love ..." is not appealing. A matter of taste.

I'm Set Free
Very sad and meaningless pregnant atmosphere. A fine acoustic song to several acoustic and electric guitars quiet. "I am set free to find a new illusion" is back ... this never-ending search for something new. This time outside the consumptive Factory of Andy Warhol (the group had fallen out with Warhol), where since the 1966 a number of members had died.

That's The Story Of My Life
Keeps the mood of the previous track. A several times repeated call from Lou Reed and Billy Linich, the reclusive House photographer the Factory. Strange Poetry: there is no difference between right and wrong and that both these worlds are dead?

The Murder Mystery
And now comes this hyper-experimental avant-garde collage, a shock and cold shower for the unprepared listener. Never was anything like recorded on phonograms. Unbelievable, the poetry of the mystery of that murderer remains to Lou Reed an uncommented and unentschlüsseltes mystery forever. IIm annex the text. "The Murderx Mystery" does not fit with the other songs. They should bertrachten than 10-minutes Eigenwerk and separately (if one has the courage) listen.
Seemingly disjointed and freely associative sentences are read simultaneously by several speakers on both stereo channels. The whole time was a poem that was printed in some literary magazine (I think that on the cover).
Nevertheless, the track some what sinistres, nostalgic and magical. The strange monotone febrile organ at the end of the 6 verses .... At the end of an abrupt change of mood: the hypnotic repetitive piano in long Fade Out suggests an ominous curtain falling on a drama.
"The Murders Mystery really sounds like something from another parallel world. With own unentschlüsselbaren laws, I believe this is here for 35 years, the first longer review on this unentschluesselbaren track.

After-hours
reconciled, the last track. 1 acoustic guitar plays the female vocals of Moe Tucker. "After Hours" is a cabaret bar where "the night Could last forever". A friendly, melancholic atmosphere nachtrunkene eastward.

"The Velvet Underground" is the only album the group, which you can recommend another handset circles. It is quiet, has no gimmicky engined shock texts and is musically and lyrically of good quality.

I had "The Velvet Underground" (the LP had the good versions of the tracks) identify more closely learns in the eighties in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Since then, very often heard, though I rather barely hear the other plates of Velvet undergrond.

TWO MIXE
There are two widely differing studio recordings of "The Velvet Underground". A less good, in Unfortunately, most items on the market.
And a good mix: this can be seen only the Boxed Set (5 CDs), he not only sounds better, there were other recordings of the songs used.
It launched its third "gray" LP the end of 1968 under the direction of Val Valentine.