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User
Reviews 7
Approval 77%
Soundoffs 1
Album Ratings 20
Objectivity 49%
Last Active 08-31-10 7:12 pm
Joined 08-31-10
Review Comments 6
| Top 10 Lou Reed Songs (solo)
Lou Reed is my favorite singer-songwriter, because he brings a certain poetry to his lyrics that no other artist has been able to fully capture. These are my ten favorite songs from his solo career. | | 1 | Lou Reed
Paranoia Key of E
I'm not going to try to explain my top pick; just read the lyrics. | | 2 | Legendary Hearts
The thing that makes me appreciate Lou more than most artists (despite his ego) is that he didn't fall into the Jagger Trap of trying to rock his socks off until he bit the dust. Once the 80's hit, Lou realized he was too old to keep singing songs about drugs and prostitutes, so he decided to go with a new topic: marriage. That's right, almost every (good) Lou Reed song since the 1980's has been about the hardships of marriage, a topic you may not think goes that well with rock and roll, but Lou manages to make it work. "Legendary Hearts" is the most perfect example of this (next to number one), detailing a married couple's struggle "to make what's right" in their relationship. A masterpiece. | | 3 | Make Up
My favorite track from "Transformer". A great song that adds a funny twist to glam rock (a genre that, despite what you'd think, a lot of artists took too seriously). Also, just listen to that tuba. | | 4 | Perfect Day
A brilliant ballad that shows off Lou's power as a poet. Reading the lyrics, I can almost compare it to one of Shakespeare's sonets. "You made me forget myself/I thought I was someone else/Someone good." Enough said. | | 5 | Street Hassle
The closest he ever came to writing another "Sister Ray", and it works better than you'd think. | | 6 | Kill Your Sons
When Lou was a teenager, his parents began suspecting that he might be gay. Desperate, they brought him to a psych ward, and agreed to give him electro-shock therapy to "remove" homosexual thoughts from his head (I guess they'd rather him be a vegetable than a fruit). Lou put this terrifying experence into words, and managed to create one of the best (and most disturbing) songs he ever recorded. | | 7 | Walk on the Wild Side
"Walk on the Wild Side" was the one Lou Reed song that actually made it onto the charts and, therefore, is the only song most people know by him. Sure, it is a very good song, and one of his best lyrical pieces, but I don't think it's his best song. Still, I may not have even gotten into Lou if I hadn't heard this song, so it makes the list for that reason. | | 8 | Martial Law
While most of the best songs on Legendary Hearts (my favorite Lou album, after Transformer) are great due to the lyrics, this one is different. Sure, the lyrics are still great (detailing Lou's attempt to calm down an arguing couple), but it's mostly great because of the music. Of all the songs on that album, this is the best rocker, and boy does it rock. | | 9 | Charley's Girl
Coney Island Baby gets a bad rep. In my opinion, it's one of Lou's best; an album that shows the lighter side of him. But, because it's not drowned in feedback, a lot of people ignore it. "Charley's Girl" is easily the best song on the album, featuring a classic guitar line and a melody that can't help but bring a smile to my face. | | 10 | The Kids
I don't love Berlin as much as a some people, but I don't hate it as much as others. To me, it's a good rock opera (better than Tommy, worse than Quadrophenia), and this song is it's main highpoint. It really reminds me of "En Melody" from Serge Gainsbourg's L'Histoire De Melody Nelson, in that it uses sound effects to paint a disturbing picture. It must have worked, because it's the most affecting song on the album. | |
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