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 Post subject: Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:41 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:22 pm
Posts: 318
Dear Cxxig Rxxla,



Thanks for submitting a customer review on Amazon. Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form.

The Blue Mask

4.3 out of 5 stars (46)


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4.0 out of 5 stars Quines greatest stand., January 14, 2014

By Cxxg Rxxla

This review is from: The Blue Mask (Audio CD)

I got the "live Velvets' 69", in '80. My first Velvets and my favorite. Went on to get;m all. Then Lou went off and Nico went off and Cale went off. Well as it was Nico made a couple good ones that you couldn't give away, (quote John Cale- "you can't market suicide"), and John himself went on to do good work, "Paris 1919", "Guts", a couple good to great live ones- you can look up reviews by Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, and maybe Byron Coley as to their worth. Peter Laughner was dead by then. Too bad he woulda had some smart things to say. Well there is a two cd over view of the Cale stuff and you could use it.

Ah Lou,-- the first one was a-ok and his glam-wham-bam-thank-you-scam was as good as Bowie reflux could be, (I liked it),Where to go, where to go. Lou went all over and then he hooked Robert Quine., Robert Quine was a guitar player. Dead now. He was a '60s improve-phyche-jazz pyro. One of the best of his generation. Ask Fred Frith 'er somebody, pan generational ass-fry. He also was an ENORMOUS Velvets fan. He made lotsa live tapes of; m; You can find 'm. Some released commercially.

So Quine was the guitar player for the Voidoids-a very good fractured punk era funk-rock-blat unit. As cultural differences go they were comparable to Englands, Gang of Four". As I said , cultural difference, "Stooges" vs. "Sabbath" etc., etc. You'd like'm. Most of the "better" people do.

SO Quine played on THE BLUE MASK. He also defined it. He took all the good stuff that the Velvets had thrown against a guitar and jacked it through all the studied ,"I can lay the fuck outta this thing", learnin' anyone who'd picked one of the damn things up the past 50 years.

Lou played on it too; His guitar is in the right channel and its his best and most agro since the Velvets. The song writing is personal and straight forward. Lou strips everything to its essence both lyrically and musically, Quine doesn't embroider, he accentuates. The attack on the, "rockers", is ferocious- the more reflective/ominous stuff is laid bare -no where to run, nowhere to hide. It has has no ambivalence. When he says he's an average guy he tells you why he is. Ah, Lou Hemingway...."You wouldn't know me if you met me face to face ".

The clanging banging and strumming is all recorded clearly and not softened. Quine is a goddamn FORCE A rock era corollary to real folk, country, blues stuff before the James Taylorization of "rock" ruined handling an acoustic guitar, (Fahey, we need you now), you hear the physicality of it with no buffering- you get notes , chords and some electricity from the strings and no BS support from the guys down In the engine room , (kinda like that early Pere Ubu stuff).

I view myself like that, an average guy, (well, I do have a nice profile), and since I loved this lp as a college kid when it came out I thought it would still be well know and well regarded . My bad for over estimating myself. Took me a bit to chase up a copy in the 2000S and was glad to grab a cd this month. It is what real ADULT rock was and could be. I tagged it as one of the few of antecedents to harsh non-bullshit noisy stuff surfacing post punk -like The Unsanes, "Visqueen", not what most of the media think of "Adult " , "Rock"- ; RE: "mellowing", "Non-aggressive", etc. Hey it's not my fault most writers testosterone went down the toilet in their late 20's.

SO: this ones a winner. I failed to mention how elastically wonderful the bass playing by Fernando Saunders is and the perfectly placed rhythm attack drummer Doane Perry lays down. There are no wasted notes or show offy "licks" or whatever musical crap people often associate with "Good", here. If you don't think this stands with the best of the Velvets, Dylan, and Neil then you had an extra bowl of dumb for breakfast.

Too bad NPR didn't use the lp's, "the Day John Kennedy Died", for the 50th anniversary show of his murder, Usually those guys catch stuff like that.

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 Post subject: Re: Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:25 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:38 am
Posts: 652
Location: Albuquerque, NM
No doubt one of Lou Reed's and Robert Quine's personal pinnacles on record.

I saw Lou perform this tune live (with Quine) at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ. Nailed it.

It was some MTV-sponsored show focusing on NYC artists and also featured Jim Carroll and Run DMC.

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 Post subject: Re: Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
PostPosted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 7:59 pm 
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Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:19 pm
Posts: 1565
Location: Massachusetts
I like a fair amount of VU, but generally don't give a shit about Lou. "Lou...you don't know where I've been!"

That said, I heard a track off this album the other day on the radio and it was great! 1982? Not what I would have expected from the guy at that point in his career, but I guess I just didn't know Lou. I didn't know where he'd been...

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 Post subject: Re: Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
PostPosted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 11:16 am 

Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:37 am
Posts: 824
Location: A grave in Ireland
RalphSnart wrote:
I like a fair amount of VU, but generally don't give a shit about Lou. "Lou...you don't know where I've been!"

That said, I heard a track off this album the other day on the radio and it was great! 1982? Not what I would have expected from the guy at that point in his career, but I guess I just didn't know Lou. I didn't know where he'd been...


I have this on vinyl if you ever want to here the whole thing.

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