Word: albums
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...label also released VU, some unfinished basement tapes, lost but not forgotten during the fragmented and fractious end of the Velvets' career. In fact, for the first time ever, the Velvet Underground had a Hot Hundred album...
WHICH EXPLAINS why Arista Records, with whom Reed was affiliated from 1976-80, has just released Classic Performances by Lou Reed: City Lights, an album attempting to chronicle the most underrated and, honestly, least coruscating years of Reed's career. These were the years after RCA, Reed's original and once-again label, abandoned him as a relic, a shadow of his past triumphs. He migrated to Arista and did a few years of soul-searching songstering (and drying up) before returning to RCA and getting back on track...
...concept of the album is interesting. You can't do a greatest hits package without a single hit, and someone was really exercising creativity in subtitling the album "classic performances...
...listen to the album in its proper context: remember that the late seventies' most enduring contribution to humanity was herpes. And as the liner notes convey, this collection could be justified because it shows Reed coming of age, discovering romance and relfection after years of cynicism. Here we have the seminal influence on punk rock doing love songs and happy music just as the Sex Pistols and the Clash were creeping into the public consciousness...
...most interesting part of this album is that it reminds us that Lou Reed is always going against the grain, and is always more than a bit ahead...