SecondEdition wrote:Mine? Lou Reed. Jesus, help me to find the proper album in this morass of a catalog to equal anything he did with the Velvets. Anything. I love Transformer, but to compare it to anything the Velvets did is to make a bad joke, and Berlin is sunk with Bob Ezrin's horrible pomposity, and Magic and Loss bored the snot out of me...

The first Lou Reed solo, the self-titled one, is pretty solid. Rick Wakeman plays piano on it and there's the original versions of the songs Berlin and Wild Child. The Take No Prisoners double-LP is a very amusing live set (for the banter) but kinda wanky overall.
Street Hassle and The Bells are not crap, with Street Hassle being the best of the two. I'd listen to them over Chelsea Girl any day.

ok, you've got maybe six good albums out of how many? 15? 20? that is a shit average.

There aren't that many bands that have 6 good albums.

Leonard Cohen

Paul's Boutique album

Pasta wrote:SInce Lou Reed was taken, ho 'bout ZAPPA. Pretty interesting guitar player, for sure, but c'mon, those jokes stopped being funny in the 8th grade. Adn write an actual song, yer not avant like yer buddy Don, yer just kinda silly and immature.

Oh hell yes.

I hate Zappa. Hate. I am using the word hate about Frank "Weird Al" Zappa.

iembalm wrote:Leonard Cohen

pffft.

The Code is Almighty wrote:

iembalm wrote:Leonard Cohen

pffft.

My rationale? Leonard Cohen being canonized and looked upon as some sort of master philosopher/guru makes about as much sense to me as if Bryan Ferry were. There's this damned genuflection before the guy these days that his body of work does not justify.

Husker Du = Husker Cares?

tom waits.

i do not get the fascination with him. many people who's taste in music i respect love him.on two separate occasions i have been given his albums. i don't remember which ones so i'll just call them the "this will change your mind about tom waits" album and the "this album changed my life" album. both times i listened. i listened again. i gave it a while and listened some more and ended up selling the cd's. i feel like i should at least like him a little but i don't. his whole thing just seems so contrived. his voice bugs me and i don't like the songs.

as for lou reed, i agree that his solo work is not as good as the vu but who's is? seriously. they put out 4 of the best albums ever. it is kind of unfair to judge his later work, or anyones work for that matter, against that. i really like about 5 of his solo albums and like songs on many of them. that's not bad. if you want a good solo record try coney island baby. this album has really grown on me over the years.

Pasta wrote:SInce Lou Reed was taken, ho 'bout ZAPPA. Pretty interesting guitar player, for sure, but c'mon, those jokes stopped being funny in the 8th grade. Adn write an actual song, yer not avant like yer buddy Don, yer just kinda silly and immature.

The clear dropoff point with Zappa was Chunga's Revenge. That album, with some exceptions, munches scat.

A lot of what Zappa did between 1966 and 1970 was legitimately great, and truly groundbreaking stuff. Everything after that - and even albums in that timeperiod (Lumpy Gravy, anyone?) - was shit.

I don't get Joy Division. There are a few good songs in their catalog, but when someone tries to explain to me why they're supposed to be one of the geatest bands of all time, I can't help but think, "You're kidding me, right?"

If Ian Curtis were alive today, they would not have the reputation they currently enjoy. I'm certain of this.