I'm not an aficionado of live recordings. While there have been a handful worth listening to (Barenaked Ladies' "Brian Wilson," Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite," Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me," Jackson Browne's Running on Empty, Springsteen's Live 1975-1985), most live recordings pale dramatically compared to the original. But Lou Reed's "Coney Island Baby" recording from his Live: Take No Prisoners LP is a once in a lifetime phenomenon, and becomes a song that in its live version takes on a new persona, and comes as close to a spiritual experience as I've ever had in life. I shit you not--when I die (hopefully many years hence) I hope the live version of "Coney Island Baby" will be the background music as the lights fade to black.
I wrote about Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" in FNJ #38, and I begged off trying to write a synopsis of his career due to its complexity and wizardry--which I'll do again here, though I will note that this week Reed becomes a two time honoree here on Friday Night Jukebox. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Pshaw--he's got the emaycee seal of approval...twice.
"Coney Island Baby" was released in 1976 on Reed's incredibly aptly titled Coney Island Baby album. The lyrics were from a poem, "The Coach and Glory of Love," which he had published in 1971 in The Harvard Advocate: Journal of Fiction and Poetry (not a bad place to get a start). While the album version isn't as grandiose as the live version, through the years I've developed a sneaking kindness for the original--its deadpan cool has a charm of its own.
Fun Fact: The Coney Island baby of the song was Reed's lover at the time, a trans woman named Rachel. Ooh la la!
I could tell you how Reed opens the song with a monologue about being a high school football player. Or I could tell you how the song is a symphony of sorts, how the instruments mesh so well that you can't even really tell--well except the triumphant piano--which ones are playing. Or I could tell you about the backing vocalists who turn the song into a religious experience--the gospel according to Lou Reed. I could tell you about Reed's prowess with the written word or the power of his vocals. And I could tell you how after the three minute mark or so, Reed and his band take the song to another level, where the song literally turns you into Saul on the Road to Damascus, but for rock and roll, not God. But all you need to know is that Lou Reed, Lou Reed the cynical purveyor of the dark underbelly of human nature, is telling us all that the glory of love just might see us all through, and despite your doubts, yes, it could happen to you.
And in the end, whether it's a spouse or a significant other, or the girl two seats up in History 101 or the boy who jogs for the cross country team past your door, your children or your parents, your best friend or even your dog or cat, isn't it the glory of love that makes this crazy roller coaster ride through the Hotel Hades worth it?
Can I get an amen, brothers and sisters?
Lyric Sheet: "But remember the princess who lived on the hill/Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong/And right now she might just come shining through/And the glory of love, the glory of love..."
Enjoy:
And a sneaking kindness for the original:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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