When I was fifteen I discovered, thanks to WLS 89 AM out of Chicago, the joys of top forty music. Thanks to his being on the cover of Time and Newsweek (they are magazines, for you young 'uns that may have never heard of them) in the same week when I was sixteen, I discovered Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, which remains my favorite album to this day. I started college when I was seventeen, and thanks to fellow students and a helping heaping of glory days Rolling Stone began to broaden my horizons when it came to rock and roll. When I was twenty-two, thanks to a) a rave review in Rolling Stone, and b) a customer who returned a copy with a "scratch" (customerspeak for "it sucked"), I discovered Lou Reed's The Blue Mask, and it forever changed the way I looked at music. In fact, I couldn't possibly overstate how much it influenced (and still does) my musical listening--I came to believe that a rock and roll album or song could be as much of a work of art as Dali's The Persistence of Memory or Shakespeare's Hamlet or Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It changed the way I looked at Born to Run, Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, and Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes, which were LPs I already knew, and would influence albums I would discover in the intervening years like The Who's Who's Next and Tommy, Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story, John Mellencamp's Scarecrow, Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, and a holy host of others (to borrow a phrase). And the cherry on top was that it made me a Lou Reed fan for life--after months of listening to The Blue Mask I checked out his hits package Rock and Roll Diary: 1967-1980, which was chock full of incredible songs, and from there it became an acorn snowballing down a mountain.
Which helps to explain why this will be the fourth time I've featured Lou Reed (Volume XXXVIII: "Street Hassle," Volume CLVIII: "Coney Island Baby (Live)," and Volume CLXXVIII: "Heroin" from his Velvet Underground beginning), and also for the fourth time I'll not be attempting a paragraph bio of a musician whose career does not lend itself to a paragraph. As noted above, this year's birthday week ("Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?") album is The Blue Mask, a work of staggering genius (again, to borrow a phrase) that peaked at #159 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard 200 and sold considerably less than the 500,000 copies it would have needed to make a gold record.
And away we go...
My House--In which Reed and his wife use a Ouija board to conjure the spirit of American poet Delmore Schwartz (also a teacher of Reed's when he attended Syracuse University) and find he's haunting their home--and your first hint that this is not going to be just any old album. Interesting to me because Schwartz's story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" is one of my favorite short stories (although I know precious little of his other work). Favorite Line: "And to top it all off a spirit of pure poetry/Is living in this stone and wood house with me..."
Women--An interesting cut as it's a paean to how much Reed loves women, but his history shows a) he experimented with homosexuality, b) dated an androgynous woman for a while, and c) was rumored to have problems with abusive behavior toward women. Better late than never one supposes (though I have to admit, dear reader, that I most assuredly share Reed's love of women). Also need to mention the guitar play between Reed and guitarist Robert Quine--because a) it's fantastic the entire album, and b) it's mentioned in literally every fucking review of the album (deservedly so). Favorite Line: "They're a blessing to the eyes, a balm to the soul/What a nightmare to have no women in the world..."
Underneath the Bottle--It's well known that Reed struggled with alcohol and drug addiction through his early years, and while Reed says this song isn't autobiographical (and I have no reason to doubt him) one supposes he's at least writing of what he knows. It will occur over and over again on the record, but here's where I can insert how fantastic Reed's vocals were on this album--layered perfectly to fit with each song. Maybe his best vocals ever. Favorite Line: "It's the same old story/Of a man and his search for glory/And he found it there, underneath the bottle..."
The Gun--A stark character study of someone we've all become far too familiar with in the forty years since Reed released this album: a psychotic with a gun. Amazing how little gun violence has changed--you'd think by now we'd know better. A brilliant piece of work. Favorite Line: "I want, ah, you to be sure to see this/I wouldn't want you to miss a second/Watch your wife..."
The Blue Mask--Man, there's no way I could possibly do justice to this one. A brilliant diatribe on torture, pain, and internal demons. Sheer fucking genius. Repeat: sheer fucking genius. Favorite Line: "They stood over the soldier/In the midst of the squalor/There was war in his body/And it caused his brain to holler..."
Average Guy--Wherein Reed follows up an utter masterpiece with a tongue-in-cheek look at...himself. Yup, Reed honestly says he woke up one morning and realized he was actually just a pretty average guy (word of warning: it'll happen to you, too). Music makes brothers of us all. Favorite Line: "Average looks, average taste/Average height, an average waist/Average in everything I do/My temperature is 98.2..."
The Heroine--Another paean to how heroic women are (especially in terms of how much men need them), this time in the form of an abridged myth. Probably an underrated song on the album--there's a gentleness to it that truly makes it a cut above. Favorite Line: "And the baby's in his box, he thinks the door is locked/The sea is in a state, the baby learns to wait/For the heroine, oh oh the heroine..."
Waves of Fear--Whereby musically, vocally, and lyrically Reed captures the frenzy and terror of withdrawal from drugs and alcohol. While again it may not be autobiographical, Reed sings of what he knows. Anger, panic, and chaos, all with killer guitars and exploding drums. Favorite Line: "Crazy with sweat, spittle on my jaw/What's that funny noise, what's that on the floor/Waves of fear, pulsing with death..."
The Day John Kennedy Died--This one is actually autobiographical, as Reed, an unabashed admirer of JFK, recalls the day Kennedy was killed in Dallas. A eulogy for the hope that also died that day, and for a generation scarred by the death of a genuine hero. A beautiful ode. Favorite Line: "I dreamed I replaced ignorance, stupidity and hate/I dreamed the perfect union and a perfect law, undenied/And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day John Kennedy died..."
Heavenly Arms--My favorite song on the album, a love song to his wife. Just like he did with "Coney Island Baby," just like he did at the end of "Street Hassle," Lou Reed is once again telling us that it's love that will see you through, and yes, it can happen to you. Hell, if the tortured poet can find love and happiness, can we all? [Side note: Reed may have captured happiness, but the marriage eventually failed (though he would find love again). C'est la vie!] Favorite Line: "In a world full of hate, love should never wait/Heavenly arms reach out to me..."
It had been many years since I last heard The Blue Mask, and I had forgotten just how great of an album it was. A stunning, once in a lifetime work, from a stunning, once in a lifetime artist.
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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