God Bless Lou Reed

leeho · December 2006

These are his words from 89'. I've been listening to New York a lot. I keep on feeling that Lou's Manhattan of 89 is the Brooklyn of 06' in many ways. The similarities are eerie and endless:

This is no time for Celebration
this is no time for Shaking Hands
This is no time for Backslapping
this is no time for Marching Bands

This is no time for Optimism
this is no time for Endless Thought
This is no time for my country Right or Wrong
remember what that brought

There is no time
there is no time
There is no time
there is no time

This is no time for Congratulations
this is no time to Turn Your Back
This is no time for Circumlocution
this is no time for Learned Speech

This is no time to Count Your Blessings
this is no time for Private Gain
This is the time to Put Up or Shut Up
it won't come back this way again

There is no time
there is no time
There is no time
there is no time

This is no time to Swallow Anger
this is no time to Ignore Hate
This is no time to be Acting Frivolous
because the time is getting late

This is no time for Private Vendettas
this is no time to not know who you are
Self knowledge is a dangerous thing
the freedom of who you are

This is no time to Ignore Warnings
this is no time to Clear the Plate
Let's not be sorry after the fact
and let the past become out fate

There is no time
there is no time
There is no time
there is no time

This is no time to turn away and drink
or smoke some vials of crack
This is a time to gather force
and take dead aim and Attack

This is no time for Celebration
this is no time for Saluting Flags
This is no time for Inner Searchings
the future is at hand

This is no time for Phony Rhetoric
this is no time for Political Speech
This is a time for Action
because the future's Within Reach

This is the time
this is the time
This is the time
because there is no time

There is no time
there is no time
There is no time
there is no time

*Corrected my dates.

carnivore · December 2006

Welcome back, Leeho.

jack krohn · December 2006

It's a rotten shame that, even with a mentor as gifted as Delmore Schwartz, Lou Reed turned out to be such a lousy lyricist. The only thing worse is his singing!

steve · December 2006

New York is a wonderful album but it doesn't remind me of Brooklyn in '06. The political sentiment does seem similar today though.

The album actually came out in 1989 so not so long after we would have been girding for the first Gulf War which started in what January 1991? It also would have been nearing the end of the Reagan-Bush era. Very similar times.

doctorj · December 2006

So I guess unlike L.A. Style's James Brown is Dead, Lou Reed's New York is still alive.

bigguy · December 2006

But he does live with Laurie Anderson, who is totally cool.

smokin joe · December 2006

a number of his songs are explicitly about brooklyn, including "egg cream" and "coney island baby."

prospectplacegirl · December 2006

hmmmmmm. i dunno about this....meh.

apollonia666 · December 2006

Well, regardless of what you think of Lou Reed's abilities as a lyricist, the parallels in the times between when that song came out and now are, as Steve noted, something to stew on. And most songs by Reed are, IMHO, much more moving and feel more meaningful when you're listening to them (as LeeHo was when he posted) than when you're just looking at the lyrics on the page.

jack krohn · December 2006

Perhaps I was too harsh. As a longtime VU fan, I know that listening to the songs gives them life. Actually, some of his songs are pretty funny, but mostly the older stuff (60s and 70s). My apologies if I offended.

leeho · December 2006

All I meant by posting the lyrics to that song was that there are things happening in the world that are very similar to what was happening then. The approval of Atlantic Yards (which would never happen in Manhattan), the war, us, being way to quiet about that war, whatever else can be inferred by those words. I just think its weird that they were put down on paper almost two decades ago and are still kinda timeless. That's all I meant.

They aren't really funny. To disagree with J.K., I think the VU was the greatest band maybe ever put together, yet I wouldn't call them "funny."

Ironic? Yes. Funny? That's a reach.

carnivore · December 2006

LeeHo wrote: They aren't really funny. To disagree with J.K., I think the VU was the greatest band maybe ever put together, yet I wouldn't call them "funny."

Ironic? Yes. Funny? That's a reach.

Maybe not VU, but Lou Reed is funny sometimes. For example, "New York Telephone Conversation" or "Andy's Chest" (both from Transformer). Of course New York Telephone Conversation is probably the worst song on that album, which is otherwise packed with brilliant gems.

bigguy · December 2006

I dunno - those lyrics don't do much for me. I certainly agree with the self-evident lines, like his statement that this is no time to "smoke some vials of crack" (because Lou Reed Just Says No). Or that now is no time for Phony Rhetoric (as opposed to all those other times when it's great). In fact I think a lot of the lines apply to all times, not just now & 89.

Also, a lot of the song urges "Action". Something more specific would interest me more.

sterling2000 · December 2006

This thread makes me remember my first trip to Brooklyn, years before I ever considered living here.

A roommate and I in college in Buffalo were both editors for the weekly entertainment paper on campus. Being VU fans, we caught wind of the "Songs for Drella" performance with Reed and Cale at BAM and made some calls and managed to get free press tix. We drove down for the show from Buffalo, parked around the corner from BAM, caught the amazing 50 minute show, got back in the car and drove back to Buffalo in a classic Western New York snowstorm.

We were struck by the "Drella" piece, moved off campus the following semester and adopted the "open house" mantra with a revolving door of free parties, gatherings, readings and other creations in our apartment on this sleepy residential street in Buffalo. Never an argument, never a problem with cops, just an endless stream of Buffalo-area locals and students coming in and out and mingling.

Less than ten years later, I had a view from my livingroom windows in my first Brooklyn apartment with a clear shot of BAM and the exact spot where my friend and I had parked his aging Cadillac that night.

doctorj · December 2006

It's a shame they don't make nostalgia like they used to.

laura · December 2006

My first time in NY was in 1983, when my friends and I drove from Michigan to see Laurie Anderson's United States over two nights at BAM. It was quite magical.

bigguy · December 2006

My first time in NY was in 1983, when my friends and I drove from Michigan to see Laurie Anderson's United States over two nights at BAM. It was quite magical.

My Laurie Anderson shows have all been in the last 15 years; I would have loved to have seen her then. I saw a performance a few years ago where she talked about her & Lou hanging in their UWS apartment watching the WTC salvage barges go by.

leeho · January 2007

Men of good fortune
often cause empires to fall
While men of poor beginnings
often can't do anything at all

The rich son waits for his father to die
the poor just drink and cry
And me, I just don't care at all

Men of good fortune
very often can't do a thing
While men of poor beginnings
often can do anything

At heart they try to act like a man
handle things the best way they can
They have no rich, daddy to fall back on

Men of good fortune
often cause empires to fall
While men of poor beginnings
often can't do anything at all

It takes money to make money they say
look at the Fords, but didn't they start that way
Anyway, it makes no difference to me

Men of good fortune
often wish that they could die
While men of poor beginnings
want what they have and to get it they'll die

All those great things that live has to give
they wanna have money and live
But me, I just don't care at all

Men of good fortune
men of poor beginnings
Men of good fortune
men of poor beginnings
Men of good fortune
men of poor beginnings
Men of good fortune
men of poor beginnings
...

This is from Berlin!

God Bless Lou Reed

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