I bought this album simply because there was no good reason not to !!!
'Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
that's what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
and get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard'
(dirty boulevard)
'New York' was Lou's 15th studio album. His 2nd album 'Transformer' yielded his most successful single 'Walk on the Wild Side' but this is considered to be his best solo effort.
Just as an aside .. 'Walk on the Wild Side' was censored in the US because of the line
'even when she was giving head'.
It got passed the British censors because at the time they didn't know what that meant !!
'New York' is a gritty album, local New York references, situations and style. It's full of the names of many people who were in the news around that time, not always reflected in the best light.
In a line from ' ... Whale' he quotes John Mellencamp (referred to as Donald).
'Don't believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear
It's a lot like what my painter friend Donald said to me
"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"'
(last great american whale)
In 2008 Lou married another of my musical heroes, Laurie Anderson. I heard her singing/chanting/reciting 'Oh Superman' in 1981 and 9 albums later I love her even more today.
Lou passed away in 2013, but he left some brilliant music behind.
My favourite track? A tie between 'Romeo Had Juliette' and 'Last Great American Whale'
No comments:
Post a Comment