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Rating: Lou was the kind of guy who purposely made music critics (and the public) wrinkle their noses, no doubt about it.
That famous and noisy Metal Machine Music from a few years earlier — to alienate his own fans — had already shown his most reckless side (or liberal/artistic?). Let's be clear, Lou could afford this and more. The same guy who told Andy Warhol to screw off on the eve of recording the second Velvet Underground album a decade earlier.
Thus, Reed's seventies conclude with the recording of the dandy-like The Bells. The adventure companions — most respectable — include
Nils Lofgren (a few years later he would join Bruce's E Street Band as a guitarist) who wrote some tracks alongside Lou;
Don Cherry, one of the most prolific trumpeters of his kind and father of Neneh and Eagle-Eye. This gentleman's name should be etched on the album cover next to the protagonist's since it's Don who carries, outlines the entire delirious pack of tracks.
Delirious, indeed. Not for their structure but for Lou's neurotic, parodic interpretation.
The Bells is an album more made than its creator; it has the awareness (perhaps not too much though) of mocking that historical phase of prevailing Dance Music. In fact, Disco Mystic, the second track, is effectively a sort of repetitive instrumental. Stupid Man opens the "dance" with an Iggy Pop-like cadence that tells of a man missing his daughter and for various reasons can do nothing but let himself go to the melancholy of absence. Then With You and City Lights pop up, two of the most bizarre songs ever recorded and conceived. At a certain point, the former repeats Slow Down, Slow Down (something you think as you listen) and the latter sees Reed's tone drop dramatically for a text dedicated to Chaplin and his political misadventures. The title track The Bells is improvised in Berlin studios, or at least the text, and features a gloomy, rarefied, and sad introduction in tribute to Edgar Allan Poe.
Ah, broadway only knows The great white milky way It had something to say When he fell down on his knees After soaring through the air With nothing to hold him there It was really not so cute To play without a parachute
Essentially, the album is one of Lou Reed's most bizarre and eccentric experiments, and here and there the studio chatter has a higher volume than the tracks; but the vicious was also this, someone who didn’t take himself too seriously (it even seems to me that half-smirk on the cover is mocking you).
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 I Want to Boogie With You (03:54)
Hey pretty baby
don't you think you might give me a chance
Get it on with me
go downtown for some love and romance
And I know I ain't nothing
I ain't worth but a thin dime
But if you put your heart in my hands
I'm sure that I could change your mind
I wanna boogie with you
Yeah, I wanna boogie with you
There's something, baby, that your parents
both agreed
And that is that they both had it
deep distrust for me
And your best friend Frankie
well I know your best friend Frankie, he wants to see me sink
And I don't much blame him for that
he gets so useless after so few drinks, you know, baby
I wanna boogie with you
I wanna boogie with you
Well I know your little baby sister
she thinks that I'm a flop
But I guess that you know that it's true
I spent more time at the bottom than the top
Tell your little sister
I know she wants to give me a whirl
But I don't have the time, baby
to wait till she's grown up and she's a woman, not a girl
Don't you know I wanna boogie with you
Hey, I wanna boogie with you
I wanna boogie with you
I wanna boogie with you, yeah
Boogie with you
Down on the corner
boogie with you, yeah
08 Families (05:57)
(How's the family)
(How's the family)
Mama, you tell me how's the family
And papa, tell me how thing's going by you
And little baby sister, I heard that you got married
And I heard that you had yourself a little baby girl, too
And here's some uncles and some cousins I know vaguely
And would you believe my old dog Chelsea's here, too
And would you believe nobody in this family
wanted to keep her
And now that dog's more of a part of this family
then I am, too
I don't come home much anymore
No-no-no I don't come home much anymore
Mama
And mama, I know how disappointed you are
And papa, I know that you feel the same way, too
And no-no-no-no-no I still haven't got married
And no-no-no there's no grandson planned here for you
And by the way, daddy tell me how's the business
I understand that your stock she's growing very high
No, daddy, you're not a poor man anymore
And I hope you'll realize that before you die
Because I don't come home much anymore
No-no-no-no-no I don't come home much no more
But daddy
And please-please-please-please-please
come on let's not start this business again
I know how much you resent the life that I have
But one more time, I don't want the family business
Don't want to inherit it upon the day that you die
Really, daddy should have given it to my sister
You know Elisabeth, you know Elisabeth
she has a better head for those things than I
She lives practically around the corner
That's really the kind of child you could be proud of
But papa, I know that this visit's a mistake
There's nothing here we have in common, except our name
And families that live out in the suburbs
Often make each other cry
And I don't think that I'll come home much anymore
No-no, I don't think I'll come home much again
Mama
Papa
Families
Often make each other cry
No, I don't think that I'll come home much anymore
(How's the families)
09 The Bells (09:18)
And the actresses relate
to the actor who comes home late
after the plays have gone down
and the crowds have scattered around
Though the city lights and the streets
no ticket could be beat
for the beautiful show of shows
ah, Broadway only knows
The great white Milky Way
it had something to say
when he fell down on his knees
after soaring through the air
With nothing to hold him there
it was really not so cute
to play without a parachute
as he stood upon the ledge
Looking out, he thought he saw a brook
And he hollered, Look, there are the bells
and he sang out, Here come the bells
Here come the bells, here come the bells
here come the bells
Here come the bells
here come the bells
Here come the bells
here come the bells
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