So album 1 of the Needles & Groove collection (or two if we be real) is
Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask.
The Blue Mask is an album I’ve long appreciated by one of my favourite artists of all time, yet it isn’t as celebrated as it should be. Perhaps the strength of the rest of his catalogue means other great works such as the groundbreaking The Velvet Underground discography, the glam pop classic Transformer and the bedsit psychodrama of Berlin are favored instead of this album. He’s middle aged at the time (coming 40), The Blue Mask follows a bunch of albums that while with their own peculiar charm miss the knockout effect of his early years, the cover makes it look like a throwback on past glories. And yet…
And yet…
And yet, The Blue Mask is my favorite album by Lou Reed. It’s confused, direct, confrontational, sensitive, brutally honest, full of character based songs, seethed with hatred, overcome with love. Just like Lou himself it is an album of contradictions. His sly humor is throughout this, the raise of an eyebrow of Women. He’s going to play with the public’s perception of him as a gender bending rock and roll animal, you can believe him or not, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes the humor alleviates moments which would otherwise be uncomfortable, the blank delivery and ‘Son of a B’ in Underneath The Bottle for example turns a harrowing tale into one with an almost jaunty look at someone’s life falling apart. Knowing Lou’s 70s it’s hard not to place some of this as autobiographical, but then again that might be his intention.
The characters are incredibly vivid in this album. Think of The Gun, a 3-and-a-half-minute version of Dog Day Afternoon except with added shock and gore. Effortlessly Lou jumps from the perspective of the crook to onlookers to cops. Vividly inhabiting the brutality, Lou’s blank brutal prose and even blanker delivery lets us come to our own conclusions about gun violence and the circling groove of the band build dread and apprehension throughout the tale. That brutality is nothing compared to the sweating panic attack of Waves Of Fear, exposing elemental dread, the panic like waves is unrelenting. Best most brutal moment is the title track, where Lou wears his sado-masochistic hat again, but this time with an even more brutal band that that on Venus In Furs.
Yet the album has great sensitivity, Heavenly Arms, dedicated to his wife is as beautiful a ballad as Lou has written, and Lou is an under celebrated ballad writer. The third Velvets album, Perfect Day, I’ll Be Your Mirror, behind the devotion there is something lurking, something sinister, nothing will work out for the doomed romantics in Lou’s world, ‘in a world of ill will, the dancers are still.’ Then again, what’s more romantic than doomed love, Romeo had his Juliet. The Blue Mask also shows sentimentality for people and times gone, be it old teachers (Delmore Schwartz) or presidents or the American dream that was represented by that president. The Blue Mask isn’t about a loss of innocence like Pet Sounds say, but it has maturity and acceptance of the great things currently in life, that will one-day pass. Magic & Loss.
What makes this stand out for me is the band however, this is the least celebrated band to rock so wondrously. Fernando Saunders became a long time Lou collaborator after this album, his groove, funk and tightness elevate these songs. Lovely falsetto from Fernando at the end of Heavenly Arms and John Kennedy too. Doane Perry and Fernando are so tight together but the real partnership is Lou & Robert Quine who give a guitar duo worthy of Television in my book. They play a channel each so it is nice to listen to both in isolation to appreciate how well they gel. Quine knew Lou’s work telepathically as he was a massive Velvets fan, in fact his Velvets bootleg tapings have been released in their own right. That all of these tracks don’t contain overdubs is amazing. The excitement of this raw live sound makes it a great album to revisit.
I think The Blue Mask is a very special album and I look forward to getting to share it with you. I’ll be waiting excitedly for all your future albums of the month.
Further Listening –
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground Lou’s ballad album. Still retains some of the left field aspect of their debut in The Murder Mystery but brilliant songwriting and interplay from the band.
Lou Reed – Berlin A dark concept album. Both lush and stark.
Lou Reed – Ecstasy. A late career beauty. Again Lou returning to a 2 guitar, bass drum format, which is always his best. Top songs.
And essential watching
A Night With Lou Reed – DVD with Robert Quine band. Great stuff.
Blue Mask Interview
An interview with Lou from the Blue Mask era. Recorded onto a disc for DJs to pretend to be talking to the man himself. You can pretend to interview himself if you want.
https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/11/lou_reed_minus_.html
Reviews
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-blue-mask-120900/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/happy-30th-birthday-to-the-blue-mask-lou-reeds-solo-masterpiece-186869/
Well done
@Joe Mac for guessing the album too!
