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One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.
~Lou Reed
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it’s going to happen.
~Lou Reed
…he’s often cited as punk’s most important ancestor. It’s often overlooked, though, that he’s equally skilled at celebrating romantic joy, and rock & roll itself, as he is at depicting harrowing urban realities.
~Richie Unterberger
Patti Smith inducts Velvet Underground Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1996:
Rock and roll has probably given more than it’s taken.
~Charlie Watts
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Usually I can hear the pianos, the saxophone, and usually I can hear Ronnie. But I really need to listen to Keith and Mick. The rest of the band is sort of an embellishment to that.
~Charlie Watts
Darkness on the Edge of Town (released June 2, 1978) is the fourth album by Bruce Springsteen, released in the late spring of 1978. The album marked the end of a three-year gap between albums brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel.Although the album did not produce high charting singles it nevertheless remained on the charts for 97 weeks. A steady seller in Springsteen’s catalogue, it has been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA
Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter (usually as Ellas McDaniel), and rock and roll pioneer.
He was also known as “The Originator” because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock & roll, influencing a host of acts, including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, and George Michael, among others.
He introduced more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged electric guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalog of songs, along with African rhythms and a signature beat (a simple, five-accent rhythm) that remains a cornerstone of rock and pop.
It is 35 years since one of the best albums in rock history was released, Darkness On The Edge Of Town is number 2, (some days it has the top spot) on my list of favorite albums.
Today I think it is the best rock album ever released!
It came out three years after the incredibly successful Born To Run, and three years was an awful long time between albums in the 70s. Bruce Springsteen had been tied up in a legal battle with his former manager Mike Appel but reached a final settlement in this year-long litigation with Mike Appel on May 28, 1977.
Darkness on the Edge of Town (Houston, 1978):
This meant that for the first time in a long time Bruce Springsteen was allowed into a studio. And he did. The recording of what was to become Darkness On The Edge Of Town began in June 1977 in New York City. He had a lot of material in various state of completion. Many of the songs were written or finished over the course of the sessions. He was in the studio for a long time.
Adam Raised a Cain (Paramount Theatre, 2009):
The material that didn’t make the album seeped out on a lot bootlegs through the years, it is of an incredibly high quality both sound wise and artistic. in 2010 we finally got a Darkness box that in many ways ended the need for Darkness bootlegs . There must still be a few unreleased gems in the vault, as of 2011, only 33 of more than 70 songs have been officially released.
It consisted of 6 discs with the following content:
1: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (remastered ) 2. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ, 2009) 3:Thrill Hill Vault (1976-1978) + Houston ’78 Bootleg: House Cut 4 and 5: The Promise (double album with outtakes and alternative takes)
6: The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
There’s a scream inside everyone of us at every moment. And every one of us has had the experience of listening to a record and feeling that scream take over. Release. Abandon. Let it all out. Rock and Roll for me is about Eros, not Logos, which is paradoxical since my job is putting the experience in words.
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)
One of our favorite authors here at JV is Paul Williams, and…. he did write about other stuff than Bob Dylan.
We all love lists, so I’ll try out a new series of posts honoring one of his lesser known books:
..the list is chronological, starting back before the beginning and going through the 50’s and the 60’s and the 70’s and the 80’s, and ending for the sake of convenience in 1991. So #1 is not supposed to be ‘better’ than #100. It just got in the line first.
My criteria are simple: the song has to have been released as a seven-inch 45 rpm single in the United States or Great Britain (Robert Johnson’s 78 rpm ten-inch is the exception that proved the rule), and it has be “rock and roll” according to my subjective evaluation…
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)
One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.
~Lou Reed
I think that everything happens for a reason, everything happens when it’s going to happen.
~Lou Reed
…he’s often cited as punk’s most important ancestor. It’s often overlooked, though, that he’s equally skilled at celebrating romantic joy, and rock & roll itself, as he is at depicting harrowing urban realities.
~Richie Unterberger
Patti Smith inducts Velvet Underground Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1996:
Sweet Jane (@ Letterman 1993):
Wikipedia:
Birth name
Lewis Allan Reed
Born
March 2, 1942 (age 71)
Brooklyn, New York
United States
Genres
Rock, experimental rock, art rock, protopunk, noise music, drone music, psychedelic rock, folk rock, glam rock, blue-eyed soul, spoken word
Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his solo career, which has spanned several decades. Though the Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era. As the Velvet Underground’s principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including sexuality and drug culture.
After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with “Walk on the Wild Side”, although he subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate. Reed’s work as a solo artist frustrated critics wishing for a return of the Velvet Underground. In 1975, Reed released a double album of feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which he later commented, “No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive.”
