Great read. I like the live versions of Street Hassle I've heard from the 1978 tour. He snarls the line “Bad Luck” making it more of an indictment, and the bass takes off. Sometimes, I try to see it all as one piece, and other times as a triptych. It almost always demands repeated listenings to take it all in.
Another great read. I always love these types of details in your writings:
“The album came without a lyric sheet, so the listener couldn’t jump ahead and the scan the words during the song’s opening minute and a half, as the strings play. They could only wait for the lights to rise and a scene to unfold.”
Man, this is so great - and it reminded that I first heard “Street Hassle” as part of a “Rare Springsteen” mixtape that a friend and fellow Bruce fanatic made for me during my sophomore year of high school. At that point, I’d maybe heard five or six Lou Reed songs, and this was the one that really made me a fan… though I was bitterly disappointed to find that nothing else on the SH album came close to it.
Interesting point about his beloved Binaural recording process, too. For me, the pre-Binaural Audio album Coney Island Baby is far more interesting and affecting from a sonic standpoint. Maybe SH sounded better in the control room and the mastering screwed it up somehow, but yeah - SH’s sound is nowhere near as mind-blowing as Lou seemed to think it was.
Finally, thanks for hipping me to that Flo & Eddie interview. I’d never even heard about it before!
Thanks, man. Yeah, LR should've brought in Bob Ezrin if he really wanted some mind-blowing Binaural sounds! And that F&E vid is killer, so of the era in a interesting way.
Yeah, and Reed worked with Ezrin on Berlin (which also has some pretty impressive stereo staging), so it’s not like he wasn’t aware of what he could do…
Great read. I like the live versions of Street Hassle I've heard from the 1978 tour. He snarls the line “Bad Luck” making it more of an indictment, and the bass takes off. Sometimes, I try to see it all as one piece, and other times as a triptych. It almost always demands repeated listenings to take it all in.
Exactly. Well put.
Another great read. I always love these types of details in your writings:
“The album came without a lyric sheet, so the listener couldn’t jump ahead and the scan the words during the song’s opening minute and a half, as the strings play. They could only wait for the lights to rise and a scene to unfold.”
Aw thanks, Gary, I appreciate it!
Man, this is so great - and it reminded that I first heard “Street Hassle” as part of a “Rare Springsteen” mixtape that a friend and fellow Bruce fanatic made for me during my sophomore year of high school. At that point, I’d maybe heard five or six Lou Reed songs, and this was the one that really made me a fan… though I was bitterly disappointed to find that nothing else on the SH album came close to it.
Interesting point about his beloved Binaural recording process, too. For me, the pre-Binaural Audio album Coney Island Baby is far more interesting and affecting from a sonic standpoint. Maybe SH sounded better in the control room and the mastering screwed it up somehow, but yeah - SH’s sound is nowhere near as mind-blowing as Lou seemed to think it was.
Finally, thanks for hipping me to that Flo & Eddie interview. I’d never even heard about it before!
Thanks, man. Yeah, LR should've brought in Bob Ezrin if he really wanted some mind-blowing Binaural sounds! And that F&E vid is killer, so of the era in a interesting way.
Yeah, and Reed worked with Ezrin on Berlin (which also has some pretty impressive stereo staging), so it’s not like he wasn’t aware of what he could do…
Yep