Ugly Things #60

[falconwhit]

Ordered!
I'm waiting for someone to do a 33 1/3 book on MMM. (I'm serious).

[bradski]

Great idea! It would be interesting to see the exact set up he had back then. I know all the supposed details are on the sleeve but I can't really visualise it. Maybe we should set Cam Forrester onto it, see what he can do

I got my copy in 1978 when I visited Bonaparte Records, a great second hand shop in Croydon (near London). It was £2.99. My friends thought I'd lost the plot when I played it. I always enjoyed it but thought it could do with more bottom end. It's good on headphones.

A real one-off and bizarre release from a high profile artist at the time which outdid Cale in the minimalist stakes. I can't think of many artists who sailed that close to madness.

[falconwhit]

very briefly, the story goes like this (from what I understand and if memory serves me well):
around 68 (?), Lou lives in a loft mid-town, record some tapes of guitars tuned to one note feedbacking though piggybacked amps.
(you need to play MMM at half speed to hear the guitar tones)
fast-forward 74 (?), Lou now is a star, gets gifted a couple of tape machines (a 4 track and a 2 track) by the head of the label.
He digs out the original tapes and then starts to build on them - presumably over a number of endless nights on speed
Copies the original tape onto the 4-track (presumably) and does overdubs (more squeals and noises, tremolo units, etc), changes tape speed, plays stuff backward, etc.
He then copies/pastes bits in different place (i.e. it's not a long improvisation, but proto sampling / flying in fragments in various places - hence the "permutations" he mentions on the liner notes)
He also inserts very short snippets of random stuff (somewhere there's a bit of Beethoven's fifth - I heard it when I played the tape backward a zillion years ago in a studio)
He then "mixes" the result - outputs the result onto pure stereo (hard left/right - nothing in the center).

Once he's done, he believes he's done a brilliant piece of work (out-competing Cale, Revolution #9, or what-not).

After the entire world laughs it off as a piece of crap, he backtracks and starts claiming he did it just to piss off the label - ahah.
But, considering the amount of work he put into this, that was not the case.

He then follows that with Coney Island Baby, not what one would do if you had wanted to antagonize your label.

Among other things, I think there's a connection between MMM and some of Warhol's movies (Empire, Sleep, etc.)

Then, the reactions of critics and the public are worth a chapter in themselves - between those who took it (or tried to take it) seriously (Bangs, Elliot Murphy, etc.) and the majority who thought it was a prank.
(In early 76, I went to the local record store and bought either a VU or Lou Reed record, and the store clerk pointed to MMM on the wall right behind the counter and said "you know this? It's the worth thing ever, you don't want to buy it, ah ah"

And then, crazier still, someone deciding a few decades later to interpret it live with a chamber orchestra

The liner notes and the cover on their own are the best packaging Lou Reed ever got for a solo record

As I said, I think there's enough material there for a small book...

[bradski]

Great stuff, thank you! The technical details are fascinating.
I know some bits of the story. Lou was deep in debt I believe after MMM and had to sell his guitars. Clive Davis gave him a chance at Arista - so long as he didn't make another MMM. Obv CIB is a commercial record but the title track is a masterpiece, one of his best.
I have the Zeitkratzer CD/DVD, it's great. Lou's solo is sublime.
I also have CDs of Zeitkratzer covering Whitehouse and Stockhausen. Good fun if you like chaos and noise, which I do.
If you like minimal RnR with very repetitive grooves and feedback then you may enjoy Les Rallizes Dénudés who took their cue from Sister Ray and took it to an extreme. You probably know them anyway. France Demo Tapes is a good one.

[MetalMachineMuser]

Hello.

I'm the author of the piece on Metal Machine Music in Ugly Things 60. (If you haven't read it, it's here: https://ugly-things.com/chasing-the-whi ... ine-music/) UT will publish another article by me in the next edition, out very soon and timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of MMM's release.

In the meantime, you might enjoy this: https://realitystudio.org/criticism/the-secret-cut-up/

You'll be pleased to know I have nearly finished a book on MMM for which I've spoken to a wide range of people including Steve Katz, Bob Ludwig, Chuck Hammer, Victor Bockris, Laurie Anderson, Ulrich Krieger and Thurston Moore and done indepth research with the support of the amazing Don and Jason at the Lou Reed Archive.

I hope the book will be published by the end of the year/early 2026.

It's turning out to be a pretty substantial manuscript and will weigh in at around 300 pages with photos but I'm always open to suggestions as to who else to interview. So if you have any fire away.

I'm delighted to see that MMM still stimulates so much interest.

[iaredatsun]

very briefly, the story goes like this (from what I understand and if memory serves me well):
around 68 (?), Lou lives in a loft mid-town, record some tapes of guitars tuned to one note feedbacking though piggybacked amps.
(you need to play MMM at half speed to hear the guitar tones)
fast-forward 74 (?), Lou now is a star, gets gifted a couple of tape machines (a 4 track and a 2 track) by the head of the label.
He digs out the original tapes and then starts to build on them - presumably over a number of endless nights on speed
Copies the original tape onto the 4-track (presumably) and does overdubs (more squeals and noises, tremolo units, etc), changes tape speed, plays stuff backward, etc.
He then copies/pastes bits in different place (i.e. it's not a long improvisation, but proto sampling / flying in fragments in various places - hence the "permutations" he mentions on the liner notes)
He also inserts very short snippets of random stuff (somewhere there's a bit of Beethoven's fifth - I heard it when I played the tape backward a zillion years ago in a studio)
He then "mixes" the result - outputs the result onto pure stereo (hard left/right - nothing in the center).

Once he's done, he believes he's done a brilliant piece of work (out-competing Cale, Revolution #9, or what-not).

After the entire world laughs it off as a piece of crap, he backtracks and starts claiming he did it just to piss off the label - ahah.
But, considering the amount of work he put into this, that was not the case.

He then follows that with Coney Island Baby, not what one would do if you had wanted to antagonize your label.

Among other things, I think there's a connection between MMM and some of Warhol's movies (Empire, Sleep, etc.)

Then, the reactions of critics and the public are worth a chapter in themselves - between those who took it (or tried to take it) seriously (Bangs, Elliot Murphy, etc.) and the majority who thought it was a prank.
(In early 76, I went to the local record store and bought either a VU or Lou Reed record, and the store clerk pointed to MMM on the wall right behind the counter and said "you know this? It's the worth thing ever, you don't want to buy it, ah ah"

And then, crazier still, someone deciding a few decades later to interpret it live with a chamber orchestra

The liner notes and the cover on their own are the best packaging Lou Reed ever got for a solo record

As I said, I think there's enough material there for a small book...

Interesting write-up. I didn't know that he re-used stuff from 1968. I wonder whether that's the 'electronic symphony' that is listed in the LRA?

[falconwhit]

Interesting write-up. I didn't know that he re-used stuff from 1968. I wonder whether that's the 'electronic symphony' that is listed in the LRA?
[/quote]

Good connection - this might indeed be related... Maybe the upcoming Ugly Things feature will shed some light on this.

Also realize I had some awful spelling mistakes in my post - it was late ("worse" not "worth", etc.)

[falconwhit]

Just got my copy of Ugly Things. As usual it doesn't disappoint.
Qualified correction - I read in Browbeat that Lou had recorded the initial tape during the VU days, hence my previous timeline.
"Electric Rock Symphony" is mentioned as possibly being the basic tape used for MMM, or as a demo.
However, Holzer's article points out that there are multiple, conflicting versions of when MMM was recorded - most pointing to being recorded in 74 or 75.
So who knows.

[falconwhit]

As a bonus, there's a short Phil M. piece on Adam Richie and an interview with him.