The Velvet Forum

A punk legend, and a friend of mine, Gary Heffern doing "Lou Reed" with Blood on Fire. As good of a VU style song as I have ever heard- "Sister Ray/Foggy Notion/ Roadrunner" all rolled into one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFy2cqTGPgg

Lyrics- written by Gary Heffern, 1985...

bowie, springsteen, violent femmes
bobby dylan, r.e.m.
johnny doe, band called X,
marc bolin...t-rex
the critics love 'em
and they inspire me,
but the one i love the most is lou reed.

johnny rotten is a gentlemen
even he has got some friends
sid died from doing too much junk
now they want to call him the father of punk
but the father's alive can't you see?
the real god father is lou reed
don't you wanna dance like him?
c'mon all you jim-jim jim's.

sometimes i get depressed and i can't go out
and my joy division records are all loaned out
and i'm feelin' like iggy and i'm wallowing in sin
so i lock the doors and i listen to berlin
lou reed that is

and you see its because i understand,
i've been there waitin' on the man
white light white heat, oh sister ray
even had a girl like in caroline says
she says i want a boy, not a man
i say nananana honey i understand
like lou reed.

well you know me, i come from a nothing town
i was looking for a change and a place to settle down
i went to the vogue i said hey man, can i get on a show
they said no man, you don't sound like lou reed...

Yeah, this rocks great in VU style and the lyrics are real fine!! Thank you

The Butthole Surfers did a song called 'Lou Reed' but i can't offhand recall the lyrical content. I'll have to look it up.

Nora Jones (Ravi Shankar's daughter) did a song about Lou with her band the Willies. I heard it a few
times and it is about driving somewhere in the USA and Nora swears she saw Lou Reed. I think New Orleans
gets mentioned.

Whilst looking for something else, I discovered 'Hey Lou Reed' by The Servant - http://youtu.be/tDUJqa9K8gE but had not heard of it, or them, ever before.

It sits easier with the Norah Jones track than it does with Gary Heffern's.

A pal has pointed me in the right direction, for a song where Lou gets a name check.

http://ruhtf.blogspot.com/2008/07/ruhtf ... -suck.html

Also called are Sterling, John, Moe, Elvis, Nietzsche, existentialism ...

I love the New Bad Things track - I remember hunting for it when I heard it on John Peel but never finding it.

Public Image Ltd did a two parter called "Lou Reed":

http://youtu.be/5ooiYVyw2Lk
http://youtu.be/ctySTGfMtpk

It was released on Commercial Zone which some don't regard as part of the canon of Lydon. Part 2 became Where are You on the This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get album.

fontalamh wrote:I love the New Bad Things track - I remember hunting for it when I heard it on John Peel but never finding it.

SL records have I Suck as a download... it was free for a while... now i think you have to pay a bit (you decide how much). Here 'tis.....
http://slrecords.bandcamp.com/track/new ... ngs-i-suck

I have it on original 7" with the silk screened sleeve/ beautiful item.

New Bad Things re-recorded a different version of I Suck a coupla years later. Its basically the same song but with a different arrangement and altered lyrics.... i.e. John Cale is now Tom Jones. Still great / still hilarious and scurrilous. Both versions guaranteed to offend VU fans with no SOH.

You can also find these songs on iTunes:

'John Cale' by Don Lennon
'Moe Tucker' by Jesus and Mary Chain
'Doug Yule' by Jescos
'Doug Yule's Velvet Underground' by Darren Hayman
'Nico' by the Cult
'Nico' by Acoustic Ladyland, a jazz/punk track, but I guess it honours our Nico because they also recorded tracks called 'Iggy' and 'Ludvig Van Ramone'.

Sadly, nothing called 'Sterling Morrison' or 'Angus Maclise'.

I don't have the heart to search for Willie Alexander or Walter Powers.