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Lou Reed
Coney Island Baby
(RCA/Legacy)
The Music Box's #5 reissue of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, October 2006, Volume 13, #10
Written by John Metzger
Released in 1975, Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music commonly is
considered to be one of the worst albums ever made, and its four sides of guitar
noise frequently are deemed unlistenable. Short on cash, sued by his manager,
and in debt to virtually everyone with whom he had business dealings, Reed
gently was nudged back into the studio by one of his few remaining friends — Ken
Glancy, President of RCA — where he was directed to "make a rock record." The
result was his oft-overlooked gem Coney Island Baby, but as several of
the bonus tracks that are featured on the latest incarnation of the outing
indicate, Reed’s return to the chugging, stripped-down sound of The Velvet
Underground already was in the works before Metal Machine Music hit store
shelves.
It all began in January 1975 when Reed ventured into Electric Lady Studios
with producer Steve Katz as well as bass player and second guitarist Doug Yule,
who had replaced John Cale in The Velvet Underground. Together, the team devised
the template for what became Coney Island Baby by recording the rarity
Downtown Dirt along with early versions of Crazy Feeling, She’s My
Best Friend, and the title track. Although none of these songs surpasses the
material that was featured on the final rendition of the album, their existence
proves that the public trouncing that Reed took over Metal Machine Music
wasn’t really the impetus for his new project, but rather it provided the push
that he needed to complete it.
Regardless of how it came into being, Coney Island Baby was precisely
the album that Reed had to make. Despite the glam-y guitars that lapped at the
edges of Ooohhh Baby, the echoes of Walk on the Wild Side that
strutted through Charley’s Girl, and the Bowie-esque backing vocals that
clung to She’s My Best Friend, the bulk of the endeavor bent the
experimental textures of The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat as well as its self-titled third outing around the pop-oriented framework of Loaded. Consequently, it provided a place where the ebullient refrains and
chiming bells of Crazy Feeling could commingle with the slow-building
intensity of She’s My Best Friend, the sarcasm of The Gift, and
the introspective honesty of the title track. Elsewhere, Nobody’s Business
evolved from its ominously dramatic opening into an easy-going,
country-blues-colored motif that boasted shades of the Grateful Dead’s early
’70s Americana musings, and, anchored by a nervous, skittering beat, the grisly
Kicks, with its razor-sharp sound effects, suitably updated the aural
collage of The Velvet Underground’s The Murder Mystery.
Throughout Coney Island Baby, the guitars tangled and twirled with
crisp precision around the music’s tight-knit rhythmic drive, and given the
startling clarity of the newly remastered rendition of the endeavor, this notion
holds truer than ever. There’s little doubt that when Reed began working on the
project, he was plummeting into the darkness at a rapid pace, but the
sentimental reflection that shines through even the grimiest corners of the
affair succeeded in pulling him back to reality, thus allowing him to
reestablish a much-needed emotional connection to his fans. 
Coney Island Baby is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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