Metal Machine Music

[AIRP0RTMAN]

Has anybody heard this album? Is it any good?

[Froggylou]

It depends on who you are. I think there are two sorts of Lou fans.
The Velvet related fans and the others, who are not so fond of the VU.
If you adore the VU, Metal Machine Music will probably be something for you.

See ya soon
Tim

AIRP0RTMAN heeft geschreven in bericht
<19990423201604...@ng-fi1.aol.com>...

[Yossarian]

It depends on your definition of good. It has (as its liner notes attest)
no words, no tunes, not much of anything. Its an hour long in 4 parts
(almost exactly the same) of what might now me described as industrial
music. Sort of heavy guitar with constant feedback but nothing like what
would be considered standard guitar. Personally I find it relaxing but I
wouldn't recommend it to Lou Reed fans who are expecting Sally Can't Dance
or New York.

AIRP0RTMAN <airp0...@aol.com> wrote in article

[Thomas Dempsey]

I've had the album for about 3 years and have never listened to all of it,
it borders on musical torture but it's fun for annoying people with.
If you want good feedback type music from Lou check out the Velvet's boot
"1966" which has two half hour instrumentals called The Nothing Song and
Melody Laughter, much better stuff.
Anyone with rare V.U / Lou Reed sounds e-mail me : leond...@hotmail.com
Bye.

[JOHN B LEROY]

After unanimous condemnation of MMM, Lou talked to Creem magazine by phone:
"They should be grateful I put that fucking thing out, and if they don't
like it, they can go eat ratshit. I make records for me!" (Source: "Lou
Reed & the Velvet Underground, by Dianan Clapton, Proteus Books, 1982).
Years later, still defending it, Lou sniffed that "It was a gift" undeserved
by the rest of the world. Dear sweet Louis.

Thomas Dempsey wrote in message ...

[Seanison]

AIRP0RTMAN wrote:

> Has anybody heard this album? Is it any good?

Yes, Especially with a head full of jimson weed.

[eddiemayer]

JOHN B LEROY <JLE...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:7fvlfj$4jo4$1...@newssvr03-int.news.prodigy.com...

>After unanimous condemnation of MMM, Lou talked to Creem magazine by phone:
>"They should be grateful I put that fucking thing out, and if they don't
>like it, they can go eat ratshit. I make records for me!" (Source: "Lou
>Reed & the Velvet Underground, by Dianan Clapton, Proteus Books, 1982).

Is this the 12" x12" book with a huge mug shot of Lou on the cover full of
b/w photos? I remember a book that had singles shots of Lou and Mo sitting
on some steps looking street smart and plenty of shots taken from his
bugged-out amphetamine period.

[JOHN B LEROY]

That's the book. Actually 11" by 8", but it seems larger. Beautiful
collection of photographs. I can't imagine how anyone got permission to put
all of the photos together in one book. Teenager Lou, Blonde Lou shooting
up on stage (or so it seems), even an Amphetamine Lou passport photo (truly
disturbing, that period of time), full page picture of the famous "I'm Cold"
poster. Young Moe Tucker with long hair, looking like a girl. Two-page
spread of the rooftop picture of the VU with Angus MacLise. Several pages
of color photos too, including shots of Nico and Sylvia. The book uses the
albums as chapters, covering all the VU legitimate releases and going as far
as The Blue Mask. I wonder if this book is still in print. For the
photographs alone, it ought to be re-released.

eddiemayer wrote in message ...

[DPTMc]

It's fantastic neo-classical minimalist sound, done with NO instruments.

[Thomas Dempsey]

Decophile <decophile...@pipeline.com> wrote in message
news:3732543f...@news.mindspring.com...

> "Thomas Dempsey" <llee...@indigo.ie> wrote:
>
> >I've had the album for about 3 years and have never listened to all of
it,
> >it borders on musical torture but it's fun for annoying people with.
> >If you want good feedback type music from Lou check out the Velvet's boot
> >"1966" which has two half hour instrumentals called The Nothing Song and
> >Melody Laughter, much better stuff.
> >Anyone with rare V.U / Lou Reed sounds e-mail me :
leond...@hotmail.com
> >Bye.
>

> It is quite an oddity but only if you have a copy on vinyl. The ending
> groove on side 4 is pressed so that the needle skips over and over, so
> that the terrible sound never ends. Genius!
>
> Not exactly genius, the 1966 release of the song Loop (John Cale on bass
and amp - basically MMM with Cale making a lot of noise with his bass) was
on a 7 inch single included with an arthouse type magazine, used the closed
groove aswell so the last riff plays to infinity.

[Will Dockery]

On Saturday, April 24, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, AIRP0RTMAN wrote:
> Has anybody heard this album? Is it any good?

I was there, I bought Metal Machine Music the day it hit the local stores. Here is my story.

It begins in August 1975, those were different times. Here's the setting that led up to MMM and the fued that it began between me and the local record shop.

"I have been reminiscing about old Columbus. We want to know each and every store and eating establishment that was ever in Columbus Square Mall - even from the beginning in 1965. I have researched and Googled but do not have all the answers. Help us out!"

B. Dalton Bookseller, at the front entrance for a long time, great book selection. O'Connlel's Coins & Novelties, Dr. Jive's Record City, another bookstore right next to Jive, great food at Harvest House, seems like there was a bank at the front entrance for a while? Camelot Music was a good one, Funtown Junction where the Sweathogs skipped school.

Harvest House was excellent. Also, someone mentioned Flip Side Records being at Columbus Square, which I don't remember. The only one I ever knew of was at Traffic Circle, right? Maybe the person was thinking of Dr. Jive's Music City, whic was inside the mall, a few shops out from JC Penny's. I don't remember a Morrison's at Columbus Square... where was it? There was good eating to be had at the mall in those early days, though... Harvest House, the Woolworth's lunch counter, and even Walgreen's had a diner at one time. I remember the Morrison's over at Cross Country Plaza but not one at Columbus Square..? I remember the grocery store on the outside of the mall, kind of dimly. Funtown Junction was the Columbus Square arcade, at least in the 1970s. The Carver High Sweathogs skipped school there, hello Ricky Greer! Diamond Jim's was at Peachtree Mall. Columbus Square Card and Book Shop was near Penney's entrance., that was the book store next to Dr. Jive's Record City I was trying to remember! And B. Dalton's Bookseller later years at the main entrance, I think that became a Wendy's? There's still a Taco Casa in Panama City, maybe someone will bring it back here one day!

"Sam Nunn is tough, Sam Nunn is young, put Sam Nunn in Washington!" as his campaign jingle went.

Flip Side was the go-to place for getting music I had read about in the rock magazines & needed to study. The lovely lady there special ordered Elliott Murphy's "Aquashow" album for me, a record that in 40 years I still have only seen in stores like 3-4 times at the most since. Ricky Greer, where did you buy your Mott the Hoople albums? Got mine at Flip Side, right off the shelf they had them!

Sound Shop! Thank you Paul Freeman Jr. I have been trying to remember the names of those bums for years. In August 1975 I bought Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music out of there, brand new, because I was really getting into his Rock-N-Roll Animal album of the year before, which was and is truly classic r-n-r. Took MMM home and played side one. It was literally nothing but masses of guitar feedback shreeching, and gave me an incredible headache, I even got a slight pain just now remembering it. Took it back for a refund, pretty angry, and the smug clerk refused. The record is now considered, like Yoko Ono, to be great art & I'm glad I have the copy now, but I hated that store so much I boycotted it, & was happy to see them go under not long after that. True story!

I may still be pondering on the name of this ill-fated record shop, since the one I had the problem with was in the mall as of August 1975 (the month Metal Machine Music came out) and not long afterwards. This shop was located at the side entrance that came in beside the outside of Penny's, led to the entrance of Penny's. This place would be long gone by the 1980s. Camelot Music was already in the mall and would be there for years to come. The place you may be talking about was down by the Sears side, next to Spencers in the 1980s-90s?

Sound Shop was on the left hand side inside the mall as you would come out of Penney's... It might have even been one door down from that first store front but I am almost 100% positive Sound Shop was just outside Penney's on the left. Exactly where the record store I described was at, Paul Freeman Jr.- hard to believe that the same store I remember from August 1975 would have remained in business into the 1980s, though. Eitherthe Sound Shop did survive and I just put them out of my mind as part of my one-man boycott, or another shop may have opened there. 1975-1985 is only 10 years, after all... which seemed like a lifetime back then when I was a mere child.

I remember the Tapes-N-Things shop well also, although I usually found more of the records I wanted at Flip Side.

Cross Country Plaza had a nice feel when I was a kid, White's Book Store on the corner, then on down to Baskin Robbins for the tiny spoon of "Flavor of the day" sample, then on around to the Hickory Farms where they would give a little piece of the fantastic maple fudge to passing kids. Into W.T. Grants next to check out the latest in the toy world, and wonder about far-away Christmas morning. Great record and tape section at Grant's also. This was the tour made when my mother and grandmother were doing their thing in the dress shops or whatever.

And... so it went.