Lou Reed and Metallica record an album together

[Boogdish]

I understand Dolly Parton is going to record an album with Anthrax.

Yeah, but it's not going to be as good as the Amebix/Ringo Starr album coming out next spring.

[Trembling Eagle]

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/sound-check/Content?oid=10566172

Q: What is GWAR's opinion of the latest Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration?

A: Well, I'm glad that Lou has got some junk money. There's really nothing you can do for Metallica to resurrect them. I don't know why they feel this need to go out there and embarrass themselves by doing stupid fucking projects. It was bad enough when they did a movie about their therapists. But to resurrect an elderly junkie has about as much to do with Metallica as Liberace does. I hate it. A lot. But Metallica will always be a classic, amazing band. They destroy it live. They can keep making movies about therapists and doing duets with Marianne Faithfull or Lou Reed, or whoever they want to bring back from the dead—they still shred live. And they'll always be one of my favorite bands.

[masterofsparks]

I understand Dolly Parton is going to record an album with Anthrax.

I'm co-producing it with Mark Dodson.

I understand they'll be going a step further than Loutallica by actually mashing existing songs together. I can't wait for "I'm the Man (In the Coat of Many Colors)."

[nec13]

I wished they actually called the project "Loutallica".

I remember reading "Transformer" by Victor Bockris years ago.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to find out that my musical hero was such a dick.  Although I think the writer kind of had it in for him.

Really? I think Lou Reed is just an asshole.

I've never read the Bockris book, but I have read the Lester Bangs/Lou Reed interviews and they told me all I needed to know about the guy. He's belligerent and condescending, and completely unrepentant about it.

[cavorting with nudists]

Oh, he is a complete asshole.  And don't bother wondering whether he nicened up when he got older or got sober.  At least in the Bangs interviews he had the excuse of being null and void on junk, speed, and booze, and you can't say Bangs wasn't provoking him.  (Bockris is kind of a scene-making worm himself though--researches sloppily and writes trashy books that seem to accept any gossipy tidbit no matter how dubiously sourced.)

Weirdly enough though, given Lou's legendary assholery, I once sat in Jimmy's Bar near Times Square listening to two dudes talking next to me.  One said he was a recording engineer, working with Lou Reed on what later turned out to be Ecstasy.  This guy said Lou was a really nice guy, fun to work for.  That one day, Lou came in to the studio and announced that he didn't feel like working, he felt like going to Coney Island.  So the band and the whole recording crew spent the day eating Nathan's and sitting in the sun at Coney Island, all on the clock!  What a guy!

[masterofsparks]

I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall someone who used to post on this board mentioning that he was once Lou Reed's personal assistant.

[cutout]

It's hypocritical but no matter how many stories I read about Mark E Smith's assholery, it only makes me like him more somehow, in situations where I would never give someone like Lou Reed the benefit of the doubt.

[cavorting with nudists]

I have a simple method for this kind of thing: If I dislike the artist, I always believe the worst.  If I like the artist, I believe the worst but try to make it out to be cool somehow.

[cutout]

I think I subscribe to that. But I also add a dash of, "if he/she is British and from some dreary town, I will make exceptions"

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall someone who used to post on this board mentioning that he was once Lou Reed's personal assistant.

Once FOT Steve Lambert told me about a friend of his that interviewed to be Lou's assistant, and according to his friend there were all kinds of crazy stipulations, like "must have a thick skin" and "must accept calls at all hours." Take that with however many grains of salt, obviously. Unless you're thinking of someone else.

[nec13]

It's hypocritical but no matter how many stories I read about Mark E Smith's assholery, it only makes me like him more somehow, in situations where I would never give someone like Lou Reed the benefit of the doubt.

Me too.

The difference between Mark E. Smith and Lou Reed, IMO, is that the former doesn't seem to take to himself too seriously. Lou Reed, however, definitely takes himself way too seriously.

At least that's what I think.

[cavorting with nudists]

I knew somebody who knew one of Lou's personal assistants during the 90's.  According to him a typical morning call would go like this:

(phone rings) (assistant answers) "Hello?"

(angry, snarling voice on other end of line) "Bagels." (click)

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I'd love an angry Lou Reed food orders soundboard.

I also find Mark E. Smith more forgivable because he never had a top 40 radio hit. But to be honest I'd avoid both of them at all costs.

[daveB from Oakland]

"It's not a good idea, what they did." -- Howard Kremer

[cutout]