I'm just looking for a very good friend of mine...
Lou Reed releases the 31 track, 2 CD, career-spanning retrospective NYC Man - The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection on BMG Heritage on Monday.
Throughout much of January this year, Lou oversaw the remastering of NYC Man, and selected the content, choosing from over 150 source tapes, (masters, multi-tracks, reference copies) making this by far the highest quality sounding collection of his work.
But, rather than sequencing the album chronologically, Lou decided to organise the compilation sonically, juxtaposing the songs by how they sound next to each other.
Indeed, NYC Man begins with Who Am I, in an unreleased alternate take to the version that appears on The Raven, and ends with the 1969 Velvet Underground recording of Pale Blue Eyes.
Now, in a BowieNet exclusive, Lou talks to our friend Jerome Soligny about working with David on The Raven and Transformer. Over to you Jerome...
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The New York City man about David Bowie
A few weeks ago, despite the SARS paranoia and the fact of being a peaceful French guy when American soldiers were storming the desert, I flew to NY to interview Lou Reed. The purpose of my visit in his Sister Ray Office was the reissue of all his RCA period albums and a great compilation coming out next week, ?NYC Man?, that Lou Reed handled himself, obviously choosing the songs but also taking much care of the sound.
I spent little more than an hour with Lou I had already met him before (at la Fondation Cartier near Paris, when the Velvets got back together - he didn?t remember). I really enjoyed the chat (he?s obviously one of my heroes) and we ended up doing some pictures with Bob Gruen, another privilege.
Jerome Soligny with the "King of New York", Lou Reed. Picture by Bob Gruen.
Just because I thought BowieNetters would be interested in knowing what Lou told me about David Bowie, ?Transformer? and ?The Raven?, here are, a few days before the whole feature in Rock&Folk, his exact words. Enjoy.
?You know, David?s on my Raven album. I asked David if he would do this thing with me, he lives here... People don?t realise we?ve been friends for a very long time. I played him some of the songs and he picked ?Hop Frog?. that?s the one he wanted to sing. Who knows why? I was happy he was gonna do anything. So he came and did it.
I was very pleased, I like what David does. Specially when he?s doing background vocals and starts singing up high, I like that. I love what he did on ?Transformer?, that?s why it came out that way.
What Mick Ronson did, the strings for example were also pretty good for a little guy from Hull... He was a talented guy... Which was amazing cause you could not understand a word when he was talking. It was impossible. But David?s really good. It was fun to have him do these background vocals because it?s really got a sound to it when he sings them.?
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Thanx so much for sharing that with us Jerome, most generous of you. NYC Man - The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection is a great starting place for those of you not already familiar with Lou's work, and it's also a damn fine compilation for those of us that know and love the man's work, as evidenced by this tracklisting:
Disc 1
01. Who Am I
02. Sweet Jane
03. Rock & Roll
04. I'm Waiting For The Man
05. White Light/White Heat
06. Street Hassle
07. Berlin
08. Caroline Says
09. The Kids
10. Walk On The Wild Side
11. Kill Your Sons
12. Vicious
13. The Blue Mask
14. I'll Be Your Mirror
15. Magic and Loss
16. Ecstasy
Disc 2
01. I Wanna Be Black
02. Temporary Thing
03. Shooting Star
04. Legendary Hearts
05. Heroin
06. Coney Island Baby
07. The Last Shot
08. The Bells
09. Perfect Day
10. Sally Can't Dance
11. Satellite Of Love
12. NYC Man
13. Dirty Boulevard
14. Rock Minuet
15. Pale Blue Eyes
Pretty impressive stuff. Off the top of my head, the 8 tracks in bold have some sort of Bowie connection, to a lesser or greater degree. The first person out of the hat to mail me with the connections will get a suitably Lou flavoured prize for their efforts. Usual rules apply, and the winner will be announced this time next week.