Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music

As always with geniuses, it’s a fine line between sheer wonderment and utter chaos and this fits in perfectly; from the back story, to the cover, to the equal song lengths, and of course to the music contained within. For it IS music; for all of it being visceral, brutal and numbing, it’s also ethereal, cathartic and beautiful. All the best music gets a reaction, provokes emotions, and encourages conversation and debate. And this wins.
And , the best response when you play it to someone and they say “but I could do that”….is;
“But you haven’t, have you”

Bob Ludwig had to sit through this to master it. God help him.

Perfect for freaking out the cats. Works on people too.

I finding a used copy when I was a kid thinking oh boy this is great just to have found a sort of "rare" album at the time. That excitement was quickly replaced by the harsh reality that no matter how rare (obviously it isn't that rare), any real or imagined novelty does not change the fact that this album simply does not provide an enjoyable listening experience.

I saw Lou Reed perform this live once and when it was over everyone yelled “encore!”, and he came back through the curtain and sjdjdjsjajjdnrrrrrrrereeddfffdrereesddddnsnsnrrnfmdmfmmdkdmrmemmsmsmdmmdmddndjjfdjdjjdjsjdjjrrrrrrr

The photos are not orange. They look like the other entries.

One very cold lysergic November night sometime in the mid-1980s, a friend had found a copy of this, I seem to it was a Japanese import in a thin paper non-gatefold sleeve... The evening in question featured listening to this on a belt drive turntable that was dying, it would play quite normally then slow down and stop... And then sort of randomly start up again and play for a while at the correct speed... This was all happening in the background of putting up a set of outdoor Christmas lights in the middle of the night 😮 well, just because I guess... When the album was slowing down due to the defective turntable, it was clear that what had been recorded had been sped up quite a bit for the final recording. Parts of it were obviously low tuned guitar , as if Lou propped up a regular tuned guitar or bass against an amplifier and let it sustain, then layered these sounds on top of each other and sped the entire thing up. There's actually eight sides to this record if you consider each channel of the stereo version is a completely different track, the liner notes do indicate "strict stereo separation". As big a "fuck you" gesture as the record may have been, Lou must have spent a fair amount of time putting it together, whether as a serious electronic composition, or under the influence of amphetamines, who knows... Probably a little from column A and a little from column B regarding his intent there... I have not had the time nor the inclination to try to pick my 70s LP apart via the pitch controls on my Technics or via something like Audacity, but there's quite a lot going on in these grooves. As a side note, when we had a free form radio show on a local FM station, around the time that Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" came out, we would play an early Beach Boys song on one turntable and part of this LP at the same time over it... A fair approximation of the early Jesus and Mary Chain! The 8track of this would be a certain type of hellish eternity... I mean it would just never stop, right??? Even better than the locked groove on side 4 of the vinyl copy... Happy I own a copy but can't say I have ever felt any desire to pull it off the shelf and play it anytime in the last 20-30 years.

UPDATE: There WAS a Japanese edition of this on vinyl, probably mid-80s, in a single non gatefold thin paper sleeve. I reached out to my friend that owns it and if he gets back to me with pictures, matrix , ETC I will make sure it gets listed here on Discogs!

I... Love... This... Album.

I want this played at my wedding.

its like merzbow but actually good "At least 10 words"

Try to find a copy that's not a cut out. Because that's a rare copy. Even if you don't understand it, you should own and play this record daily.