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Songs for Drella
 
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Songs for Drella

~ ,, Lou Reed, John Cale
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
Price: £4.98 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Songs for Drella + New York + Magic and Loss
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  • This item: Songs for Drella ~ Lou Reed & John Cale

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    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
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  • New York ~ Lou Reed

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Product details

  • Audio CD (23 April 1990)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Warner
  • ASIN: B000002LKS
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,365 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Smalltown
2. Open House
3. Style It Takes
4. Work
5. Trouble With Classicists
6. Starlight
7. Faces And Names
8. Images
9. Slip Away (A Warning)
10. It Wasn't Me
11. I Believe
12. Nobody But You
13. Dream
14. Forever Changed
15. Hello It's Me

Product Description

CD Description
Andy Warhol may not have created the Velvet Underground as both he and some history books like to claim, but he certainly used his cache to put them on the map back in the days ofpeace and love, when the band's dark vision was a cultural anomaly. After his passing, the erstwhile Velvet think tank of Reed and Cale reconvened for the first time since WHITE LIGHT WHITE HEAT to write, perform and record SONGS FOR DRELLA, a conceptual suite of songs that paid tribute to the lifeand work of Warhol, the man for whom the term "pop art" wascreated. No other musicians were included here, as the focus was squarely on the pair's lyrics. Skeletal guitar and keyboard accompaniment proved to be enough for these tunes, which merged artsong with Reed and Cale's distinctive avant-rock style. While occasionally clunky, the songs are effectively moving, providing a fitting tribute to Warhol, a unique, unconventional artist (a tag also easily applied to SONGS FORDRELLA's principals).

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Elegy to Warhol, 24 Aug 2003
By Jason Parkes "We're all Frankies'" (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
Songs for Drella (1990) remains a highlight in both Cale and Reed's lengthy careers- it forms part of Reed's strongest trilogy of albums since the Velvets demise (the others being New York, 1988 & Magic&Loss, 1992) Reed & Cale had infamously fallen out when in The Velvet Underground & had not worked together since- this collaboration, along with Moe Tucker's contribution to New York, would lead to the VU temporarily reforming (the resulting live album containing some wonderful takes on classics like Beginning to See the Light & Femme Fatale). Songs for Drella is one based around a limited musical soundscape (Reed on Vocals/Guitar; Cale on keyboards/vocals/viola) & one that has a sense of improvisation. It was a work primarily written for performance- like Tom Waits recent Alice/Blood Money setz- so perhaps some of the songs are more theatrical than melodic; but I like the whole journey around a fictional take on Warhol's life from people who were once close to him...(the final track on New York leads here...)

The tracks with Cale on lead vocals stand out- Style It Takes (wonderfully performed on Fragments for a Rainy Season),Trouble with Classicists (great guitar from Reed), A Dream & (especially) Forever Changed stand out. Reed also gets to sing some great songs- the amusing Smalltown, the ethos of Work (up there with There is No Time), the spleen-venting I Believe (Valerie Solanis surfacing...) & especially the touching Hello It's Me- which shows that its possible to continue discourse with the dead: "I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know/Hello it's me- goodnight Andy.../Goodbye Andy"-

Songs for Drella is a more experimental/improvisational work- unlike albums like White Light/White Heat, Berlin, & Paris 1919 which all sounded crafted and meticulously arranged. Songs for Drella isn't as quite out there as Cale's work with Eno&Nico or Reed's recent The Raven (or Metal Machine Music for that matter...)- it looks back not only at Warhol, but a now mythic period of cultural history. It also warrants its recent inclusion in Paul Morley's series of lists that conclude his book 'Words&Music'; one of the highlights of the 1990s...

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars a must-have for all serious VU fans, 10 Dec 2000
By A Customer
Something of an oddity, this is largely a lyrically-driven album - some of the tracks feel more like poetry with musical backing than actual songs. Most of the time this works, but in places it gets a bit shakey. That said, there are several tracks of absolute genius that make this album a must-have for all serious VU fans. My favourites are 'a dream', which is a hauntingly beautiful interior monologue read by John Cale (that voice!) to a marvellous ambient backing track, and 'forever changed', which features an awesome, driving piano-riff (reminiscent of 'all tomorrow's parties', but more angular) and some lovely, harsh guitar work from Lou Reed. Other stand-out tracks are 'trouble with classicists', 'slip away' and 'hello it's me'.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely gorgeous, 15 Nov 1999
By A Customer
their styles are so opposite (Reed so confrontational and frank, Cale much gentler and more evasive) that they are perfect foils for one another, creating this nearly perfect whole. It's so wordy, so concept heavy and referrential - yet absolutely without elitism or art-snobbery. You don't have to know anything about Warhol to love this album - though it helps. More than once I have found myself in tears somewhere between "slip away" and "dream"... but "smalltown", "trouble with classicists" and "work" are pure joy, bewilderingly funny. I can't say enough about it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Starkly confessional songs in this homage to Andy Warhol
Songs for Drella is a concept album written and performed by Lou Reed and John Cale in the wake of the death of their early mentor, cult pop-artist Andy Warhol (Drella was a... Read more
Published 19 months ago by cathy earnshaw

3.0 out of 5 stars LUKEWARM
Cale & Reed being amongst my favourite artists of all time, it grieves me to report that I do not consider Drella to be amongst their... Read more
Published on 6 April 2001 by Pieter

5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely gorgeous
their styles are so opposite (Reed so confrontational and frank, Cale much gentler and more evasive) that they are perfect foils for one another, creating this nearly perfect... Read more
Published on 15 Nov 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting tribute to Andy Warhol
"Songs For Drella" is one of the best albums released by either Lou Reed or John Cale - considering their history, that's saying something. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 1999

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