Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
none
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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...
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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'.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant
This album could have been so bad. Take two ex-band members who continually fall out with one another and get them to pen a song cycle about the life, art and death of their late... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by John Rafferty
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 on 8 Dec 2007 by cathy earnshaw
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 best. Read more
Published on 6 April 2001 by Pieter
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
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
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
