Songs for Drella

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Songs for Drella
Studio album by John Cale & Lou Reed

Publication
(s)

1990

Label (s) Sire Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Rock, art rock

Title (number)

15th

running time

52:54

occupation
  • Singing / keyboards / viola: John Cale
  • Singing / guitar: Lou Reed

production

John Cale & Lou Reed

Studio (s)

Sigma Sound, New York

Songs for Drella is a tribute in the form of a music album by Lou Reed and John Cale to the life and work of Andy Warhol , the most important representative of American Pop Art . The album was released in 1990 on the music label Sire Records .

History and background

Lou Reed
John Cale

The American singer and guitarist Lou Reed and from Wales Dating, classically trained violist and pianist John Cale had in 1965 together with Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison , the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground founded. Andy Warhol, who was just looking for a band for his newly founded club Andy Warhol's Up and was enthusiastic about the unusual band, accepted the musician and became its sponsor and mentor . The band was part of Warhol's studio complex Factory in 1966 and 1967, and Warhol played a key role in promoting the group's career as a manager and producer . So he integrated them as a draft horse in his provocative performance shows . He also designed the cover for her famous debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico with the banana (which can be screen printed in the first edition ).

As early as 1968 there was a dispute between Cale and Reed. Cale left The Velvet Underground and the two creative and sound-shaping heads of the band were not to maintain contact with each other for a long time. Only on the occasion of the memorial service after Warhol's death in St. Patrick's Cathedral on April 1, 1987, Cale and Reed spoke to each other again, and at the suggestion of the painter Julian Schnabel , they started working together on Songs for Drella . On January 8, 1989, a first performance of the almost complete set of the later album took place in the Church of St. Anne's in Brooklyn . Filmmaker Edward Lachman filmed a later published live performance of the work on December 4 and 5, 1989 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music . In the following two months, the studio recordings for the album Songs for Drella took place at Sigma Sound Studio in New York City . It was released in 1990 on Sire Records .

The joint work of Cale and Reed on the album resulted in a short-term reunion of Velvet Underground in 1993, even if this should not last long. The irreconcilable differences between the two eccentric artists ultimately led to the break again.

The nickname "Drella" for Andy Warhol comes from Warhol's "superstar" Ondine . He is a combination of Dracula and Cinderella .

Music genre

Decisive for the mood of Songs for Drella is the reduction to vocals, keyboard instruments, viola and guitars - it is, so to speak, minimalist, repetitive rock music. The stylistic spectrum ranges from echoes of minimal music (for example the first track on the album Small Town ) to songwriters - ballads and spoken word compositions (like the longest track A Dream ).

Track list

Andy Warhol

Lou Reed describes the album as follows in an attached booklet: “ Songs for Drella - A Fiction. Is a brief musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and is entirely fictitious. " ( " Songs for Drella - An Invention. Is a brief musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and completely made up. " )

He also gives brief explanations of the pieces:

  1. Smalltown - 2:03 (Describes Warhol's youth as an outsider in a "small town" and his escape to New York. [ "There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh ." ])
  2. Open House - 4:16 (Warhol, who was of Czechoslovak origin, used the “Czechoslovak custom of the unlocked door” in his apartment and the factory .)
  3. Style it Takes - 2:54 (Warhol recognizes the "importance of style" and money in the art scene ...)
  4. Work - 2:36 (... and follows his own "work" ethics, which he passes on to his students [ "Work, the most important thing is work." ]).
  5. Trouble with Classicists - 3:40 (Warhol's split relationship and his "anger with the classics" of art.)
  6. Starlight - 3:26 (Warhol's attempts as an avant-garde filmmaker. [ "We're all improvising, five movies in a week ..." ])
  7. Faces and Names - 4:11 (Warhol's wish that all people have the same "faces and names" leads to ...)
  8. Images - 3:28 (... concept of the serial reproduction of his "pictures" as an important characteristic of Warhol's work. [ "I think images are worth repeating." ])
  9. Slip Away (A Warning) - 3:04 (Warhol is warned of his “custom of the unlocked door”, but he refuses to live in fear so as not to lose his creativity. [ “If I have to live in fear my ideas will slowly slip away. " ])
  10. It Wasn't Me - 3:29 (Warhol is blamed for numerous deaths in and around the Factory and he defends himself against allegations that he was responsible.)
  11. I Believe - 3:17 (The consequences of the attack on Warhol by Valerie Solanas in 1968 lead to Warhol's isolation and ...)
  12. Nobody But You - 3:44 (... change his relationships.)
  13. A Dream - 6:33 ("A Dream" is based on Warhol's posthumously published diary entries.)
  14. Forever Changed - 4:49 (Warhol's travels around the world "changed him forever".)
  15. Hello It's Me - 3:03 (Lou Reed's farewell and expression of regret over his behavior towards Warhol up to the death of his mentor as a result of biliary surgery. [ "But when I saw you last I turned away." ])

Complete compositions: John Cale / Lou Reed

reception

The album received generally benevolent to good reviews.

Robert Christgau wrote: “Lousy background music - absorb it over three or four plays, then read along once and file it away like a good novel. But like the novel it will repay your attention in six months, or 10 years. ” ( “ Miserable background music - absorb it when you play it three or four times, read it again and put it on the shelf like a good novel. But like a good novel, you will be reminded of it in six months, or ten years. " )

Paul Evans wrote in Rolling Stone : “This isn't a blockbuster like Reed's New York or Cale's Paris 1919, but it's a shining, tense merger of visions.” ( “It's not a blockbuster like Reeds New York or Cales Paris 1919 , but it's a glowing, tense amalgamation of visions. " )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andy Warhol And The Dom (accessed April 30, 2012)
  2. ↑ werksman.home ( accessed April 30, 2012, English)
  3. ↑ werksman.home ( accessed April 30, 2012, English)
  4. ↑ Songs for Drella on imdb.com (accessed April 30, 2012)
  5. ↑ Text booklet of the album
  6. ↑ Robert Christgau on robertchristgau.com ( accessed on May 3, 2012)
  7. ^ Paul Evans on rollingstone.com (accessed May 3, 2012)

Web links