Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker William (class of 2021) and features an exhibition catalog documenting a 2015/2016 3-D sound installation featuring Lou Reed’s controversial 1975 album Metal Machine Music. Thanks, William!
Lou Reed, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation Of The Universe
This is Lou Reed, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe. Originally published in 2015 by the Cranbrook Art Museum, the collection contains essays on Lou Reed’s double album, Metal Machine Music as well as photos and reproductions of archival material. When Metal Machine Music was released in 1975, the overwhelming response to the album was that it was one of the worst albums ever made. In fact, many fans returned their copies of the album under the assumption that they had purchased a faulty copy, according to Christopher Scoates. Lou Reed said it had the “highest level of returns of any record ever released.”
Before Metal Music Machine, Reed’s reputation as a solo artist wasn’t great. His best work was with the Velvet Underground under the management of Andy Warhol. The group disbanded in the early seventies because of conflicts within, mostly caused by Reed, it seems. Though Reed could be dear, the subject matter of his work was always provocative, dealing heavily with drug abuse, sex and sexuality and violence. There is a certain nihilism about Reed’s work and persona that help make sense out of Metal Music Machine, but it was unlike anything else he produced and the state of mind it operated under wasn’t clear at the time. Rolling Stone journalist Anthony Decurtis said in his 2017 biography of Reed that Metal Music Machine is a “hymn to speed”, so it’s widely assumed Reed recorded the album during a methamphetamine binge, but certainly more went into it than that. In Socates essay it’s clear that Reed was obsessed with avant-garde and experimental composers, so it wasn’t as unexpected as it seemed.
In an interview, Reed said that he partly intended for the album to repel “all those f—king a—holes” who only wanted to hear his biggest hits like “Walk on the Wild Side” and hits he wrote with the Velvet Underground. It’s a giant “F—k you,'” wrote music critic Lester Bangs, and endures more as a statement than a good album — a statement to everyone and everything conventional, that is. Critics questioned if even Reed’s most devoted fans would follow him through the more than an hour long album of experimental guitar feedback and distortion, loops of high-pitched screeches and squeals and the occasional, distant melody behind the wall of noise. He recorded it alone in his Manhattan loft with a couple guitars and amps.
It’s really no wonder the music library doesn’t have a copy of Metal Machine Music. Most people don’t listen to the entire thing, they just fast forward to see if it becomes bearable, which it doesn’t, really. But what’s fascinating to me about the album is the acclaim is has received in the decades since its release and the influence attributed to it. The Creation of the Universe exhibit catalog recognizes this influence and helps the listener make meaning where there seemingly is none. Accompanying the essays are photographs and explanations of Reed’s notes from the album’s production, as well as photographs from concerts of Lou Reed and the Metal Machine Trio performing Metal Machine Music.