{"id":2226,"date":"2019-11-26T17:38:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T17:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=2226"},"modified":"2019-11-26T17:38:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T17:38:25","slug":"arachnophonia-lou-reed-metal-machine-trio-the-creation-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2019\/11\/arachnophonia-lou-reed-metal-machine-trio-the-creation-of-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: “Lou Reed, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> 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<\/strong><\/a>. Thanks, William!<\/em><\/p>\n

Lou Reed, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation Of The Universe<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Lou<\/p>\n

This is Lou Reed, Metal Machine Trio: The Creation of the Universe<\/a><\/em>. Originally published in 2015 by the Cranbrook Art Museum<\/a>, the collection contains essays on Lou Reed\u2019s double album, Metal Machine Music<\/a><\/em> as well as photos and reproductions of archival material. When Metal Machine Music<\/a><\/em> 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<\/a>. Lou Reed said it had the \u201chighest level of returns of any record ever released.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Lou<\/p>\n

Before Metal Music Machine<\/em>, Reed\u2019s reputation as a solo artist wasn\u2019t great. His best work was with the Velvet Underground<\/a> under the management of Andy Warhol<\/a>. 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\u2019s work and persona that help make sense out of Metal Music Machine<\/em>, but it was unlike anything else he produced and the state of mind it operated under wasn\u2019t clear at the time. Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em> journalist Anthony Decurtis <\/a>said in his 2017 biography of Reed that Metal Music Machine<\/em> is a \u201chymn to speed\u201d, so it\u2019s widely assumed Reed recorded the album during a methamphetamine binge, but certainly more went into it than that. In Socates essay it\u2019s clear that Reed was obsessed with avant-garde and experimental composers, so it wasn\u2019t as unexpected as it seemed. <\/p>\n

In an interview, Reed said that he partly intended for the album to repel \u201call those f\u2014king a\u2014holes\u201d who only wanted to hear his biggest hits like \u201cWalk on the Wild Side<\/a>\u201d and hits he wrote with the Velvet Underground<\/a>. It\u2019s a giant \u201cF\u2014k you,'” wrote music critic Lester Bangs<\/a>, and endures more as a statement than a good album \u2014 a statement to everyone and everything conventional, that is. Critics questioned if even Reed\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s really no wonder the music library doesn\u2019t have a copy of Metal Machine Music<\/em>. Most people don\u2019t listen to the entire thing, they just fast forward to see if it becomes bearable, which it doesn\u2019t, really. But what\u2019s 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<\/a><\/em> 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\u2019s notes from the album\u2019s production, as well as photographs from concerts of Lou Reed and the Metal Machine Trio<\/a> performing Metal Machine Music<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s 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\u2018s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61217,15223,15236],"tags":[61217,93078,93080,93079,15236,93083,93077,93082,93081,37978,35898],"class_list":["post-2226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arachnophonia","category-collection","category-guest-post","tag-arachnophonia","tag-cranbrook-art-museum","tag-exhibition-catalog","tag-exhibitions","tag-guest-post","tag-improvised-noise-music","tag-lou-reed","tag-metal-machine-music","tag-sound-installation","tag-student-workers","tag-students"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgMV3E-zU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}