The Most Controversial Album Of All Time | Metal Machine Music

when people talk about controversial music and bands they typically go to punk groups like the sex pistols or rap groups like nwa and there is some reason for that the sex pistols nevermind the bollocks was released at a time where offensive material was just completely shut down due to the album's name many people were offended many record stores refused to stock the album with lots also censoring it and the police even got involved saying they faced prosecution for indecency nwa's straight hour compton was released at a time where rampant racism and police brutality was incredibly common and blatant in american society and because of this many people also had problems with this album with it taking an emphasis on being profane and violent specifically against the police in more than one occasion it's even told that during a concert the fbi demanded nwa to not perform [ __ ] the police due to its violent and riot-inducing lyrics these are two albums that had widespread media coverage but were pretty much praised as brilliant albums apart from those who were offended by their content but before we talk about what i personally believe is the most controversial album of all time let's talk about the context as this is really important to understanding the controversiality for those who are unfamiliar lou reed was a globally known artist who's both known for his huge amount of solo work but is also just as notable for his large contribution to the velvet underground this band was formed in 1964 and their debut self-titled album released in 1967 has since gone down as one of the most influential and recognizable rock albums of all time at the time though this wasn't the case at all and in fact the album was less criticized and more just ignored the album's content included some outlandish performances landing in genres like art rock and proto punk but the experimental nature of it is blatant from the start of the album on top of this the topics they decide to tackle were completely against the grain during the time of its release we might be very open and free to talk about what we want now but in 1967 talking about sadomasochism prostitution and the thrills of drugs was incredibly uncommon it's not just that most record labels wouldn't want to put this stuff out due to the controversy which could come from it but you'd be surprised by how tame the audience is during this period wanted their entertainment drugs always had to be painted as bad and detrimental to someone's health which of course has science to back it up but if you were to even talk about how drugs in fact make you feel good and alive you were pretty much asking to be thrown in hot water it just so happens that lou reed was the primary songwriter on this album taking inspiration from a broader range of media than your typical rock musician for example the lyrics in the song venus and furs were heavily inspired by a book of the same name as well as dedicating the song european son to writer delmore schwartz the topics were controversial but it was undeniable that these artists and more prominently lou reed wasn't just doing it for the hell of it he had something to say and turned it into art underground released four more albums however the final one squeeze featured none of the original members loaded was reid's final album with the band leaving in 1970 however only two years later he re-emerged performing as a solo act most of the content on this first album was simply unreleased material from the velvet underground and was pretty much a commercial failure but it was his second album transformer that launched reed's career to heights it had never been before transformer is another album you'll always see floating around any greatest albums of all time list his songwriting on this album is some of the most compelling and brilliant in his entire career with songs like vicious satellite of love perfect day and walk on the wild side being immediate classics the album was produced solely by david bowie and mick ronson which i think is a large part of why it's so excellent bowie had been a fan of reed's music going back to the velvet underground citing them as an inspiration on his album hunky dory despite all his unique and interesting output reid still hadn't garnered mainstream success or appeal which would obviously change with bowie's name now being attached to the project it's important to note that despite this being reid's second album he was still very much in the mindset of making music akin to his underground days with four of the songs on this album once again coming from unreleased material if there's one thing that lou reed's been praised for throughout his entire career it's his lyricism and storytelling which was even more blatant on his next album berlin released in 1973. this was a concept album about partners jim and caroline once again touching on themes like drug addiction and prostitution while this time also focusing on domestic abuse and mental health the music was very much still in line with the consistent art rock sound which he'd adopted throughout his career but the subject matter is some of the bleakest i've seen it's not just the subject matter though but how it's delivered there's such a numbness and attachedness to read singing really setting in this downward depressive tone and once again fans and critics weren't receptive despite the commercial success and acclaim towards transformer people once again didn't seem to understand where reed was coming from with a lot of reviews appearing mixed and rolling stone claiming it was a disaster of course reviews on more unconventional albums like this should always be taken with a grain of salt with berlin now also being seen as one of the greatest albums ever made one live album later and we arrive at sally can't dance in 1974. this album is particularly important when discussing what i believe is his most controversial album as it most prominently shows reed's increasing disillusionment to the music industry now this album isn't terrible but clearly lacks some of the impact from his previous albums it's been well documented by reed himself and those who worked around him that his involvement on this album was much less according to steve katz the producer of this album reed spent most of the time in the bathroom injecting methadrone and had to be propped up like a baby and have things done for him and around him reed himself described the production process just as negatively saying they'd make a suggestion and i'd just say oh alright i'd do vocals in one take in 20 minutes and then it was goodbye it was produced in the slimiest way possible despite this it was reed's biggest album up to this point still being his highest charting album in the us landing at number 10 fans were responsive to the album and even more people were getting introduced to his music although reviews at the time were once again mixed but this time had genuine undeniable criticisms in relation to the songwriting and production before we touch on what i believe is the most outlandish and controversial album of all time i think these two interviews are excellent in showing where reid's mindset was at you said a little while ago that you sing mainly about drugs is that right sometimes why do you do this because i think the government's plotting against me but why do you say that um the next big act coming into australia is marlene dietrich well we have life in simon yeah well she's still singing do you think you'll be doing heroin at the age of 75 like her no you are not i don't believe you well i'm stopping so you look a lot younger yeah what's your sign uh no who's that i don't know what do you know uh doesn't travel with you sure you don't it was clear that the corporate side of the music industry had wormed its way into reid's creative process and as a result he started lashing out listen i read in one interview there's so many don't believe what you're reading no i don't but is it true is it true that you uh wrote sonic can't dance in the studio if they say so i guess but did you i wasn't there you were there no it wasn't dougie did it are you happier as a brunette uh are you happier as a schmuck i'm like schmidt i'm not you were blonde last time though no i wasn't you were it was a bleached one a bleached blonde trashy you looked younger as a boy well you look older i'm not a blonder i know it's worse he was always known for his standoffish approach especially towards interviews but it's in these clips where it's incredibly prominent you've got these interviewers asking ridiculous and unrelated questions well you sing a lot about transvestites and sadomasochism um how would you describe yourself in the light of these songs what does that have to do with me well could i put it bluntly in pardon the question are you a transvestite or a homosexual sometimes which one i don't know what's the difference when reed would rather talk about his music or just not do it at all so he basically just messes around with them the entire time why do you think your music is so popular though i didn't know it was popular we've had two sellouts in sydney before you've even come here so it is popular apparently i only know that it said in your release that we were given this morning that you like lying to the press uh why is this now you're doing it now i didn't say that the release did you tend to keep to yourself no why are you attending this one they're telling me to come in here just part of showbiz is it is it necessary i didn't i'm not in show business you're not in the entertainment then the entertainment game no do you do everything people tell you too sometimes just think about that for a second you've got a certified rock star being interviewed and he couldn't care less about appearing likeable or nice you would never see this kind of stuff nowadays because people are so scared about being cancelled or being popular he proves that everything he does is for the art alone not the money or a claim and then we finally land at 1975's metal machine music the most bizarre output from any established artist i've ever seen i obviously can't play the tracks here but if you need reminding just listen to tracks like walk on the wild side and satellite of love and then listen to the first 10 seconds of metal machine this is why the context is so important and specifically the run-up to the album's release reed was being pushed around being forced to make albums and forced into interviews so when it came time to make a new one it was basically one big [ __ ] you to everyone the listeners reviewers and the record label as you can probably assume this album received overwhelming disdain from all parties being described as a two-disc set consisting of nothing more than ear wrecking electronic sludge and in many ways that's exactly what this album is and yes you may roll your eyes when i say this but i love this album and think it's an engaging listen from start to finish the thing you've got to realize is that this album's not just pure distortion is it a piss take probably is it a statement most definitely but there's certain motifs which crop up throughout the over hour length that make the album incredibly intriguing reid didn't just put a guitar against an amp and let it run for that long bob ludwig mastered and engineered the album and just to give some reference ludwig has won over 12 grammys and has contributed to albums like darth punk's random access memories and radio heads in rainbows these musicians knew exactly what they were doing and in turn both created something incredibly polarizing but also helped establish genres like ambien with briony knows music for airports coming a few years later almost definitely being inspired by these kinds of albums it would primarily be described as noise or drone music and i think the only problem this album had was the audience it was being released for everybody hated it because they once again weren't used to this sound and wouldn't ever want to sit through it it's a nightmare to sit through but it depends on your tastes whether it'll be a nightmare that you want to turn off because it hurts your ears or one that will completely immerse you in its dark and desolate sound the funniest and most twisted part of this album is arguably the ending which on the original vinyl had a locked groove which essentially meant that the album would just keep running and running until you turned it off you could quite literally immerse yourself in the atmosphere forever if you wanted to i think everything about this album is pretty disturbing you might laugh at the noise in the daytime but listen at night and i think you'll get a little more freaked out than you'd expect and pair that up with the various images within the vinyl some of which appear like live performances but others appearing incredibly distorted and bizarre like this close-up shot of reed with his eyes appearing distant and shadowy his face appearing grainy and distorted just like the album itself the reason this was so controversial was because at the time it was essentially lou reed setting fire to his career and legacy it's not just that some people never looked at him the same way after this album but it was of course his biggest commercial failure not one segment of the album could be played on radio and it quickly became one of the most returned albums of all time most likely with a lot of people thinking the album was actually broken as opposed to just sounding naturally distorted this quickly led to his record label rca taking it off the shelves three weeks later making the original album presses considerably rare the only thing is this could have been avoided lou reed mentioned he had the president of rca records in his corner but the plan was to release the album as a classical record but somewhere along the line they just decided to release it as a rock and roll album instead perhaps thinking they'll get more money that way more than anything i think this exposed so many people for being closed-minded which is still prevalent today you and i have no idea how many people this might have influenced but the fact this is out there is a win in my book just look to artists like david bowie in his toy album which was actively rejected from virgin records and has only been released posthumously i think every answer is right with this album in relation to how reed wanted people to feel about it it could have been made to intrigue to disturb or to downright infuriate those who bought it and that's why i think it's not just one of the most controversial albums of all time but also one of the most influential it teaches people not to stay complicit with what they're being told to not bow down to anyone's requests and to experiment and be creative reed describes himself as being lucky when managing to release the album coney island baby the following year an album that was much more reminiscent of his previous work as apparently nobody wanted to go anywhere near a studio with him after metal machine and for a large part of his career it seemed that metal machine was a thing of the past an experiment that he did to polarize and potentially get out of a contract but i think it's no mistake that some of reid's final work stayed much more in line with the sounds of metal machine which makes sense considering how one typically becomes much more reflective at the end of their life lou reed died in 2013 but released hudson river wind meditations in 2007 being his final solo album this was another album filled with ambient sound but was much more calming due to it being created directly in association with his increasing focus on meditation and tai chi he also created the creation of the universe with the metal machine trio in 2008 and then his final album lulu which was a collaboration between himself and metallica got quite a similar reaction to when metal machine was released people hated lulu with a passion because fans of metallica most likely don't like lou reed and lou reed fans almost definitely don't like metallica it's not a noise or ambient album but is more avant-garde metal and despite liking the album myself i think metallica's inclusion does occasionally hinder the experience amazingly with reed actually fitting better on these tracks than james hetfield so there we have it the most controversial album of all time i think the lengthy liner notes of this album sum up very well what the intention was behind this album with a retaliation definitely being a big part of it but actual musical experimentation and creativity also playing a large part passion realism realism was the key the records were letters real letters from me to certain other people who had and still have basically no music be it verbal or instrumental to listen to one of the peripheral effects typically distorted was what was to be known as heavy metal rock in reality it was of course diffuse obtuse weak boring and ultimately an embarrassment this record is not for parties dancing background romance this is what i meant by real rock about real things no one i know has listened to it all the way through including myself it's not meant to be start any place you like symmetry mathematical precision obsessive and detailed accuracy and the vast advantage one has over modern electronic composers they with neither sense of time melody or emotion manipulated or no it's for a certain time and place of mind it's the only recorded work i know of seriously done as well as a possible gift if one could call it that from a part of a certain head to a few others most of you won't like this and i don't blame you at all it's not meant for you at the very least i made it so i had something to listen to certainly misunderstood power to consume how pathetic an idea done respectfully intelligently sympathetically and graciously always with concentration on the first and foremost goal for that matter off the record i love and adore it i'm sorry but not especially if it turns you off one record for us and it i'd harboured hope that the intelligence that once inhabited novels or films would ingest rock i was perhaps wrong this is the reason sally can't dance your rock and roll animal more than a decent try but hard for us to do badly wrong media unquestionably this is not meant for the market the agreement one makes with speed a specific acknowledgement a to say the least very limited market rock and roll animal makes this possible funnily enough the misrepresentation succeeds to the point of making possible the appearance of the progenitor for those for whom the needle is no more than a toothbrush professionals no sniffers please don't confuse superiority no competition with violence power or the justifications the tacit speed agreement with self we did not start world war one two or three or the bay of pigs for that matter as way of disclaimer i'm forced to say that due to stimulation of various centers remember om etc the possible negative contradictions must be pointed out a record has to of all things anyway hypertense people etc possibility of epilepsy petite mal psychic motor disorders etc etc etc my week beats your year

Channel: Munt Chunk

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Keywords: lou reed, metal machine music, lou reed metal machine, metal machine controversy, metal machine live, metal machine music live, most controversial album of all time, the darkest album of all time, noise music, who created noise music, lou reed ambient music, the most controversial album of all time

Id: tSHU5L403vw

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 19 2022