Mr. Reed; Mr. Marriott

Baby Boomer Classics: Electric Sixties

Found, on a various artist album, two songs

one by the Velvet Underground (Lou Reed)

and one by the Humble Pie (Steve Marriott)

Two artists of the 60's & 70's back to back on an actual CD?

Nobody in their right minds would call a Velvet's song fun. They played in the 60's, but nobody was buying their albums.

Humble Pie were a classic 70's band, and their music was hard rock, not 60's psychedelic - it's not a stretch there. also not a fun band.

But for fun, since I found my two favorite rock guys back to back on an actual CD, I thought I'd compare lyric writing styles.

Velvet Underground: "All Tomorrow's Parties" c. 1967, songwriter Lou Reed

Humble Pie:  "Natural Born Woman" c. 1969, songwriter Steve Marriott

(other artists on Electric Sixties: Yardbirds, Cream, Electric Prunes, etc.)

Compare the woman: (Lou's version)

"And what costumes shall the poor girl wear

to all tomorrow's parties . . . .

A blackened shroud, a hand-me-down gown

of rags and silks, a costume

fit for one who sits and cries

for all tomorrow parties . . .

and what shall she do with Thursday's rags

when Monday comes around?

she'll turn once more to Sunday's clown

and cry behind the door."

sung by Nico, at a funereal dirge beat, long winded, two guitar chords over and over again.

but at that, it's not charmless. It's a Velvet's song. John Cale sings it on the live reunion concert in 1993, and it still sounds the same. It's still a Velvet's song.

Compare to the woman: (Steve's version)

"There she is again

steppin' out of her limousine, well

looking like the cover of a twenty-dollar magazine

she's got it made and branded

if you know what I mean

she's a natural born woman

natural born woman

she's a . . . . natural born woman

there she is again, watch her stop the Main st. in its tracks

looking like a creole queen

hair hanging down her back. . . . "

sung by Steve & Peter, at a very boogie beat, short, to the point, catchy, a lot of guitar chords going down there, it was one of Humble Pie's most well known songs, ok.

Which woman would you marry? Is that trick question?

Actually, I take it all back, both of these songs could easily describe Edie Sedgwick, Underground Superstar, and a limo crazed bitch with a $20.00 magazine look.

But, can you really compare the styles of song writing of Mr. Reed's to Mr. Marriott's? Yet, they had similar influences, both are, or were, um, 5'5' range in height, even similar personalities; both famous for starting a famous band with a partner who made the band brilliant, but got crowded out by Lou (John Cale) and Steve (Peter Frampton). They kinda both had that "hold no quarters, take no prisoners" attitude toward every song they wrote, preformed, sung, but I don't mean that in a bad way.

But why are their songs on an CD together. Did the editor not listen to "All Tomorrow's Parties", and just whip it on there?

To conclude.

I would have loved to hear Lou cover "30 Days in the Hole" with his extremely flat voice.  He would have slowed down the tempo, but if you're a Lou fan, it would be great.

and Steve cover, "Lady Day" in his most anguished hair raising blues voice.

(for you Humble Pie fan's, you're going have to download and/or look up the lyrics for "Lady Day")

And here's another strange crossover between the two artists, (just found):

In the movie, I Shot Andy Warhol (about Valerie Solanas trying to kill Andy in June, 1968) according to Wikipedia, "Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, whose anger with Solanas was well known, stated publicly that he did not want any film about her to be made, and would not allow the filmmakers to use his music."  soooo. . . .

the filmmakers used covers of 1960's songs and one of them was a Small Faces hit  - "Itchycoo Park"!

I don't think Steve & Ronnie Lane, composers of "Itchycoo Park" were as emotionally involved.  Lou wrote an entire song about Valerie shooting Andy on Songs for Drella, and one of the lines went: "I would have pulled the switch on her myself."

but, then again, did Steve and Ronnie, or their estates, ever see any royalties?

Comments

[mark]

What do you mean Humble Pie wasn't a "fun" band. They were fantastically fun: "we go home on Monday but we wanna tell ya we've really had a gas this time, really had a gas!"

Just good time hard-drivin' rock. Admittedly, I'm a semi-pro jazz musician and fully time jazz enthusiast, so what do I know? Well, that was the music of my youth and it kept me bouyant through some pretty rough teen years. Yeah, it was a gas man!

mark