The Scott Walker album Lou Reed called his favourite
Like many of his peers, Lou Reed wasn’t just the driving force behind the Velvet Underground and a tireless advocate for alternative American pop; he also possessed an insatiable passion for music. He consumed the sounds around him – across various genres – with relentless fervour and regarded songwriting as a form of high art.
Inspired by the literary luminaries who populated his native New York City during his formative years, including Allen Ginsberg, Hubert Selby, and William S. Burroughs, Reed harnessed his guitar to craft poetic pop compositions. These songs weren’t solely reserved for the Velvet Underground but also featured prominently in his role as the primary songwriter for Pickwick Records.
In fact, Reed’s diverse influences form a captivating fusion of timeless classics and avant-garde gems from the heart of the American pop scene. During a 1999 magazine interview, Reed scribbled down his preferred albums on a piece of paper, notably including the Scott Walker classic record Tilt.
Like Reed, Walker was known for his abstract and poetic lyricism, but Tilt was one of Walker’s more considerably bleak efforts, with songs that evoked a central forlorn and funereal mood. However, similar to Walker’s preceding work, Climate of Hunter from 1984, Tilt harmoniously blends European avant-garde and experimental features, incorporating industrial music influences.
Considering Reed’s own blunt yet charismatic lyrical style, it’s likely that he enjoyed Tilt‘s prioritisation of eery atmospheres over traditional harmonic structures, employing minimalist, subtly dissonant sounds and repetitive, trance-inducing patterns. The album itself has been heralded as a skilful crafting of meticulous instrumentation and sparingly applied sound effects. Walker’s vocals employ a haunting, distant, and desolate quality, as if echoing from within a cavern.
Sonically, Reed’s influences spanned various contributions to folk rock, soul, doo-wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz. Bob Dylan, for instance, had so much of an impact on him that he admitted to consistently buying the latest Dylan album. He explained the beauty of Dylan’s artistry, saying: “Bob Dylan can turn a phrase, man. Like his last album [Down in the Groove], his choice of songs. ‘Going 90 miles an hour down a dead-end street’ — I’d give anything if I could have written that. Or that other one, ‘Rank Strangers to Me.’ The key word there is rank“.
He added: “Dylan continuously knocks me out… the kind of phrasing that knocks me out is Dylan’s. For language, Dylan kills me to this day.”
Ultimately, Reed continuously sought inspiration not only from those who came before him but also from contemporary artists. He was perpetually in search of innovative means to convey his message, and his musical experimentation persisted until his final days. Pushing boundaries at every turn, Reed ultimately discovered his niche within the paradoxical heart of the American dream.
