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Summary: "I'M WAITING FOR THE MAN"
Review: Lou Reed's lyrics aren't for everybody, they're only for the extraordinary. Lou can definitely turn a phrase. This book takes you on a trip through a blizzard, so that you can warm your bones on a beach. The lyrics of Lou Reed compare favorably with the aphorisms that are found in a recently published book named Excape From The Human Race. Like Delmore Schwartz influenced Lou Reed, Lou Reed has influenced many of today's authors. It's hard to live and not be derivative. Lou's lyrics illuminate both what's deplorable and what's wonderful about the human race. This is a book about life, the good parts and the bad parts. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. This book examines life and makes it worth living. The wait is over, Lou Reed is the man.
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Summary: Real words for real people
Review: Lou Reeds lyrics are some of the most important and greatest in rock history. The poet for the real man, lou reed wrote for himself and nobody else.
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Summary: The right venue for Lou Reed
Review: Reading Lou Reed's lyrics is a lot more interesting than hearing him sing them. If only he'd lived at the same time as Hart Crane...he coulda been a contenda!
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Summary: Lou's Incredible Lyrics Augmented by Wonderful Design
Review: The collected lyrics of Lou Reed hold up quite well on the page in "Pass Through Fire." This is rare for a poetry book from a rock legend, since most lyric collections from rock stars tend to be rather silly (e.g., Mr. Mojo Risin's poetry). Reed's lyrics explore the full magnitude of the modern urban man's consciousness in all its moments of triumph and strife. The primary impulse in Lou Reed's lyrics is the impetus towards freedom. Sometimes the individual cannot attain it, and is relegated to a life of tremendous despair. But the impulse always awakens, even if it arises from the spirit of the junkie lying in the gutter a day too late. Buy "Pass Through Fire" and read it to your children, because if you don't help them experience life as Lou Reed knows it they too might end up on the "Dirty Blvd" without the intellectual means to escape.
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Summary: Lou's Incredible Lyrics Augmented by Wonderful Design
Review: The collected lyrics of Lou Reed hold up quite well on the page in "Pass Through Fire." This is rare for a poetry book from a rock legend, since most lyric collections from rock stars tend to be rather silly (e.g., Mr. Mojo Risin's poetry). Reed's lyrics explore the full magnitude of the modern urban man's consciousness in all its moments of triumph and strife. The primary impulse in Lou Reed's lyrics is the impetus towards freedom. Sometimes the individual cannot attain it, and is relegated to a life of tremendous despair. But the impulse always awakens, even if it arises from the spirit of the junkie lying in the gutter a day too late. Buy "Pass Through Fire" and read it to your children, because if you don't help them experience life as Lou Reed knows it they too might end up on the "Dirty Blvd" without the intellectual means to escape.
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Summary: Strictly for the fan club
Review: The remarkable thing about Reed's singing/speaking voice is the way it can invest unconsidered, slapdash, even pedestrian lyrics with poignancy and conviction. Trouble is, his entire oeuvre doesn't yield as many first-rate lines as one can find in a single song by Dylan at his best. Worse, Reed's lyrics look downright fatuous on the page.
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Summary: Lou, you idiot.
Review: Well, you know, I'm a big fan of Lou Reed, and was excited when this book came out, but the design completely ruins the whole thing. Maybe Lou's playing a joke on us, though more than anything, it seems like Lou got himself a computer and Photoshop or something, and thought it was cool to give every album a font-gimmick (Some are unreadable, some are readable if you want to turn the book upside down or sideways). I definitely recommend his earlier book of lyrics, "Between Thought and Expression," which, while containing only selected lyrics, is much more readable, not only in terms of font, but poetry. He rearranged some of the lyrics in that book so that they read like poems and not like verse-chorus-verse rock songs.
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Summary: Today's Troubador
Review: While other troubadors, notably Dylan and Springsteen, enjoy the rewards of being part of the general public's consciousness, Lou Reed's honesty and unflinching vision earm him the title of rock's most perceptive lyricst.This book contains virtually all of Reed's long and impressive catalogue. In pure realism we take a walk on the wild side with New York City's addicts, whores, scam-artists, thieves, beggers and every other form of gutter life. A broad perspective such as this -- in the hands of lesser poets -- would seem a tragic commentary, but Reed manages to infuse just enough human spirit and optimism to keep his scenes above total chaos. The losers greatly outnumber the winners in Reed's world, if you keep score. But most of Reed's characters suffer life's misfortunes from imposed, not self-inflicted, situations. The noble "Pass Through Fire," even in the face of certain disaster. Lou Reed's book of lyrics is indispensible. I call it equipment for living. Get a copy today!
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Summary: this is how books ought to be written
Review: You could be totally illerate and still be able to read this book. The words are actually printed with emotion. Some, like tears, puddle down the page. Others weave in and out of strength and weakness- it is absolutely stunning.
I am not a huge Lou Reed fan or anything but everyone should look inside this book simply for the sake of experiencing how extraordinarily it was designed and strung together. The poetry moves, it is evident and incredibly intense.
Rating:
Summary: this is how books ought to be written
Review: You could be totally illerate and still be able to read this book. The words are actually printed with emotion. Some, like tears, puddle down the page. Others weave in and out of strength and weakness- it is absolutely stunning.
I am not a huge Lou Reed fan or anything but everyone should look inside this book simply for the sake of experiencing how extraordinarily it was designed and strung together. The poetry moves, it is evident and incredibly intense.
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