Songs for Drella
Occupation
- Vocals / Keyboards / Viola: John Cale
- Vocal / Guitar: Lou Reed
Songs for Drella is a tribute in the form of a music album by Lou Reed and John Cale on the life and work of Andy Warhol, the most important representative of the American Pop Art The album was released in 1990 on the record label Sire Records.
Origins and backgrounds
The American singer and guitarist Lou Reed and the Welsh native, classically trained violist and pianist John Cale had founded in 1965 together with Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison, the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground. Andy Warhol, who was just looking for a band for his newly founded club Andy Warhol 's Up and enthusiastic for the unusual band, the musicians took part and became her sponsor and mentor. The band was in 1966 and 1967, a part of Warhol's Factory studio complex and Warhol promoted as a manager and producer of the group 's career decisively. So he built it as a driving force in his provocative performance shows. He also designed the cover for her famous debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico with the ( in the first edition as a removable screen printing) banana.
As early as 1968 there was a dispute between Cale and Reed. Cale left the Velvet Underground and the two creative and influential minds of the band should sound a long time maintain no contact with each other. It was only on the occasion of the memorial service after Warhol's death at St. Patrick 's Cathedral on 1 April 1987, Cale and Reed spoke to each other again, and at the suggestion of the painter Julian Schnabel came to work together on Songs for Drella. On January 8, 1989 was a first performance of the near-complete sets of the album later in the Church of St. Anne's place in Brooklyn. The filmmaker Edward Lachman filmed on 4 and 5 December 1989, later published live performance without an audience of the work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In the following two months, then found the studio recording for the album Songs for Drella at Sigma Sound Studio held in New York City. It was published in 1990 with Sire Records.
The joint work of Cale and Reed on the album in a row led to a brief reunion of the Velvet Underground in 1993, although this should not last long. The irreconcilable differences between the two eccentric artists led again at the end to break.
The nickname " Drella " for Andy Warhol comes from Warhol's " Superstar" Ondine. He is a combination of Dracula and Cinderella.
Music style
Decisive for the mood of Songs for Drella is the reduction on vocals, keyboards, viola and guitar - it is a sort of minimalist, repetitive rock music. The stylistic range extends from echoes of the minimalist music ( for example, the first track of the album Small Town) over - songwriter ballads to spoken word compositions (like the longest title A Dream ).
Title list
Lou Reed describes the album in an accompanying booklet as follows: "Songs for Drella - A Fiction.. Letter Is a musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and is Entirely fictitious " ( " Songs for Drella -. An invention is a brief musical look at the life of Andy Warhol and completely invented. ")
He also gives a brief explanation of each of the pieces:
All compositions by John Cale / Lou Reed
Reception
The album received generally favorable to good reviews.
Robert Christgau wrote: " Lousy background music - absorb it over three or four plays, then read along once and file it away like a good novel.. But like the novel it will repay your attention in six months, or 10 years " ( " Miserable background music - put it at three or four times playing into yourself, read about it again and add it to the shelf like a good novel, but. like a good novel you will in six months or ten years, are again reminded of it. " )
Paul Evans wrote in Rolling Stone: " This is not a blockbuster like Reed 's New York or Cale 's Paris 1919, but it's a shining, tense merger of visions. " ( "It is not a blockbuster like Reed's New York or Cales Paris 1919, but it is a brilliant, tense merger of visions. " )