"Songs for Drella", Lou Reed & John Cale, 1990
Dia: 15
Mês: Abril
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
A José Carlos Soares' choice.
Um álbum-homenagem a Andy Warhol, depois da sua morte em 1987, que levou a que Lou Reed e John Cale se reunissem pela segunda vez, depois da saída turbulenta de Cale dos Velvet Underground em 68 e de um único concerto de reunião da banda no Bataclan em 72.
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): A love letter to mentor and friend Andy Warhol.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide – Third Edition (Random House, 1992): The Andy Warhol tribute-elegy Songs for Drella, is dominated by Lou Reed's writing and strumming, though Cale's viola, piano and occasional vocals serve to shape and stimulate his former bandmate's trademark three-chord attack.
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): Songs for Drella was a haunting epitaph for Andy Warhol on which Reed collaborated with John Cale. ★★★★
AllMusic: Starkly constructed around Cale's keyboards, Reed's guitar, and their voices, Songs for Drella is a performance piece about Andy Warhol, his rise to fame, and his troubled years in the limelight. Reed and Cale take turns on vocals, sometimes singing as the character of Andy and elsewhere offering their observations on the man they knew. (...) If Songs for Drella seems modest from a musical standpoint, it's likely neither Reed nor Cale wanted the music to distract from their story, and here they paint a portrait of Warhol that has far more depth and poignancy than his public image would have led one to expect. It's a moving and deeply felt tribute to a misunderstood man, and it's a pleasure to hear these two comrades-in-arms working together again, even if their renewed collaboration was destined to be short-lived. ★★★★1/2
Rolling Stone: Reed's edgy guitar, fullness of heart and clipped, journalistic poetry bring into sculptural relief Cale's elegant keyboards and brainy lyricism. As their subject, Warhol is both immediate and mythic. The idea entrepreneur who produced the Velvets, he provokes an homage that's romantic yet casual — and Cale and Reed pay their debt with an offhand pop epic.. ★★★★
NME: Arranged as a chronological narrative, Drella delights in irony. The smalltown son of immigrants seeks refuge from alienation in New York but it's the very values he was raised on that keep him going. He becomes a new American success story but uncertainty, dread and an inevitable sense of mortality stalks him at every turn, making 'Slip Away (A Warning)' the most powerful and beautiful thing here. [8]
New York Times: Songs for Drella – a nickname for Warhol, combining Dracula and Cinderella - addresses Warhol's art and life, reclaiming Warhol's personality from his deliberately impersonal work. It's a small-scale production, a group of 15 songs lasting slightly more than an hour, played and sung by Mr. Reed on guitar and Mr. Cale on keyboards or electric viola.
Spectrum Culture: The album is an emotional and sincere (if occasionally fictionalized and romanticized) concept album about the life and death of pop artist and now crudely commercialized icon Andy Warhol. (...) The songs that focus on mortality and aging, often in the guise of the two musicians offering a farewell to Warhol with a mixture of regret and pathos, still remain the album’s true centerpieces. It’s on these songs where both Reed and Cale explore themes that extend far beyond the sphere of a Warhol retrospective. “A Dream” is perhaps the album’s standout track; a spoken word piece with Cale accompanied by minimal piano and brushes of percussion, it depicts Warhol pouring over his past in a dream, both his Factory crowd and artistic inspiration long gone. As Factory shadows from Warhol’s earlier years flit in and out, Cale imagines the artist as brooding and pensive, as he recalls everything from not being invited to Reed’s wedding to being shot by Valerie Solanis in 1968.
Ultimate Classic Rock: "Drella" was the nickname given to Andy by actor and Warhol associate Ondine, and was a combination of Dracula and Cinderella, meant to portray the two sides of Warhol's personality. After the Velvet Underground fell apart in early 1970, the paths of the various members would cross now and again, but it wasn't until Songs for Drella that Reed and Cale were reunited for a full-length album. The album attempts to cover the life of Warhol, and, thanks to the wonderful Cale and Reed songs, it succeeds. Songs For Drella is structured like a play. In fact, it was originally conceived as a theater piece. With each song representing a chapter in Andy's life, the songs follow in order, each telling its own little tale very effectively.
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