Lou Reed - The Blue Mask (1982) (LP) - €10,00

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The Blue Mask is the eleventh solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in February 1982, by RCA Records. 

Reed had returned to the label after having left Arista Records. The album was released around Reed's 40th birthday, and covers topics of marriage and settling down, alongside themes of violence, paranoia, and alcoholism. 

Reed and Robert Quine's guitars were mixed separately in the right and left stereo channels respectively. 

To differentiate his guitar's sound from Reed's, Quine used D tuning, playing each song as if it was one major second higher. For example, "Heavenly Arms" is in G major, so Quine used fingerings for A major to play the song.

Quine, who years earlier followed the Velvet Underground across the country and taped several of their early shows (they were later released as Bootleg Series Volume 1: The Quine Tapes), made for a suitable complement to Reed. 

Quine also toured in support of the album and can be seen on the recorded The Bottom Line show titled A Night with Lou Reed (1983). Quine later described the album as, "a record that I'm particularly proud of. We had never played together before going into the studio. 

There were no rehearsals and most of it was done in one or two takes. I like all the things that I've done with Lou but that will always be special for me." Quine and Reed share the distinction of being named to Rolling Stone's Top 100 Guitarists of All-Time List.

Fernando Saunders, who subsequently became a longtime Reed collaborator, plays bass guitar and adds backing vocals (most noticeably, a falsetto refrain in the outro to "Heavenly Arms") to this album and can also be seen in A Night with Lou Reed. 

Saunders later said, "it was like a dream come true. Lou wanted me to play the things no one would ever let me play, the things I would sit in my bedroom and play. Suddenly I was glad I hadn't quit music for my uncle's insurance company."

In 1982, 12 years after he left the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed released The Blue Mask, the first album where he lived up to the potential he displayed in the most groundbreaking of all American rock bands. 

The Blue Mask was Reed's first album after he overcame a long-standing addiction to alcohol and drugs, and it reveals a renewed focus and dedication to craft -- for the first time in years, Reed had written an entire album's worth of moving, compelling songs, and was performing them with keen skill and genuine emotional commitment. 

Reed was also playing electric guitar again, and with the edgy genius he summoned up on White Light/White Heat. Just as importantly, he brought Robert Quine on board as his second guitarist, giving Reed a worthy foil who at once brought great musical ideas to the table, and encouraged the bandleader to make the most of his own guitar work. (Reed also got superb support from his rhythm section, bassist extraordinaire Fernando Saunders and ace drummer Doane Perry). As Reed stripped his band back to a muscular two-guitars/bass/drums format, he also shed the faux-decadent "Rock N Roll Animal" persona that had dominated his solo work and wrote clearly and fearlessly of his life, his thoughts, and his fears, performing the songs with supreme authority whether he was playing with quiet subtlety (such as the lovely "My House" or the unnerving "The Gun") or cranked-to-ten fury (the paranoid "Waves of Fear" and the emotionally devastating title cut). Intelligent, passionate, literate, mature, and thoroughly heartfelt, The Blue Mask was everything Reed's fans had been looking for in his work for years, and it's vivid proof that for some rockers, life can begin on the far side of 35.

The album contains no instrumental overdubs with the exception of Reed's guitar on "My House", but all vocals were overdubbed with the exception of "The Heroine". The drummer for the album was studio musician Doane Perry, who later joined Jethro Tull.

The album cover was designed by Reed's then wife, Sylvia, and features a blue version of a photograph by Mick Rock from the cover art of 1972's Transformer.

Side A

A1.  My House - 5:25

A2.  Women - 4:57

A3.  Underneath the Bottle - 2:33

A4.  The Gun - 3:41

A5.  The Blue Mask - 5:06

Side B

B1.  Average Guy - 3:12

B2.  The Heroine - 3:06

B3.  Waves of Fear - 4:11

B4.  The Day John Kennedy Died - 4:08

B5.  Heavenly Arms - 4:47

All songs written by Lou Reed. 

Lou Reed and Robert Quine's guitars were mixed separately in the right and left stereo channels respectively. 

To differentiate his guitar's sound from Reed's, Quine used D tuning, playing each song as if it was one major second higher. For example, "Heavenly Arms" is in G major, so Quine used fingerings for A major to play the song.

The album contains no instrumental overdubs with the exception of Reed's guitar on "My House", but all vocals were overdubbed with the exception of "The Heroine".

Companies, etc.

• Record Company – RCA Corporation
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – RCA Records
• Copyright © – RCA Records
• Recorded At – RCA Studios, New York
• Mastered At – Sterling Sound
• Copyright © – Metal Machine Music
• Lacquer Cut At – Sterling Sound
• Pressed By – RCA Records Pressing Plant, Indianapolis

Credits

• Art Direction – J. J. Stelmach
• Bass, Backing Vocals – Fernando Saunders
• Design [Cover Design] – Sylvia Reed
• Drums – Doane Perry
• Engineer – Sean Fullan
• Guitar – Robert Quine
• Mastered By – Greg Calbi
• Other [Special Thanks] – Dennis Feranti
• Photography By [Cover Photo] – Mick Rock
• Producer – Lou Reed, Sean Fullan
• Songwriter [All Songs Written By] – Lou Reed
• Vocals, Guitar [Right Stereo Channel] – Lou Reed

Recorded at RCA Studios, New York, Oct. 1981
Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York

Notes

Release: 1982

Format:  LP, Vinyl

Genre:  Art rock, proto-punk, glam rock

Label:  RCA

Catalog#  RCA LP 6028

Vinyl:  Goed

Cover:  Goed

Prijs: €10,00