Street Hassle | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 1978 | |||
Recorded | March – October, 1977 | |||
Venue | live in Munich, Wiesbaden, Ludwigshafen, Germany | |||
Studio | Record Plant studios, New York City | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 36:15 | |||
Label | Arista | |||
Producer |
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Lou Reed chronology | ||||
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Lou Reed studio album chronology | ||||
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Street Hassle is the eighth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in February 1978 by Arista Records. Richard Robinson and Reed produced the album. It is the first commercially released pop album to employ binaural recording technology. [2] Street Hassle combines live concert tapes (with overdubs) and studio recordings.
All of the songs on Street Hassle were written by Reed, including "Real Good Time Together", a track that dates back to his days as a member of the Velvet Underground. Recording of a live album began in Munich and Ludwigshafen, West Germany. Unlike most live albums, the audience is completely muted from the mix during the concert recordings. Upon returning to the United States in August 1977, Arista Records told Reed releasing a live album was not an option, which began the NYC studio phase of the album. Then, producer Richard Robinson left the project after a fight in the studio. Determined to carry on, Reed moved the proceedings to Record Plant studios, accompanied by his recording engineer, Rod O’Brien. [3]
Encouragement to focus and expand on the title song, "Street Hassle", came from Arista President Clive Davis, resulting in a three-part suite 11 minutes in length. The only song to be wholly written and recorded in the studio, culminating in a lyric by Reed, "Tramps like us, we were born to pay". After his engineer advised him that line belonged to somebody else, they both went downstairs, where Bruce Springsteen was working on his fourth studio album, which would be titled Darkness on the Edge of Town . Not only did Springsteen allow his "Born to Run" phrase to be used, he personally sang the line at Reed's request. By all accounts, the part was completed in one or two takes, to the mutual satisfaction of both. [4] [3] Springsteen was not credited for his performance in the liner notes of Street Hassle due to a policy set by his record label, Columbia Records. [5]
The recording of Street Hassle was notable in that Reed and his co-producer chose to employ an experimental microphone placement technique called binaural recording. [2] In binaural recording, two microphones are placed in the studio in an attempt to mimic the stereo sound of actually being in the room with the performers and instruments. In the case of the recording sessions and concerts that composed Street Hassle, engineers used a mannequin head with a microphone implanted in each ear. Binaural recordings are generally only effective when the user listens to the album through headphones, and do not generally translate correctly through stereo speakers.
Reed's particular binaural recording system was developed by Manfred Schunke of the German company Delta Acoustics; Schunke is credited as an engineer on Street Hassle. Reed would continue to use the binaural recording style on two more releases: the 1978 live album Live: Take No Prisoners and the 1979 studio album The Bells .
As was common on early Reed solo studio albums, Street Hassle contained a song originally written during Reed's days in the Velvet Underground—in this case, "Real Good Time Together," which had been previously released in 1974 on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live . "Dirt" is allegedly about his ex-manager, Steve Katz.
AllMusic editor Mark Deming has written that "the title cut, a three-movement poetic tone poem about life on the New York streets, is one of the most audacious and deeply moving moments of Reed's solo career." [1] Biographer Anthony DeCurtis describes the album as being largely motivated by and representative of the end of Reed's three-year relationship with Rachel Humphreys, a trans woman who is believed to have died of AIDS in 1990 and been buried in a Potter's Field on Hart Island in the Bronx. [6] DeCurtis summarizes the title track as "something of a requiem for Reed and Rachel's relationship." [7] In a 1979 article for Rolling Stone , Mikal Gilmore refers to Humphreys as the "raison d'être" for the album as a whole. [8]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Chicago Tribune | [9] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [10] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [11] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [12] |
Spin | [13] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10 [14] |
The Village Voice | B [15] |
Street Hassle was met with mostly positive reviews, such as from Rolling Stone 's Tom Carson, who called the album "brilliant" and "a confession of failure that becomes a stunning, incandescent triumph—the best solo album Lou Reed has ever done." [16] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice , however, gave the album a lukewarm reception, observing that "despite the strength of much of the material," he found the album's "production muddled, its cynicism uninteresting, [and] its self-reference self-serving." [15] Tim Lott of the Record Mirror said, "Lou Reed has been a musical corpse for years now. Street Hassle is a creative nadir." [17]
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Mark Deming noted that while "time has magnified its flaws," Street Hassle was "still among the most powerful and compelling albums [Reed] released during the 1970s, and too personal and affecting to ignore." [1]
All tracks written by Lou Reed.
Side one
Side two
Adapted from the Street Hassle liner notes. [18]
Musicians
Production
Chart (1978) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [19] | 24 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [20] | 9 |
US Billboard 200 [21] | 89 |
The Raven is the nineteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released on January 28, 2003 by Sire Records. It is a concept album, recounting the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe through word and song, and was based on his 2000 opera co-written with Robert Wilson, POEtry.
The Wind is the twelfth and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. The album was released on August 26, 2003, by Artemis Records. Zevon began recording the album shortly after he was diagnosed with inoperable pleural mesothelioma, and it was released just two weeks before his death on September 7, 2003. The album was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and "Disorder in the House", performed by Zevon with Bruce Springsteen, won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Songs from the album were nominated for an additional three Grammys.
Lou Reed is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in May 1972 by RCA Records, two years after he left the Velvet Underground. It was produced by Richard Robinson and Reed and features London session musicians as Reed's backing band, two of whom, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe, were from the British progressive rock band Yes. Wakeman recalled that during the recording sessions, "the lights had to be out so nobody could see." The album was recorded at Morgan Studios in London, between December 1971 and January 1972.
Live at Max's Kansas City is a live album by the Velvet Underground recorded at the famous nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was originally released on May 30, 1972, by Cotillion, a subsidiary label of Atlantic Records.
Sally Can't Dance is the fourth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in September 1974 by RCA Records. Steve Katz and Reed produced the album. It remains Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, having peaked at #10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. It is also the first solo Lou Reed album not to feature any songs originally recorded by Reed's earlier band, the Velvet Underground, as well as the first of Reed's solo studio albums to be recorded in the United States. The album art was designed by noted Fillmore and Broadway poster artist David Edward Byrd and was one of the few album covers he ever designed.
Growing Up in Public is the tenth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in April 1980 by Arista Records.
New Sensations is the thirteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in April 1984 by RCA Records. John Jansen and Reed produced the album. New Sensations peaked at No. 56 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and at No. 92 on the UK Albums Chart. This marked the first time that Reed charted within the US Top 100 since his eighth solo studio album Street Hassle (1978), and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since his sixth solo studio album Coney Island Baby (1976). Three singles were released from the album: "I Love You, Suzanne", "My Red Joystick" and "High in the City", with "I Love You, Suzanne" being the only single to chart, peaking at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for "I Love You, Suzanne" did, however, receive light rotation on MTV.
The Blue Mask is the eleventh solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released on February 23, 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.
Rock 'n' Roll Animal is a live album by American musician Lou Reed, released in February 1974 by RCA Records. In its original form, it features five songs, four of which were initially recorded by The Velvet Underground. Reed's band included Pentti Glan (drums), Prakash John (bass), Ray Colcord (keyboards), and Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter (guitars).
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The Bells is the ninth solo studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed, released in May 1979 by Arista Records. It was recorded in binaural sound at Delta Studios in Wilster, West Germany. Production was handled by Reed with Michael Fonfara serving as executive producer. Three out of nine songs on the album are the product of a short-lived writing partnership between Reed and Nils Lofgren. More of the team's work appeared on Nils' solo studio album Nils, released the same year. Lofgren released his version of "Stupid Man" as "Driftin' Man" on Break Away Angel (2001). Lofgren resurrected five songs he wrote with Reed in the late 70s on Blue with Lou (2019).
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Animal Serenade is a live album by American rock musician Lou Reed, recorded in Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theatre in 2003 after The Raven. The show features a drummer-less band. In addition, Anohni, of Antony and the Johnsons fame, contributes background vocals throughout and sings the lead on "Set the Twilight Reeling" and "Candy Says".
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Honky Tonk Masquerade is the second album by country singer-songwriter Joe Ely, released in 1978.
"Street Hassle" is a song recorded by American rock musician Lou Reed for his 1978 studio album of the same name. It is 10 minutes and 56 seconds long and divided into three distinct sections: "Waltzing Matilda," "Street Hassle," and "Slipaway." Part one, "Waltzing Matilda," describes a woman picking up and paying a male prostitute. In Part Two, "Street Hassle," a drug dealer speaks at length about the death of a woman in his apartment to her companion. Part Three, "Slipaway," contains a brief, uncredited, spoken word section by Bruce Springsteen and a dirge sung by Reed about love and death. It was recorded in E major.
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Dedication is a 1981 album by American singer Gary U.S. Bonds.
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