Lou Reed-New York (1989)
Artist: Lou Reed
Title: New York
Label: Sire
Format: CD
Catalog Number: 9 25829-2
When he is through setting the stage of immoral NYC he flips the script and becomes righteous Lou welcoming the UN leader with a hidden Nazi past to Brooklyn in "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim." Then he lances Jessie Jackson presumably for his 1984 "Hymietown" comment. When the long deceased speak ill of the recently deceased, is it bad taste to bring up the controversy? Lou never had time to ponder those types of questions of quaint decorum. He'd rather say "Fuck You" first whether 1989 or 1977 or 1968 if he feels he is right. Further generation political cleaving notwithstanding, this seemingly was still a spat between political allies. The 1989 historical reference point here is laid out in the lyrics: "Jesse, you say common ground, does that include the PLO? What about people right here right now who fought for you not so long ago?" He still says "Fuck You" today from the grave, irrespective of the finer points of diplomacy.
Year of Release: 1989
Country and Year of Edition: US reissue
Sell Price: $5.20
Sell Date: 3/13/26
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold: 12/6/25 VG/NM $2.50
Low: $0.99
Median: $3.00
Average: $3.42
High: $6.00
Current low price: $4.00
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 10
Have/Want: 74/73
Where Sold: Saco, ME
Time It Took To Sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: Facebook marketplace $2 lot
Gwiz-gau Grade: A
Sad To See It Go: No
"It's hard to give a shit these days"-Romeo Had Juliet
New York was a return to a stripped down guitar-bass-drums sound Lou had adapted on The Blue Mask earlier in the 80's. These are always my favorite records of his for that reason. It was lyrically grumpy enough to go Gold in the US 8 years after release. You can't pin 2026 political poles on Lou. However much of the descriptions and disputes within the albums lyrics remain very much today in NYC and worldwide.
That said, some of the the commentary you find here now you might hear in a right veering tabloid in modern political confines. Would Lou be MAGA today? Good question, we know Moe Tucker who drums on the closing "Dime Store Mystery" as well as "Last Great American Whale" is firmly in the camp of the right, but Lou isn't as easy a mark. "No Time" for my country right or wrong. "Remember what that brought?" he asks.
In 1989 Lou seemed just another NY liberal Jew not moored to any script and there was nothing particularly radical about describing what you see in front of your eyes. The police weren't ripping Lou Reed cassettes out of peoples Walkmans and tossing them spilled on the street the way they were with NWA inspired by FBI investigation. On his way out Lou's editorial was a defense of Kanye West's turn to artsy fartsydom. He saw something and you can't say Lou didn't have an affinity to Black culture all the way back to his late 50's doo-wop beginnings with The Jades.
Of course we learn more from the evolution of eternal narrative than the politics of New York 1989 "sinking like a rock." "Dirty Blvd." complete with Dion cameo was the song that connected on US Rock Radio and in the Letterman-Lenosphere. It just described common urban ambience he trodded to rent videotapes that remains to this day. The characters in the albums best song "Romeo Had Juliette" imagines a mafia world of Latins and I-talians mating and murdering just like everyone else.
When he is through setting the stage of immoral NYC he flips the script and becomes righteous Lou welcoming the UN leader with a hidden Nazi past to Brooklyn in "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim." Then he lances Jessie Jackson presumably for his 1984 "Hymietown" comment. When the long deceased speak ill of the recently deceased, is it bad taste to bring up the controversy? Lou never had time to ponder those types of questions of quaint decorum. He'd rather say "Fuck You" first whether 1989 or 1977 or 1968 if he feels he is right. Further generation political cleaving notwithstanding, this seemingly was still a spat between political allies. The 1989 historical reference point here is laid out in the lyrics: "Jesse, you say common ground, does that include the PLO? What about people right here right now who fought for you not so long ago?" He still says "Fuck You" today from the grave, irrespective of the finer points of diplomacy.
Perhaps now it is the world that is sinking like a rock while the island of New York floats on.
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