Another great album from Lou Reed’s 1990’s output#
Ever since I was a kid, this album cover has been drilled into my mind. My dad cut a huge promotional poster for the album down from that was glued to a New York City wall, an act of defiance almost as “New York” as Reed himself. It now resides in the basement of my parent’s house, with at least one layer of poster stuck behind it. I never really got into Lou’s 1990’s albums in high school, with my experience mostly being with Transformer, Berlin, New York, and various other tracks off other records. I did know What’s Good - The Thesis, off this album (Magic and Loss), but that’s really about it.
Anyways, I’ve been on a big 90’s Lou Reed kick lately. I began by listening to his collaborative masterpiece with John Cale, Song’s for Drella on loop, and then moved on to this one (and then to some other ones). Magic and Loss is an album that I have never really heard mentioned before, outside of from the poster in the basement, but it’s really up there with Reed’s best. The album is dedicated to Lou’s 2 friends who passed, someone listed as just “Rita” (assumed to be Rotten Rita, a character from Warhol’s factory) and songwriter Doc Pomus (Lou covered his song This Magic Moment on David Lynch’s Lost Highway soundtrack). While it is a devastating album that deals heavily with death and those who are up against it, with tracks such as like Harry’s Circumcision - Reverie Gone Astray detailing the twisted freedom of self mutilation as a final act, it also is one that has a lot to say about life, which is summed up by the album’s title. There is magic and loss in everything.
Lou’s lyricism is truly at his best on this album. He encapsulates the feeling of watching someone you love struggle in a hospital on Dreamin’ -Escape (You were still making jokes; I don’t know what drugs they had you on / You said: “I guess this is not the time for long term investments.” / You were always laughing / But you never laughed at me). In my opinion, Sword of Damocles - Externally is one of Reed’s finest songs, detailing Pomus’s failed chemotherapy (They’re trying a new treatment to get you out of bed / But radiation kills both bad and good, it can not differentiate / So to cure you, they must kill you / The Sword of Damocles hangs above your head). Every song on this album is well written, and Lou has a lot to say about a topic that’s been sung about endlessly by thousands before him, and thousands after.
Favorite Track: Sword of Damocles - Externally