Heroin

I'm a Rock n Roll Animal.

I tried all month to come up with a treatment for this song, but it just wasn't happening. Piano, accordion, acoustic guitar; spare, lush. I feel like I sort of phoned in this somewhat-"Rock n Roll Animal"-style version, but with the deadline looming, I wanted to get something finished.

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posted by uncleozzy (7 comments total)

Your being pretty modest, man. This is excellent. This is a great cover and one of my favorites from this challenge. I know the original has a "building up" quality but I like your build up much more. Those instrumental breaks really drive this song right home.

I dig this A LOT!
posted by snsranch at 4:40 PM on July 29, 2009

Slamming. Excellent cover, uncleozzy.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 AM on July 30, 2009

Yeah, and to get a little more specific: fine vocal, perfect delivery for the song. It's so satisfying when you sing "you can all take a fucking walk!" It's also a very tasty use of long delay on the vox: just enough, not too much and exactly in the right place. And great how you brought it back in for that last "know". And the unexpected little vocal harmony is really really cool, too. Oh, and the playing is great. All in all, i gotta say, this actually, you know, rocks.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:21 AM on July 30, 2009

Thanks for the comments, guys. I guess I didn't feel so good about this cover because it's not exactly the version that I had intended to make. I don't really care for the VU+N version, and Lou's solo versions seem soulless (and bloated), so I was going for something a little different. The piano bit was working out okay, but my chops on the keys aren't strong enough to really carry it where I wanted to go.

And it's funny that you should mention the long delay and the harmony, flapjax. The long delay is actually what drove the entire song. When I resigned myself to doing the rocked-up version, I heard it in my head exactly as it wound up on tape: the drums with the little tambourine ching and the long delay on I. And the harmony, actually, almost didn't happen. I had a blank vocal track all ready to go, and completely forgot about it. I mixed and bounced the whole thing before I realized I'd left it out. Which is why the harmony in the second verse is so damn loud: I didn't actually listen to it.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:03 AM on July 30, 2009

I'll join the others in saying you are being excessively modest. Though I understand that "this isn't how it sounded in my head" feeling. We were talking precisely about that the other day (and it came up because of the VU song I posted).

But back to subject, this is a perfect version of a hard-to-do song. The only thing you missed was the drone/viola, which I always took to represent an effect of Heroin. Still, that's a minor detail, and this version is very, very good.
posted by micayetoca at 6:27 AM on July 31, 2009

Listening to this again, because it's kickass Friday night music.

Coming back to this after letting it chill for a while, I find that it has a really great anthemic quality. You've taken those lyrics and have made them important and relevant. Modernized, maybe, in a really great way.

FTR I'm not a Lou Reed fan and totally agree with you. He sounds like his soul is about as thin as a piece of paper.

(sucks that I can only "favorite" this once.)
posted by snsranch at 6:45 PM on July 31, 2009

I came back for another listen and noticed that the comment I made on 30th July - saying how much I like this - has vanished. I favourited it, and that at least has remained. Great stuff.
posted by MajorDundee at 4:36 PM on August 1, 2009