Warhol Remembered in Somber 'Songs for Orella'

Warhol remembered in somber 'Songs for Orella' LAURENCE DUFFY tively-tuned viola, may accotmt for commissioned by the Brooklyn the sparse accompaniment ofguitar, The album's closing ~ Production Manager the lack ofpublic awe that the Velvet Academy of Music last year as a keyboards and viola. ..Hello, It's Me'' reads like a think Underground so richly deserve. tribute to Andy Warhol, the now There is a ccinstant grey tone to ing man's Mike and the Mechanics The music of the Velvet Under But when, after twenty years, two legendary painter and former guru, the album, as we are never left to song. without the children's choir. ground, while not immediately ap members ofthe Velvet Underground of the Velvet Underground. The forget that it is a requiem for War Reed regrets his silence; but~serv~ parent to those who grew'up in the record an album, you 'II excuse me purposeofDrellawas togiveamore hol. The minimal production leaves his judgement--"Ypu hurt ·.Ple late Seventies and the Eighties, lurks for being pleased. lasting tribute from those who knew vocats out in front, in contrast to where it hurt I didnrt laugh/Your always in the background of that Added to this is the fact that it is the man than was available from the much of the Velvet's dense arrange diaries are not a worthy.. epj~.'' era's music. an album about, for arid devoted to trivial bitching of the Warhol Dia ment. or lack thereof. Songs For Drella is n~ '(elvet Bands as diverse as the Cowboy Andy Warhol, who reserved his ries, published shortly after his Towards the end of the album. an Underground ~bum-the . ~ Junkies, who made "Sweet Jane" place in Lar heaven (or Valhallar), death, although the public like to even. more somber note is struck, as tion is too good, although the· ar their own on their • •Trinity Ses when he suggested that Lou Reed hear this type of media-friendly in "The Dream" Cale reads what rangement is sometimes similar. It sions" album, and Joy Division, write a song with the line "she's celeb-bashing, as Truman Capote's appear to be a passage from the also affords little toone whofmds an whose eh, interesting Jive cover of busy sucking on my ding-dong." "Answered Prayers" will testify. diaries. hour of Lou Reed's granng vocal ..Sister Ray" was adequately Now the cynics among you, and I The album traces Warhol's ca ''Lou Reed got married and and John Calc's mutant Welsh ac swnmed up by Ian Curtis, who de- know you're out there, will suggest reer, from his humble beginnings in didn'tinvitemelmeanis it because cent more than a little ~epressing. clared ••Youshouldhearourversion iliat this album is a cheap attempt to Pittsburgh, in Reed's familiar pithy be thought I'd bring too many What it lacks mvariety and t:arehy of •Louie Louie'" have been heav cash in on the old reunion fad of last style, backed with deceptively jolly people'l .. .I saw him at the MTV melodies, however, it Jnak:es· up in ily influenced by the Velvet's work. summer, or a tacky effort at making piano ("I'm no Dali coming from show, he was one row away and he sincerity. - Because of their anonymity, us forget that Lo~ Reed did That Pit~Sburgh/No adorable lisping Ca didn't even say hello." The album stands as an honest, therefore, you could be forgiven for cover of "Soul Man," you know, pote-My hero!"). The picture is one of a dying unflatteringly realistic pOrtrait of passing over a 1968 Velvets album the one which made evexyone wish Through the days in the Factory, Warhol abandoned by the people he the artist., and although Lou Reed in deference to ''Nothing Compares that Will To Power had done it in Warhol's New York studio, to his made famous, and the guilt felt by would probably be the last to admit 2 u.~· This, coupled with the diffi- stead. shooting, the story is told, much of it Reed and Cale about their treatment it, is a very sentimental remem . culty of sampling John Calc's crea- Songs For Drella--A Fiction was in the fust person. and usually with of him. brance of a lost friend. ,..-' AN IMPORTANT NOTICE .. TO ALL PHILADELPHIA-AREA . STUDENTS:.' . ,.. The best education under the Summer sun is· in-: your own backyard: St. Joseph's University. 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