Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music
Arguably the most avant garde of Lou Reed's works, Metal
Machine Music is a double album of mechanical screeches and
drones. On the LP version, the B side of the second record ends
in a locked groove which continues to play until the needle is
physically lifted from the turntable. Since the LP consists of four evenly-timed sides, and since
an 8-track produces continuous sound without the contrivance of a
locked groove, in some ways this recording is a natural for the
8-track format. In other ways, of course, it's perfectly
ludicrous. It is remarkable enough that RCA considered this to be
commercially viable enough to be released at all, never mind in
multiple formats. Metal Machine Music even came out in quad
LP and 8-track! The legendary rock-n-roll journalist Lester Bangs
immortalized this 8-track in Psychotic Reactions and
Carburetor Dung. Few 8-tracks have provoked livelier
discussion in the pages of 8-Track Mind,
and almost none are as sought after by 8-track's true believers.
For these reasons and many more, Metal Machine Music has
officially entered The 8-Track Hall of Fame on this 10th of
October, 1995.
A big thank you to Jim Sharpe for rummaging through the archives at Plastikville Records in order to find this historic tape.
