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Dopo aver dato alla luce il capolavoro metropolitano degli anni Ottanta e essersi riunito con John Cale per l'epitaffio di Andy Warhol, Lou Reed pubblica un disco incentrato sulla fragilità dell'esistenza e sulla perdita dedicandolo alla memoria di due persone (il musicista Doc Pomus e l'amica Rita) morte nel giro di due anni in seguito a mali incurabili.
L'importanza dei temi trattati è indicata dalla traduzione in varie lingue dei testi. Le liriche affrontano la tematica della morte senza alcun pudore e sono accompagnate da arrangiamenti scarni che hanno l'intento di renderci partecipi delle sensazioni dell'artista (che fra l'altro decise di eseguire questi pezzi principalmente nei teatri). Il disco inizia con la spettrale "Dorita" e prosegue con una riflessione sulla vita nella ritmica "What's Good"; l'artista descrive la sua esperienza in "Power and Glory" in cui le voci e gli echi descrivono perfettamente la drammaticità che porta a "Magician", un pezzo straordinario che ci riporta a certe atmosfere di "Berlin". "Sword Of Damocles" descrive la consapevolezza da parte di Reed di aver superato momenti in cui la morte era ormai prossima e avrebbe introdotto l'andamento funereo di "Goodby Mass" e la voce sofferta e "ciclica" di "Cremation e Dreamin'". L'andamento folk di "No Chance" e quello rock di "Warrior King" sono in perfetta simbiosi con i testi e anticipano la assoluta disperazione che traspare in "Harry's Circumcision", mentre ascoltando "Gassed and Stocked" sembra di assistere allo scoppio dei fili del telefono.
Il disco trova la sua degna conclusione (dopo la trasfigurazione elettrica di "Power and Glory, Pt. 2") nella stupenda title-track che entra a pieno titolo tra le migliori canzoni-poesia della storia della musica popolare (stupenda soprattutto la frase finale che racchiude tutta l'opera: "There is a bit of magic in everything and then some loss to even things out"). In definitiva questo disco va a concludere una ideale trilogia della morte che dimostra una volta di più come Lou Reed sia uno dei poeti più raffinati della storia americana.
Elenco tracce e testi
08 Dreamin' (Escape) (05:09)
If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you
If I trying hard and concentrate I can still hear you speak
I picture myself in your room by the chair
you're smoking a cigarette
If I close my eyes I can see your face you're saying, "I missed you"
Dreamin' - I'm always dreamin'
If I close my eyes I can smell your perfume you look and say "Hi baby"
If I close my eyes pictures from China still hang from the wall
I hear the dog bark I turned and say, "what were you saying?"
I pictured you in the red chair inside the pale room
You sat in your chair with a tube in your arm - you were so skinny
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
They say in the end the pain was so bad that you were screaming
Now you were no saint but you deserved better than that
From the corner I watched them removing things from your apartment
But I can picture you red chair and pale room inside my head
If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you
If I try hard and concentrate I can hear your voice saying,
"Who better than you"
If I close my eyes I can't believe that I'm here without you
Inside your pale room your empty red chair and my head
Dreamin' , I'm always dreamin'
09 No Chance (Regret) (03:15)
It must be nice to be steady, it must be nice to be firm
It must be nice never to move off the mark
It must be nice to be dependable and never let anyone down
It must be great to be all the things you're not
It must be great to be all the things that I'm not
I see you in the hospital your humor is intact
I'm embarrassed by the strength I seem to lack
If I was in your shoes
so strange that I'm not
I'd fold up in a minute and a half (x2)
and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye (x2)
It must be nice to be normal it must be nice to be cold
It must be nice not to have to go oh up or down
But me I'm all emotional no matter how I try
you're gone and I'm still here alive (x2)
and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
No - I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
There are things we say we wish we knew and in fact we never do
But I'd wish I'd known that you were going to die
Then I wouldn't feel so stupid, such a fool that I didn't call
And I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
No there's no logic to this - who's picked to stay or go
If you think too hard it only makes you mad
But your optimism made me think you really had it beat
So I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
10 Warrior King (Revenge) (04:27)
I wish I was the warrior king in every language that I speak
Lord over all that I survey and all that I see I keep
Power omnipresent, undiminished uncontrolled
With a mass of violent fury at the center of my soul
I wish I was a warrior king, inscrutable benign
With a faceless charging power always at my command
Footsteps so heavy that the world shakes, my rage instilling fear, ah, ha
Yet cautious firm but fair and good, the perfect warrior king
I wish I installed angels in every subject's house
Agents of my goodness no one would be without
A steak on every plate, a car for every house
And if you ever crossed me, I'd have your eyes put out
You don't exist without me, without me you don't exist
And if logic won't convinced you then there's always this
I'm bigger, smarter, stronger, tough; yet sensitive and kind
And though I could crush you like a bug, it would never cross my mind
It wouldn't cross my mind to break your neck or rip out your vicious tongue
It wouldn't cross my mind to snap your leg like a twig or squash you like some slug
You are a violent messenger and I'm not above your taunts
And if you hit me, you know I'll kill you, because I'm the warrior king
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