I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a prettier thing than the calm, steady rainfall in the city at night, whilst I rode my bike and played this on my headphones. I can tell you I damned-near reached Nirvana that night - one of the most perfect moments of my life
Dig your short story !! Been there and done it brother !! Music can lift you into Neverland sometimes. It's like the feeling of love at first sight . Lol..hey have a great 2019
Love this. Played it at my brothers funeral in 2001. He loved Lou. He was 50 when he passed. Lived a hard life. I was 14 years younger then him introduced me to Lou’s music. One of my all time favourite artists until this day. Love you lou
My voices in the background..Lou wanted that doo op Brooklyn street singing sound. I was just the right person to give it to him. It was my second album doing back up vocals for him; “Sally Can’t Dance” was the first. We always got along..one night in the studio he taught me how to drink Scotch😆 Media sound..for my money, at that time the best studio in NYC. The whole album was a gas.. but the title track was absolute magic. One of the reasons is that guitarist extraordinaire Bob Kulick, who had played on a bunch of my records was on board. He was one of the most versatile and intuitive players of all time. I felt there was something missing at the end of the title track..I had an Idea and suggested that he finish with the sort dedication we had heard on the radio growing up. He didn’t skip a beat, knew exactly what I was saying, and in one take ended the tune touchingly and perfectly. Fittingly that was the last bit of recording. I was sitting at the recording console the next day with Godfrey Diamond the engineer when Lou popped in and said he was going away for a few weeks and that he wanted us to mix the album while he was gone. We looked at each other thunder struck but that’s how it went down. Unforgettable music unforgettable experience. Thanks Lou for the trust. Mike Wendroff 31/October/22. Tucson AZ.
Wow Mike! I must have listened to this album a hundred times until I realized what I love most about it: the choir! Because your voice(s) make Lou‘s lyrics feelable, especially in dreamy whispered tunes like „Crazy Feeling“ and „A Gift“. Thank you so much for your singing Mike. I‘m a Coney Island Baby now. ❤
ty , always assumed it was lou reed. amazing guitar playing, thank you Bob. been trying to find the tab. do you have any other songs of his playing to recommend?
First time I heard this song was driving back home from the beach in Southern California. I'd just gotten on the freeway, turned the radio on and caught the song just as it was starting. It was dusk. It must have caught me in just the right mood because the lyrics seemed so clear, almost as if Reed was speaking to me. And I thought about old friends, people I'd grown up with and hadn't seen for years, my old neighborhood. So I'm driving along and suddenly I was engulfed by a sense of grief and loss, and I started weeping openly, surprised that I'd made such an instant connection to it. And as the song plays on I'm thinking I have to know the name of it because I'm going to go buy this right away. And when the song ended the DJ says that was Coney Island Baby by the great Lou Reed. Turns out the radio station had apparently been playing nothing but Lou Reed songs that afternoon because he had just died. And when I got home I played Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side and Sweet Jane over and over and over again.
Mate,what a great story. Thaks for sharing. This little part of your life you described happened to all of us . Maybe not literally but in the whole sense of it ,we all have those moments of clarity in life when we see the sense of life. Greetings from Poland.
This song is perfection. I listen to it when I am upset, stressed out, hurting, confused...and know that it is ok to be me, the freak that I am. I wanna be Lou Reed.
I am a small, slightly butch female. He was so free to be himself it is too easy to look to Lou for a roadmap towards self expression. Thank you, Raoul. Perfect message for today.
i first heard this song when i was 14ish. i'm female. I never wanted to play football for the coach. I was hurdler. And I too wanted the approval and acceptance and win for my coach. I never had any girl on girl crushes or same on same on, never in my wheel house.............but the desolateness, the wanting, of this song,,,,,,,,,to belong...........for approval..............it was the first song that really spoke to me...........when your all alone and lonely in your midnight hour and you find that your soul has been up for sale and you begin to think that all the things that you done and you begin to hate just about everything.....that was me in 10th grade. And God Lou was real. RIP . The longing of belonging for who you are, the longing for unconditional love....yeah i was abused by my step father......and everything was a muck mess. Lou and this song saved me. The Glory of Love......Rachel, i'd give the whole thing up for you. I never had a Rachel, but i have 2 daughters Stefanie and Andrea, and 2 sons, David and Jonathon............and after all these years, I'd give the whole thing up for them. Unconditional love is without condition. Thank you Lou.
God bless honesty and you are not alone. Its beyond sexuality, its so beyond that. I am a 62 yr old poor white man. If i had any answers i would share them with you. Thats Love, the only currency of value
I really felt your comment. Thank you for posting it. I'm going through a challenge right now. I'm a 66 year old black man, and l like to designate because people waste too much time on things that are not important. When trouble comes, it is not black or white, it's personal. Thank you, hope you life is good...
What a beautiful reply to this song by anyone I have ever heard. I have performed this song as a giging musician, both as a solo with just an acoustic guitar and in a small combo with an attempt to replicate the incredible and subtle lead guitar work. Few lead players can cop the the needed feel of the original piece. Even if they do the only people who really respond to it can respond this kind of naked, haunting beautiful depth of exposure to our fragile vulnerability. You are one of them and it's so wonderful to see and hear about. Thank you Lou one my all-time heros with a rocky weird life that can deliver this and people like you who get it and can express it. Thank you and may you stay "Forever Young" (Bob Dylan) . . .
i recently shared this with my 31 year old daughter Phd ................they don't hear this kind of stuff.................i'm a damaged person, I want her to know the yearning for acceptance and unconditional love. I wanted her to feel it through Lou's words because mine would never do. I hope she gets to a point of understanding that not everyone grew up with a loving parent /supervisor/guardian. We lived on the edge back in the day.
I met Lou Reed twice and wish I got to know him better! What depth and understanding of the plight of every day people in New York City or could be anywhere! I am so thankful to be able to still listen to his words and music! A great man an angel to me no doubt!…..
It was the 70's . I went to the library and found this album. I wasn't yet 18 years old and my life was a complete mess. This man seemed to have gone through it same as me. Maybe there was a way out. God bless you Lou Reed. I'm sorry you're not here but I hope to hear you in the next.
A beautiful song that so many people fail to understand. This isn't necessarily his specific dream of playing football for the coach. It's partly the flip side of take a walk on the wild side. Neither story is exactly him, he's just telling stories about how people see their world.
I think "play football for the coach" is just a metaphor for fitting in, doing what's expected of you. Lou was an outsider and a misfit for much of his life because of his drug use, his complex sexuality and his stubborn adherence to his own bold artistic approach, so this song is his own tacit admission that part of him did just want to conform and be like everyone else. But the glory of love saw him through and allowed him to be himself.
Thanks for all songs & lyrics giving a voice to our darkness & our light Lou..... Really miss you & your expressions as a gone real part of my Life....😘👌🙏❤
Lou had somehow become the voice for those on the outside looking in. He represented those who were hushed and abused, and made music to fit those emotions. Albums like VU/Nico and White Light/White Heat painted him as someone who didn't want popular recognition, but this song makes me cry every time. Like so many people, he just wanted to be accepted regardless of his sexuality. I can't help but cry.. Damn, I love you, Lou.
I feel as if I'am the only person in the world listening to this beautiful song on melancholic late January sunset and remembering good days of my youth while gaining strength to face the difficulties of today and looking into the future. As if this kind of music softenes my soul but gives me strength at the same time.
so tortured, so much pain, and so much beauty Lou Reed captured transcended and communicated with words and music the most desperate moments of life in a meaningful and hopeful way
Something like a circus or a sewer and just remember different people have peculiar tastes. But the glory of love might see you through- such awesome lines that only Lou could do.
I love all the comments people wrote about this song and lou 👍🙏🕊🕊🕊🕊🦋🦋🦋🦋🌹🌹🌹🌹🌻🌻🌻🌻🌷🌷🌷🌷.rest in peace lou your not forgotten Godbless you amen Godbless You. 🙏🕊🌹.
I first discovered Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground in grade 10 around 1999 and every single song I heard off the banana album spoke to my soul like nothing I'd ever heard before. In high school I was starting to realize that there was no where I was fitting in socially. I was starting to just avoid everybody because I was most comfortable by myself. I was a major introvert, and had nothing in common with anybody. When I heard Lou Reed, I was relieved to know there was somebody who felt the exact same stuff I felt
Yep. This I agree with. Ive been kicking a bunch of nasty drugs...I'm sure I dont need to tell you which ones. And I havent been sleeping but a few hours a night for the last four weeks of hell. But right now. Sitting in a Sober Living in Los Angeles. Thinking about growing up in Brooklyn with all the same wierd feelings Lou had. Trying to make sense of it. This song helps me let go and just sit with myself.
@@anecdoteskywalker wishing you strength and wisdom...............keep this one as your soul song.........and all your 2 bit friends and went and ripped you off.................be strong Joseph. Life is kinda shitty, kinda great. Kinda fucked.......something like a circus or a sewer. You're loved.
When im see lou reed The first time in May 74 i was hookt and I still collect all VU and lou reed 50 years later im on that booth legg from 1974 live in Stockholm i belive lou was The best rock poet ever
I love this song sooo much 😢 idk why but it makes me happy and wanting to cry all at the same time but i reminisce so much about the past and old daya when i hear it
There's a lot to unpack in this song, but there's very few things in music more affecting than Lou Reed, one of music's most singular and unique icons, admitting that he 'always wanted to play football for the coach,' i,e. be the normal guy
I really like this song. I used to think it was just random shit put together, but it is actually quite profound and existential. Lou is truly a great writer.
You're right Elizabeth, and sometimes, many a times, I get the feeling that it's not only his best, but among the top few best songs ever written, anywhere. Maybe that's just me and my adoration for Lou.
