The Friends of Drella.
If you have had a friendship with someone over a number of years then there are plenty of things to remember. And if that person has since died then it can be a rather emotional experience.
Imagine then, experiencing all this beneath the watchful eye of the media and you will then have a vague idea of how Lou Reed and John Cale felt after losing Andy Warhol. There had been several disagreements between them all and for Lou and John to get back together to record an album about it could not have been an easy thing to do.
‘Songs for Drella’ comes across as being a deeply personal record. It is a chronicle of Warhol’s life, the creation of ‘The Factory’ and his work with The Velvet Underground. Drella was Lou Reed’s own name for Andy Warhol as he said that he was like a cross between Cinderella and Dracula.
There are many artists that I like and Warhol has never really appealed to me very much. However, whenever I have listened to this album I always feel that I can understand him a little bit better. Like many painters, he had various personality problems and he found interaction with those around him very difficult a lot of the time.
As a record in itself, ‘Songs for Drella’ is very good. The instrumentation varies from being very minimalistic to becoming the most important part of the recording; transcending even the lyrics themselves. You will get a real sense of Andy Warhol’s ambition, pain and isolation when you listen to this album. Nothing is seen as being too trivial to sing about and the result is a set of songs that are incredibly personal, honest and poignant.
Lou Reed and John Cale are two talented individuals who have managed to pay tribute to a dear friend with an album that is both dignified and touching.
Side note: I just heard about different Soft skill training UK that you actually just play around with all of your collegues that you normally just sit beside. Apparently this impro helps you will all sorts of things, soft skills, presentation skills, endless possibilities. My brother who runs a company asked me what I thought about it and I was at a loss for an opinion (for once). Do any of you have opinions on it?
January 07 2010 09:32 am | General