Listening to Metal Machine Music

[Roboto8088]

What has been heard cannot be un-heard.

[gethsenamane]

I agree with the comment below. It gets better with age. It sounds the best at the age you die.

[terminalharmony]

You know what? Even if it was a complete and utter joke, it's still "music", just like the bullshit today's youth listen to is "music". No supreme potentate of sound declared "music" to be one rigidly-defined set of constructs, as bizarre and untenable as Metal Machine Music may be.

[qued01]

@terminalharmony

I don't know what some of those words mean. The purpose of speech is communication. Who is at fault here, you or me?

Now think again.

[TheTrainRex]

Go listen to Smegma.

[CaliCatBlog]

You took off your headphones in the middle of the video. That's cheating. :O

[keepcalmycarryon]

Philistine.

[hhwha1]

Lou Reed really went too poppy here.

[MouseGordon]

anyone know where i can get the lyrics?

[mrluxuryyacht]

It was meant as a joke and it still is. Any semblance of order or beauty is random. Ordo ab Chao, baby.

[DrMerkwuerdichliebe]

First really heard Reed's MMM here on YT (altho I often heard about it); the clip seems to be gone now. Grateful to the dude who posted it--not long after, I bought that unique recording.

[Neptuneman07]

It gets better with age.

[PutItAway101]

Next project - listen to Rebecca Black

[donotseemecricket]

so just what the fuck was the point of this video? why are we made to look at your goofy face for a minute forty-five? Lets get this straight here. This music is great, but this video was just dumb.

[Rapchaid]

fucking hell, Jeff!

[taariqtaariq]

imagine doing acid or mushrooms and listening to this for a whole day and night!!!! that is when things would get weird!!!

[donotseemecricket]

@taariqtaariq did 3 dried grams of mushrooms the other day and put this on at the peak of the trip.

needless to say it made me realise that lou created all of mankind, as well as the universe with this LP and that humans were all just gods and we laid around in our own trash and filth. I listened to it on a lower dose of mushroms previously as well, and that was also amazing, not as insightful but i could see each and every individual little pitch and sound, they werealla mess of chaotic colours

[taariqtaariq]

@donotseemecricket

dude, don't play this whilst tripping. You might not come back. Stick to 'Forever changes' by Arthur Lee and Love.Go to the forests or the beach for tripping , it is much healthier.... if taking drugs can be healthy!

[donotseemecricket]

@taariqtaariq nawww man, this album is perfect for tripping in my case. its one of my favourites. it's so beautiful and so much more interesting than conventional music. and i have been to the forest and to the beach, ive been all over tripping. i know how to trip and what i like. and i love this album. i wake up to MMM almost every morning before i get my day started. it suits me well, let's say.

[MrVelderado]

haha, I remember when I bought this in the early eighties I WAS disappointed, i was waiting for a live album, since i was just 16 and just discovered lou reed music, including a night with lou reed and new sensations, two of my favourites. but he is genius.

[nospmohtracso]

this music isn't even supposed to be unlistenable, its not just a statement its beautiful music, if you want music that is purely brutal listen to Merzbow - Venereology, that shit makes death metal look like the Jackson 5

[Golfhaus]

Wow, that's an awfully powerful emotional response. One hopes you're playing up to the camera, because if that is your response to displeasing external aural stimulus, whenever you hear a Taylor Swift song, you're going to end up on the news.

[rsfaan91]

come on guys even reed did it as a joke!!

[iorispiegel]

@rsfaan91 OF COURSE NOT! D:, know your reed...

[countdown247]

It gets on your nerves after a while.

[MrJamesrnolan]

Lester Bangs, pt.2 : "Perhaps I should also mention that I like this record. Why? Because I am an Insect Death buff."

[MrJamesrnolan]

Lester Bangs, pt.1 : "In general Lou is not excessively fond of other members of the human race,so this album is,or wants to be some kind of ultimate anti-social act.When the MC5 debuted,John Sinclair said they and their music would "make you feel it,or leave the room." Lou wants to make music that'll make you feel it and leave the room.Has he succeeded?No.Everybody stayed put when it came on.They chuckled at it then went back to their chores.He has succeeded at taking a hissing muzak whiz."

[gustavoarg1]

que mierda!

[pandaeyes42]

Sonic Youth based their career on this album and the entire Velvet Underground back catalogue!

Not saying that's a bad thing!!!

[MarauderU]

this album is awesome

[K4RoNT3]

@MarauderU lol

[MarauderU]

@K4RoNT3 what do you mean lol?

[JagrrrTV]

You don't like Metal Machine Music, I get it. fuck off, smart-ass. LAME.

[maclove50]

@JagrrrTV dude the guy who recorded that shit even said himself people are stupider than me for actually recording it. all he did was leave his guitars out next to an amp and it made that horrible noise, you need to know real music dude. that stuff melts ur brain.

[JagrrrTV]

@maclove50 yeah know all about it. It's noise. I just didn't appreciate this guy's joke or it's delivery. but I do appreciate real music too.

but I'm not gonna agrue 'bout it.

[asbear]

Man i love your video... so funny.

[daven58100]

F'n hilarious video. I like Lou Reed but this is too much.

[ajvlvXyi]

this is how i feel about lady gaga, dave matthews, beyonce, keisha, and just about everything else on the radio. wish THIS was played on the radio.

[taariqtaariq]

@ajvlvXyi yes, lame arse poppy commercial radio should be  made to play this track everyday .That will learn them bubblegum music morons.

[taariqtaariq]

@ajvlvXyi good call!

[DarknessHowls]

I actually don't find this album to be as terrible as everyone else does. It's not particularly musical, but it has a nice texture to it, if that makes any sense. As far as avant-garde/noise goes, there's better, but there's plenty of stuff that's worse.

That said, I don't think I could listen to the entire thing straight through.

[vveq]

This video cracked me up! The cat was smart enough to run away. I wonder what the sheet music to this looks like.

[eviltube1111]

Great song! I played this at a party and everyone disco danced!

[clarkshapedbox]

he dosent have shit on mick barr

[HaydnRamone]

Great song, the chorus is so catchy...

[groovechaser]

Now if Lady Gaga would make a bold statement to her record company like that after she milks her success.

[ProjectFlashlight612]

Poor cat! It's bad enough for humans, that album...nice little video. :)

[noodlesofteriyaki]

I absolutely love this music. It is a brilliant reinterpretation of Beethoven's symphony no. 3. Edgy, punkish, and interesting.

[jimmyjimmyjimjim2293]

no. it's not.

it's 8 minutes of feedback. or on the vinyl, 61 minutes of feedback with an infinite 2 second loop at the end.

it's not an interpretation of anything, it's just feedback from several guitars using absolutely massive amplifiers.

some people like it, many more don't.

by the way, 'reinterpretate' isn't a word, nor any forms derived from it.

you're a pretentious dick who is talking out of his arse.

[MaidenPriest420]

black metal

[tonehog]

I accidentally the whole song.

[JMfrac]

You mean, accidently the fleshlight. The whole fleshlight!

[SYR81]

there's music in that song if you actually listen.. possibly being high would help hear it, but its still there.

[hebesphenomegacorona]

how the hell can you like throbbing gristle and hate this? they're the worst band of life

[noisefloriblu]

actualy I like the song, what's the matter?

[Ulmeyda08]

There is no such thing as Interesting music.

It's ever good or it isnt.

Metal Machine Music isnt.

[Areskelian]

You don't a goddamn thing about music.

[Ulmeyda08]

STFU.

I know everything from Throbbing gristle to Sandie Shaw

[Areskelian]

nigga please

[Ulmeyda08]

*kisses teeth*

[Areskelian]

HAW HAW HAW

[Thelaofkazi]

Dude, I could listen to the entire song without getting annoyed at all AND my headphones were bigger then yours so hahahaha ur a wimp!! How 'bout you grow a pair and learn to listen to music for REAL men so fuck you you suck and im not being sarcastic you suck lol.

[fag0tron]

PUSSY

[pulsedemon]

Also, Merzbow's 1930 is an actual composition with thought and care put into it. MMM is just sped up and slowed down guitar noises. Even Zorn's Never Again is actually composed, it's just astoundingly hard to listen to.

[mancheromanchero]

of god. its like listening to a german conversation.

[kingcat61]

^kim^yhklhyjdutjhnckcdjfnhjcjd­snjgnhjkbkjbgkghkjhjkhkjjkygkf­vlsdmfr;khb,dxjdkgkhh4444h5f8g­8jh8fd65ghhh6b5n5j5g5d55g5n5v5­5vh5hn:jlhjh;:,;,;glhg;,:,:;:;­:jnhlglfklolju:;!!b:nl;,l:h:v:­vlb;:,:;::,lgvl

yes

[philipjames]

It's more like "Listening to Merzbow" that should cause these reactions.

[SuperMelon1]

A lot of Merzbow's releases aren't very harsh. MMM is just torture.

[FamGuyGuy123]

This reminds me of those series of pictures of that guy who was strapped onto that bed for a year in the movie Seven.

[chrishove123]

in an interview for radio 3 he was asked about this album being a throwaway piece of noise and he stated that he gets pissed off when people say this, he also stated that he knows this album inside out and can tell exactly where on the album things are and that he knows where each sound is. If you dispute this then take it up with the man himself. I have the whole show on tape.

[perpitbla5]

I listen to Metal Machine Music when I'm trying to stay up late and finish an essay. It keeps me awake and helps me focus.

But my choice of Lou Reed for listening to on the bus? Anything else.

[Vader5333]

ANYONE who likes this or call it art is an ignorant piece of shit. Sure, this is just noise, but that is not the only reason it is just shit. Mars Volta is noise shit. THIS ALBUM, however, was a fucking joke. Lou Reed has said NUMEROUS times that he was contractually obliged to make any album and he was pissed off at the record company at the time so he just got stoned and stood in front of an amp for 64 minutes.

[over18]

it wasn't as basic as you think. the fact that he had the balls to actually give this to RCA proves how big of an artistic statement he made with it. he said "fuck you, i'll do what i want" with this one.

"in his manhattan apartment, he set up two amps and two guitars and tape-recorded the results. he did not play the guitars, he allowed the feedback loop created between the guitars and amps to play themselves, moving them and recording long stretches of noise over a period of a couple weeks."

[DejectedPanda]

@over18 As a fuck you, its brilliant. It's definitely not something I take very seriously though.

[sydbarrett5]

For the fans of Metal Machine Music, what other albums would you recommend?

[ThePhobiaViewed]

sydbarret5: Merzbow's 1930. I find it much more brutal than MMM. The most annoying thing I have ever heard though has to be 'Never Again' on John Zorn's album 'Kristallnacht'. It's like 10 minutes of shattering glass and high pitched squeals. The album even comes with a warning not to listen to it too loud or long because the high pitches can cause nausea and permanent hearing loss lol

[nasalscarecrow]

I'm familiar with Zorn but I haven't heard that song. My neighbours keep waking me up with rap music, so I'll get the one you mentioned and play it at 3am, thanks!

[fluorophoric]

Metal Machine Music has been my favorite album since it came out. Noise forever!

[jacobgoldbergsongs]

what kind of out-of-touch with music faggot has to "endure" Metal Machine Music? its not that crazy, it hasnt been that crazy since its release. get out more

[SuperMelon1]

I'm sure I could play this to dozens of Katy Perry fans who get out often and they'd find the experience torturous. Most people would.

[TheChavStabber]

Actually, more to the point. Why the fuck does it even matter? It's experimental music, you either like it or you don't. It's subjective, no one could prove anyone else right or wrong and it would take Lou Reed himself to put an end to it which, let's face it, is highly unlikely to happen on youtube.

[bunnyhead71]

I thought it was a worthless contract obligation disc. he (Reed) was also horrendously in the grips of a 1000.00 dollar a day heroin addiction-Maybe I'm the douche here, But I get it 100%, Sure it sucks. It's suppose to-Sometimes thats what I like about art. How disturbing it can be.

[chrissearle]

for some reason that guys appearance reminds me of paul gilbert haha

[thegrindskateshop]

this is a hilarious slap in the face coming after a huge selling record

[issofunky]

Consider ALL of the Beatles bullshit.

Revolution #9 specifically

and the NEW crap mcCartny JUST dug up.

& Pink FLOYD'S umaGuma bullshit era before they slowed down on the drugs...

or for that matter...Ultimate Spinich

...and the OLD "presidents of the united states" which inspired a good chunk of Portishead's succesful sound.

Lou was JUST doing a soundscape....its NOT a far stretch to say that he meant it to be enjoyed beside who r u 2 judge what is noise and what is great art?

[bowiemott]

Lou was fulfilling the last part of a record contract with a company he no longer cared for,which is why he dumped this crap. I bought it the day it hit the stores back in the day. I returned the next to get a refund. The record store owner just shrugged and pointed to a growing pile of MMM albums that had already been returned. This record is crap

[issofunky]

after 20 years in the studio...I can say this....there is NO WAY this was a joke concocted the night before a master was due for his label...as the urban legend (or lester (huff-head) bangs) would have you believe.

This album took weeks...at very least...and based on what I hear...this album was NOT easy to put together....its NOT just white noise or tape his or sampled vinyls(yes that IS a dig on rap and hiphop)....he played this....on a number of instruments...its NOT just guitar

[PutItAway101]

Might take *you* weeks to do this, but all it is a track of random guitar noise and a track of random keyboard twiddling put through a fuckload of delay.

[issofunky]

remember the time period we're talking about.

this was not done in protools....adding a "fuckload of delay" wasn't a ten second click in some software....he might've spent hours just patching this hardward in to get the loops through the right path.

I'm sorry you have no respect for creative approaches to art....maybe you should go listen to some bootie and the ho-fish or dave matthews.

[PutItAway101]

You are a know-nothing idiot trying to sound clever about shit you know zero about. The delay is about 100 ms or less, well within the reach of tape delay of the time. Would have taken 10 seconds to plug in an Echoplex, Echorec, Space Echo, whatever.

[issofunky]

....right....

[issofunky]

You are EXACTLY the kind of middle of the road mind, semi-cultured dip wit pop music minded (beatle fan) ears that Lou

was TRYING to alianate.

With EVERY album he was telling the wimps to GET OUT! ...you were just too dense to know you were being told to leave.

His standoffishness in EVERY boring interview shows this man's REAL mind...clearly...

sometimes razor sharp

other times dull as a rock

...but make no mistake

his thoughts are of killing anyone he didn't get it.

[bowiemott]

Right and you are exactly the middle of the road poser seeking hipster cred by name checking you don't understand

[issofunky]

You have NO IDEA what I do or don't understand.

[PutItAway101]

Every time you post we get more of an idea of what you don't understand.

[issofunky]

...oh...ok....right....ofcours­e....because YOU know fucking everything.

EVERYTHING the guy does (no matter how ridiculous) is deliberate, maticulous and heavily thought out.....even if the intent

is to make music that curdles your blood.

[PutItAway101]

He seems to think he's the first person in the world to discover the 70s and the only one who's heard of any avant garde or underground shit. The lightbulb hasn't gone on in his head that *everyone* looking at this vid knows that stuff or they wouldn't be here in the first place.

[burningangel1000]

@PutItAway101 yeah dog

[reverendflash]

@PutItAway101

Who are you talking about - the video poster? His friend Jeff? And how is he guilty of what you said?

[PutItAway101]

@reverendflash Neither of those, just some random commenter a year ago. He was talking like he knew something about music production and clearly didn't.

[PutItAway101]

@reverendflash Remember that was a year ago before Youtube started putting the "@whoever" tags on replies comments. That comment belongs in the middle of a thread of comments from a year ago from one particulary arrogant idiot commenter, but for some reason people have voted it up enough to appear at the top of the comments list. Prob beacuse the guy I was shooting down was such a douche. It doesn't make much sense out of that original context.

[TheChavStabber]

I still think Lou Reed was having a laugh when he did this even though it's one of the original 'noise music' albums. So many pretentious fucks and scenesters think it's the be all and end all along with Merzbow but everyone seems to overlook the fact that making experimental music doesn't need to be a po-faced, up you own arse affair. It can be fun, it can be entertaining. Yeah, Reed was influenced by Cage, Young and others and there IS a serious compositional element involved in this album.

[abacaba1977]

Could you elaborate on this compositional element? I'm curious to hear how Lou Reed composed this piece.

[TheChavStabber]

Any piece of music must be composed to some degree, even the noise I make begins with some sort of idea of a flow or dynamic. Why the fuck do people need to argue over the intricacies of a piece of art to back up their own subjective perception? This whole album is made up of feedback, layers and layers of feedback manipulated to form textures and drones like La Monte Young did prior to this. Try understanding the form of the composition yourself within the context of this style of music.

[abacaba1977]

I see. Interesting. Thank you. Now, what do you use to compose your noise? A guitar? Synthesizer? Laptop? Found devices processed through effects pedals? I ask because I'm curious about different artists' methods for creating noise. By the way, "I Make them Paranoid" is excellent in the way that only a brutal cacophony can be.

[RYANKOKO]

Great video mate, you have became a man my son go forth.

Its a funny yet scary bit of work. Check out the equipment Lou used to make this masterpiece in the sleevenotes half of it he made up cause he is a fun guy. Have fun kids!

[RodC80]

a real toe tapper! lol

[ZeropointZero70]

i bet if you play it backwards it would sound pretty melodic. NOT!

[arsrcs]

I don't know if it is good, bad or indifferent, a joke on me, a poke at him. I did buy the album when it came out, despite the clerk warning me it was noise. Listened to it too. Gave me a headache. Does anyone know that at the end of the second side the needle is not directed to the record center to activate the return? The groove is a solid circle so the needle just skips, over and over.

Someone other than Lou Reed didn't come with this album, Lou came with it, so I listened. Once.

[rut8888]

i cant believe people are actually defending this piece of crap. Its not fucking art. If someone else than Lou Reed came with this album noone would lsiten to it.

[bowiemott]

That is true. However, lots of coffee shop, laptop, pseudo intellectuals need a hipster reference to (hopefully) get laid so they locate crap like this and think they have struck gold. This album was crap when it came out (I bought it and returned it the next day) and its crap now. Its cool if they want to try to get laid but don't ask me, as someone who knows better, to accept MMM as anything but total garbage. I bet at Burning Man these posers go "dude, MMM is the shit".

[kidcalabria]

I found this album, not easy to find, in the early 80s, and used to listen to it in the dead of night, really loud, thru headphones, speeding on some real strong pharmaceutical anphetamine, aged 15. I thought it was great, I still do, and that most people are unlikely to "get it".

[roknrule]

Get it? Get what? That Lou Reed just made you look like a dumb ass for believing that his message of Fuck you was meant to be a serious album? Gimme a break man.

[kidcalabria]

You must be one of these very articulate people who use YouTube to exchange ideas...How is appreciating a work of art "dumb ass"? "Fuck you" message? With M M M Reed tried to create in sound the chemical formula of anphetamine. Read the album notes, or check interviews like the R&R Heart DVD. The aesthetic theory about the correspondences among sounds, colours, smells, etc.. is called Synaestesia. 30 years later he's still performing it with The Asphodel Orchestra. Dumb ass? Look in the mirror.

[kidcalabria]

Obviously you never heard Reed, John Cale & The Velvets making R&R using feedback and drones. John Cale did it with La Monte Young, Terry Riley (the albun Church Of Anthrax) Cage, etc.. it's what avant-garde music, from which Cale came, was about in the 60s.. M M M was the next step. You talk of Lou Reed like he was Christina Aguilera. Give YOURSELF a break & know what you're talking about before you open your mouth: you're living proof of my point about people "not getting it". Thank you.

[nicorelief2]

I huffed ether five minutes before listening to this.

I can see God.

[lafla2]

What a total earfuck, just from that short 1:45 of that music I have a massive headache.

[cheek]

haha...the cat...

[RunningComedian]

I like it, realy.

[Konner]

How could one of the greatest song writers of all time, allow a torturously long ear-fuck to be released with his name on it?

[Malumbrus]

He did it to fuck the record label he was with. His contract forced him to produce another album and he wanted out, so he just gave them that shit. They tried ruining his career by releasing it.

[kidcalabria]

That's just not true. He did 2 other albums on RCA, Lou Reed Live (from the same gig as R&R Animal) & Coney Island Baby, & the single Nowhere At All (76) & his first compilation Walk On The Wild Side (The Best Of Lou Reed). He was dead serious about M M M & said so in numerous interviews. It takes off from The Velvets with John Cale, and more to the point, was a synaesthetic experiment to produce in sound anphetamine's chemical formula. See the album notes. A masterpiece & people don't get it

[kidcalabria]

Besides: 1) You don't have to take my word for it. If it was "shit", as you suggest, why is he playing it with the Aphodel orchestra after 30 years? Look up the vid here on YouTube. 2) Don't you know that Bowie, Kraftwerk & others considered it a seminal work? 3) See him talking about it (briefly) in the DVD documentary R&R Heart 4) Compare it to John Cale's work with Terry Riley (Church Of Anthrax) La Monte Young or John Cage before The Velvets. These are facts, not R&R mythology for children.

[Michaelas11]

This > Cannibal Corpse

[jolivia]

quite possibly the best video of all time!

[wookie72]

It's got a trance quality.

[arnikki]

i have the album and reed writes on the back that its not really his idea that people listen to it hehe he just loved making it

strange guy isnt it?

[rb6x7]

I remember buying MMM on lp and Monty Pythons 'Big Red Book'(it's blue) on the same day. 30 years later I have niether one. I would like to see that book again.

[Huddiethegreat]

Ive only hear part one. :(

[drbrandonjoyce]

Without the slightest shred of irony:

Metal Machine Music is my absolute favorite song.

I could listen to it for days on end.

[Bowiefanperson]

ON ACID. Well actually it is a pretty good song. Haven't heard the whole album yet.

[Deeprive]

It's the perfect torture

[enigmamonkey92]

that album sold more that 100,000

[jowkdd]

also the most returned album of all time

[zardozman7]

I hope you had the volume turned down! lol

Forget waterboarding. Listening to all sides of this record with volume only 1/2 way is an excellent tool for interrogation. All sides one shot.

[pryorandrew]

hell yes this and death metal

[quadr0phenic515]

poor kitty. D:

[uncgo123]

In not that bad.I bought it when I was 18,listened to it a few times,put it away.But the next time you're in a big casino(like Vegas),stand in the middle of the slot machine pit,close your eyes and listen.The sound has a discordant,shimmering quality-like a mix of MMM and Phillip Glass.But don't do it too long if drinking...

[alexitin]

sounds like a lot of fluxus stuff

[VomitSelf7]

I love Metal Machine Music. I listened to it realy loud. My dad left me and my mom, my neighbor commited suicide, and my dog is deaf. I couldn't be happier.

[Novnine]

I've listened to it in one go twice just to see if I could get through it. It was almost like an endurance test. Maybe I like to torture myself. I don't know.

[tuuurster]

Yes there are, Zwatzzo. I actually listen to part III right now.

Just not in one listen though, I can just barely stand parts of a few minutes at a time.

[Zatzzo]

i wonder if theres a single person on this planet who likes MMM.

[wildshovel]

I like MMM quite a bit. It's no work of staggering genius (contrary to what Mr. Reed's lame self-promotion and liner notes would have you believe), but it is an enjoyable high volume sound collage. I have no doubt this influenced Glen Branca's early experiments with massed electric guitars.

[Applemask]

Aw, poor pussycat. It didn't deserve that.

For the uninitiated, and given that he's only listening to part one here, imagine that noise going on for 16 minutes straight. And then starting again for another sixteen minutes. And again. And then a fourth time.