In 1984, I met Glen at Hillcrest Country Club in St. Paul when we both started our jobs as caddies. He was into metal, I was into Prince and over the next year we both got into punk and new wave and all of those related genres. In 1985, there was a cool substitute caddy master named Mark LaBossier (spelling, I don't know) - who I have mentioned before on this blog - who would turn Glen and I onto music, lending us cassettes that had one album per side. The Soft Boys, The Teardrop Explodes... are two that come to mind, but the one that made the biggest impact was this album. Around 1985, SPIN magazine came to be and I would buy each issue at the 7-11 down the street from the golf course. I couldn't afford to buy much music then (we got $10 for about five hours of work hauling those clubs), and so I would just collect that music in my head. There was an album out that year, VU, which I didn't realize was a collection of older material, and so I thought they were modern. I listened to the hell out of the tape Mark hooked me up (I just recalled, I think Big Star's 3rd was on the other side.. now that's a solid 1-2) and I must have listened to this album for close to a year, and I mean often, before I somehow discovered that it was recorded in 1966, which was like a century ago at that age (sad to realize the time difference now is an album that came out in 2004). That is how far ahead of its time this band was... and always will stand out that way. Their four albums with Lou Reed - the only ones that really count - are each different and each essential. This one is their first.
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