Apologies for two Lou Reed posts in a row, but hey … you were expecting, maybe, Macklemore or Beyonce? Think again.
I have zero idea about the true provenance of this clip, but herewith a recording of Lou performing his sprawling “Street Hassle” at the Bottom Line in 1978. While recorded the same year and at the same venue as his fabled, potty-mouthed live album Take No Prisoners, I don’t believe this is from that same set.
In any case, accompanying the recording is a surreal, slo-mo montage of Super-8 NYC scenes from — I think — the same era. Squint through the grainy haze and you’ll spot St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Atlas on Fifth Avenue, and then we zip downtown to disarmingly barren Washington Square Park, and then down to the Battery and the Brooklyn Bridge.
It’s all very strangely hypnotic and hard to reconcile as the same city we’re living in today. Enjoy.
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