The Phantom and His Glam Boy Posse

I don't believe in dressing up reality. I don't believe in using makeup to make things look smoother.
Lou Reed

Well, I am still stuck on Lou Reed. Here is a little montage I did for The Deadbeat Club a year or so ago back when we were still doing the hot Babes of the Month segments (BOTMs if you will). This month was "Glam Rockers" although i know we were stretching the term a wee bit with Tom Waits (he is a glamerous lounge lizard!), Prince (again, glamerous wearer of heels and jewels) and Sting (glamerous white hair and hot body!). But David Bowie and Lou Reed definitely fit the glam rock bill to a high heeled "T" and some might say that they define the entire darn movement!

In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle. Lou Reed

This sizzlin' montage is set to Bowie's "Rebel Rebel." There have been various times in my life when I can't get this infectious song out of my puny head and I walk around yelling, "Hot tramp, i love you so!" Perhaps it is my affinity for bad skin (if that is what "your face is a mess" means?), and men in tight pants, crazy color combos, high heels and make-up? These suave fellows are not afraid of their sexuality, they walk the boundary lines with daring aplumb!

Fresh from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie successfully mixed rock songs with theater, androgyny and glitter, and RCA was happy to give their fast fading star over to him for recording Transformer (RCA, 1972). For his part, Lou Reed was a willing participant in a make over which transformed him from an austere street poet into the Glam star dubbed "The Phantom of Rock" by his label. Angela Bowie described the new Lou Reed as "wearing heavy mascara and jet black lipstick with matching nail polish, plus a tight little Errol-Flynn-as-Robin Hood body shirt."
- That's Mr. Reed To You—The Uncle Lou Story
By Richard Abowitz

David Bowie has said that Lou Reed brought legitimacy and a certain NYC grittiness to the glam rock scene which was in danger of exploding from all the poofy feather boas no doubt. I can see this being the case but it still stuns me a little bit to see an emaciated Lou all dolled up in lipstick. It is such a departure from his current thicker, leather jacket-wearing, tough-man-look. In fact, out of these five rather glamerous rockers - Bowie, Reed, Sting, Prince and Waits - only dear old Prince is still out there sexing it up in tight pants and high heels (that could be due to a height insecurity though). The rest have gotten older, thicker and more manly with time. Perhaps blurring gender boundaries became harder as the years passed by. Ah well, we will always have our memories and this hot, hot, hot montage! So get out your chocolates ladies, these glam rockers are glitzed out for your pleasure!

That's why I survived because I still believe I've got something to say. Lou Reed

Oh, and here is an interesting bit I found on youtube the other day. It is a very odd remix of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" using a zillion diverse artists like Bowie, Bono, Shane McGowan (toothless!! love it!!), Emmy Lou Harris, Elton John, and a bunch of opera singers to sing each of the lines of the song. Oddly enough, they each retain the somber mood of the song and no one gets all happy and dopey with it (maybe Hilary Duff might have had she been included) but nonetheless, the mix is disjointed and strange. It's like listening to your favorite song through a tin can attached to a string that is connected to your stereo across the street over 2 lanes of traffic and pedestrians gabbing. It just sounds well...wrong. I am glad Lou Reed and the song are getting their props, Lou certainly deserves them. And it is sweet that his wife, Laurie Anderson (how cool is it that they are married? like a perfect rock/experimental music merging!) sings the last line. But this remix is, well, it is a watered down bastard child. And did I mention the creepy clarinet solo? Blech. You be the judge: