One of the most popular projects of the moment and that everyone is talking about is the musical collaboration between New York composer Lou Reed and the most selling hard rock band of all times, Metallica. The king of avant-rock and the four thrash metal horsemen have joined forces to raised a few eyebrows with their musical creature “Lulu”, a set of extended songs inspired by some of German expressionist Frank Wedekind's early 20th century plays.
After coming together for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts and performing Velvet Underground classic hits Sweet Jane y White Light/White Heat in New York in 2009, all guilty parties knew they wanted to make more music together. The Long Island singer was inspired enough by that performance that he pronounced: “We knew from then that we were made for each other.”
The original plan was to revisit what Lars Ulrich describes as “some of Lou's lost jewels - songs that he felt he'd like to give a second spin, and we could do whatever it is we do to some of those songs.” That idea “hung in the air” for a couple of months, until director-choreographer Robert Wilson came to scene with his production of the “Lulu Plays“, based on Wedekind's plays
Earth Spirit and
Pandora's Box. Reed was responsible of sketching out the lyrics and musical landscape for a theatrical production in Berlin, but soon was joined by the band to start recording at HQ studios in North California early May of this year.
“We were very interested in working with Lou”, confesses James Hetfield. “I had these giant question marks: what's it going to be like? What's going to happen? So it was great when he sent us the lyrics for the Lulu body of work. It was something we could sink our teeth into. I could take off my singer and lyricist hat and concentrate on the music part. These were very potent lyrics, with a soundscape behind them for atmosphere. Lars and I sat there with an acoustic and let this blank canvas take us where it needed to go. It was a great gift, to be asked to stamp 'TALLICA on it. And that's what we did.”
Reed picks up the tale of Lulu's birth. “I'd worked on this thing for a while. Frank Wedekind didn't get it right first time either, so he tried again. In Berlin they told me there were fourteen versions of this play floating around with differing emphases, but the main thrust of is like Pandora's Box and then I got my paws on it, tried to make sense out of it with my significant other, Laurie Anderson. It was almost impossible at first. We had to figure who Lulu was, her psychology. We had to bring her to life in a sophisticated way, using rock. And the hardest power rock you could come up with would have to be Metallica. They live on that planet. We played together, and I knew it: dream come true.”
“It's definitely not a Metallica album, or a Lou Reed album”, concludes Kirk Hammett. “It's something else. It's a new animal, a hybrid. Nobody in our world, the heavy metal world, has ever done anything like this.”
“Lulu” has been produced by Lou Reed, Metallica, Hal Willner and Greg Fidelman will be available worldwide on October 31 on Universal Music.
Following it is “Lulu”’s complete track list:
- Brandenburg Gate (4:19)
- The View (5:17)
- Pumping Blood (7:24)
- Mistress Dread (6:52)
- Iced Honey (4:36)
- Cheat On Me (11:26)
- Frustration (8:33)
- Little Dog (8:01)
- Dragon (11:08)
- Junior Dad (19:28)
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