ReNEW SENSATIONS: Fly Into the Sun

For the longest time, I thought this was just a version of the Velvets instrumental outtake "Ride Into the Sun", which was always a favourite of mine. A lot of unused Velvets material ended up on solo Lou records. "Ride Into the Sun", though, let's talk about that for a while. What a gorgeous song. The guitar line is just great, and then the fuzztone comes on and, you know, sometimes I just want to listen to pop music without words and this is what I want to listen when I want that, and then the piano kicks in the fuzz and the piano and it's not crowded, but there's the melody and the solo, and ahhh.

 
Apparantly, Lou did record that on his 1972 solo debut, which I'm about to listen to for the first time ever. Gimme a second here. I've heard the Dean Wareham version, so I knew there were lyrics, but this is my first time hearing Lou's lyrical take on "Ride Into the Sun." I dunno, what do you want me to say? The Luna version is better, okay? The Luna version kinda just lays some of the lyrics over the instro version. I mean, that first Lou Reed album, it's never done a thing for me. Except, ah, the three songs that were on the boxset, which, I think, were all Velvets leftovers. A "(somebody) Says", "Ocean", and um, "I Can't Stand It". But, man, Dean Wareham has basically made his career off being able to capture that fantastic guitar sound of the original "Ride Into the Sun", so, like, it's his song now.

But that's not even the song we're here to talk about. But, damn, now I just want to stop and listen to "Ocean" and decide which version is better. I'm leaning toward the solo Lou (soLOU) version, because of how much more produced it is, and it's a song that benefits from more production. It's a Meat Loaf song, really, and I love it. Oh, yeah, the Velvets just were not equipped to deal with this song. I mean, even as big as its done on the Lou Reed album, it's not big enough. It should be bigger. It should be, I don't know, performed by Queen, but sung by Pavarotti, just big, you know. I dunno, it's one of the few Velvets tracks I've never heard covered. With good reason. The kind of band that wants to cover a Velvet Underground song, in 1992 or today, is not equipped to deal with "Ocean". Maybe Billy Idol during his Cyberpunk phase, right? That, at least, would have been interesting.

Okay, so "Fly Into the Sun" has nothing to do with "Ride Into the Sun" or "Ocean", except maybe a shared delicateness in their guitar lines. Okay. We got that. This song, then. If you've read Laurie Anderson's account of Lou's last moments, you'll think about that when you listen to this. Thirty years ago! What was hypothetical became concrete! The world! Imagination! WILL POWER!