Growing up in Public [Limited] [Remaster]

Performer: Lou Reed
Engineer: Corky Stasiak...
Distributor: MSI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Lou Reed (vocals, guitar); Michael Fonfara (guitar, keyboards); Stuart Heinrich (guitar, background vocals); Chuck Hammer (guitar); Ellard Boles (bass, background vocals); Michael Suchorsky (drums). Producers: Lou Reed, Michael Fonfara. Reissue producer: Rob Santos. Recorded at Air Studios, Montserrat in 1980. Originally released on Arista (9522). Includes liner notes by Timothy & Karin Greenfield-Sanders. Digitally remastered by Elliott Federman (SAJE Sound, New York, New York). Growing Up in Public was a transitional album for Lou Reed; it was his last set with his long-running road band (dominated by keyboardist Michael Fonfara), and while the fleshed-out arrangements are of a piece with Reed's work on Rock & Roll Heart and The Bells, the lyrics of the best songs anticipate the directly personal, emotionally naked songwriting that marked the two extraordinary albums that would follow, The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. "How Do You Speak to an Angel," "My Old Man," and "Standing on Ceremony" deal with Reed's family issues with a direct force he hadn't summoned since "Kill Your Sons" (we'll leave it to others to debate their accuracy), and "So Alone" and "Keep Away" both offer a trenchant but heart-rending look at modern relationships. And "The Power of Positive Drinking" is amusing, but rather surprising coming from a guy who would give up alcohol and drugs a year after this was released. Growing Up in Public didn't get much notice on its initial release, but all these years later it sounds like a dry run for what was to be the most creatively fruitful period of Lou Reed's solo career. ~ Mark Deming

Lou Reed is among the most literate wordsmiths in rock & roll history. His first decade of post-Velvet Underground work included some undeniable high points (BERLIN, the David Bowie-produced TRANSFORMER) but he was plagued by inconsistency. Reed came back with a vengeance in the '80s and '90s, though, producing some truly powerful work (THE BLUE MASK, NEW YORK). Throughout his solo career he's collaborated with everyone from former bandmate John Cale to avant garde theater king Robert Wilson. Through it all, Reed remains the quintessential urban poet, and undoubtedly one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century.

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