You see, I look at that guy's face and keep expecting a deeper, gruffer voice to come out of it...something like Anthony Bourdain's, I've decided. I know it's a voice Laurie Anderson finds attractive (gee, am I gonna get in trouble for Wikipedia abuse?), and I'm not saying I don't like it; I'm saying I keep being surprised by it. His voice is close to being soft, but never gets lost amongst the instruments, even (if I remember correctly) the New Orleans jazz band on Transformer's last track; his voice is almost nasal, but not quite; there's not (to my ear) the greatest range of notes, but he can still pull off a rather sweeping song like "Perfect Day."
No big revelation here. I'm mainly pondering (and probably making my more musically literate readers cringe at my spotty knowledge). More ponderings:
* Is it kind of a blown take when, in "Walk on the Wild Side," Reed gets delayed and has to catch up when first singing "And the colored girls go 'Do, do, deh-do, do-do-do do, deh-do, deh-do..."? Or was he slowing down and catching up deliberately? (I can imagine David Bowie saying "Do it, it'll work, love" while Reed's in the booth...)
* Do any stations still play "Walk on the Wild Side" unedited? I think KINK 101.9 FM has. I find it amusing that the more hard-driving station 94.7 Alternative Portland plays it edited; of course, I find it more amusing that it slipped past a lot of ears unedited back in the '70s.
