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Up From the Streets

Street Hassle by Lou Reed 1978, Arista Records

To Me They Always Look the Same...

And that's why you'll be shocked the first time you hear Street Hassle. It's the kind of album where you hear an outrageous line or a spine-tingling chord change and you've just got to hear it again:

Why don't you grab your old lady by the feet

And lay'er out in the darkest street

And by morning she's just another hit'n'run

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You know some people got no choice

And they can never find a voice to talk with or ever call their own

So the first thing they see that allows them the right to be they follow it...

You know, it's called, "Bad Luck."

Street Hassle hits with the kind of honesty that made Sgt. Pepper, Surrealistic Pillow and Let It Bleed classics. This is music that is so accurate and honest in its expression that it becomes part of what is going on in the world, rather than just an artful description. But perhaps most amazingly, Street Hassle achieves honesty and creativity without merging with jazz, blues, folk, rock-jazz, rhythm and blues, disco, for folk-rock--it's still just good rock'n'roll.

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