Terça-feira 7 Jan 2014, 8h:47
2010s Part 2
“Quite like this, sounds like Alice In Chains a bit” – Youtube uploader
Having become a prostitute, “Little Dog” describes one of Lulu’s clients, a simpering and pathetic, tiny-dicked little turd who spends the whole of the eight minutes of the song feeling sorry for himself and is compared with a dog. This character may as well be the same one who is the target of “The View”, someone who has given it all up in the assumption that such a grand gesture would force a woman into loving him back and is now going through bargaining and depression, two of the five stages of grief. But we are not supposed to feel sorry for this little dog despite the generally accepted cuteness of the metaphor. This is a “pathetic little dog”
“Money can do anything
Money can do anything
Tell me what it is you want
Just tell me what it is you want”
It is specifically mentioned that the “Little Dog” doesn’t have very much at all and yet so desperate is he to be with Lulu that he is willing to give what little he has, anything, to what fuck her? No, his dick is too tiny… He wants to raise “his little doggie face to a cold-hearted pussy”. Oh, so that’s nice in a selfless act of love he wants to bring pleasure to Lulu, his ideal woman? Of course not, he just wants what the big dog has. He wants a taste of what it is like to be the alpha male. It’s not about women, women are totally irrelevant, it’s male versus male antagonism. Beta Male Misogyny.
For the “Little Dog” having a relationship with Lulu would not be an end in itself, it’s not its own reward, on the contrary it is a means to an end, a revenge against the big dogs or at least a way of elevating himself to being a big dog. He is more than happy to trade every aspect of his capital (both literal and metaphorical) for this sexual capital, with which he can do anything.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4VzaOkvqO8
In summary, the “Little Dog” is Mark Corrigan.
This presents an interesting and necessary contrast with the character in “Dragon” who is literally Jack The Ripper.
Unlike “Little Dog” this person, this worshipper of that which actively despises him, has not bowed his head and sat pathetically by the bed whining and wishing he were an alpha male, the “Dragon” is full-frontal, violent and visceral hatred of women.
The “Dragon” represents then “Denial” and “Anger” of the five stages of grief, but no more than for the “Little Dog” are we supposed to feel pity for the “Dragon”… He is Jack The Ripper after all.
I once read an article about a woman who was reading a book on a train when a man asked her “What are you reading?”, she replied with something perfectly pleasant and reasonable such as “Please, I don’t want to talk, I just want to read my book” and the man completely flipped out. He started screaming, mimicking the woman, mocking her and all because he felt he was owed a conversation for attempting communications with an attractive woman.
Lou Reed reads the lyrics to this song as one can imagine that man on the train addressed that woman. He creates a Strawman out of Lulu, claiming she thinks this and she thinks that about all men, he mocks what she says in “The View” and the whole time he is denying the possibility that, just maybe, she is simply not attracted to Jack The Ripper he is driving home exactly why she’s not attracted to Jack The Ripper.
The whole song is like a prosecution, Jack The Ripper’s kangaroo court and on trial? A mute Lulu, who is not allowed to defend herself. The power of this song comes from the fact that Jack The Ripper occasionally, just almost, convinces you that Lulu is guilty. But then the realisation that you are cheering on Jack The Ripper immediately wakes you up to all of these uncomfortable misogynistic leanings, the evil sexist indoctrinations and everything the media has led us to believe about women.
As one could have predicted, at the culmination of this song Jack The Ripper murders Lulu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX2fumdrrVk
So Lulu is dead, murdered by Jack The Ripper, what is this 20 minute song we have left then? Why it is “acceptance” of course. “Junior Dad” is an incredibly lovely lullaby of a song and the only criticism of it is its length. But on the other hand it is necessary that it is that long because it needs to be bigger than Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression and it is… by 17 seconds.
It's the acceptance of someone who knows that Lulu is not going to "pull him up" and knows it's unfair to ask her. He asks her anyway, but he doesn't expect anything to her, even though he is "half-drowning"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ_VBkdsS0U
It is possible that you have noticed that I have been spelling out the way in which this album fits the criteria of a well-arranged album that I described in The Velvet Underground entry. This is indeed the case. “Brandenburg Gate” being the Overture, the next six songs punching you in the face (continuously, believe you me), then the heart is opened for “Little Dog” and “Dragon” (i.e. the disgust of the institutionalised misogyny) and finally with “Junior Dad” we are brought safely back home.
So does the fact that it is a thoughtful and literate album with a positive feminist agenda and a good order of tracks make it the best album ever? No, of course not, not even close. But it makes it a damn sight better than the “worst album ever” and “worst project either party has been involved” in soundbites thrown around when the album arrived. There is no excuse for that, it was lazy journalism. Sure the album could’ve been very greatly improved (maybe one day it will be) but it deserves better than what it got.
This is not a reappraisal, this is a revival, a confession, an attempted conversion and ultimately a lamentation because the fact that the rest of the production didn’t live up to the power of the lyrics makes it utterly unlistenable to the great majority of you. However to me, it is one of the greatest things Lou Reed has ever done and ever will do and I believe it is the perfect album to be his final legacy.
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/94211195/Lou+Reed+by+Jean+Bapstite+Mondino+Octob.jpg