The Raven es un álbum de Lou Reed, publicado en 2003 por Sire. El disco incluye 21 canciones, entre ellas «Overture», «Edgar Allan Poe», «Call On Me» y «The Valley of Unrest».
Sobre el álbum
La discografía de Lou Reed se aventura en el terreno del spoken word y la experimentación con "The Raven", un álbum que, de inmediato, se percibe como una obra ambiciosa y desafiante. Este disco reinterpreta la obra de Edgar Allan Poe a través de la visión única de Lou Reed, fusionando la literatura con el rock y la música orquestal. El álbum se siente como una experiencia teatral, una inmersión en la oscuridad poética.
Las composiciones son complejas y atmosféricas, con narraciones recitadas que se entrelazan con la música, creando un tapiz sonoro inmersivo. Las colaboraciones con artistas como David Bowie, Laurie Anderson o Steve Buscemi añaden una riqueza vocal y dramática al proyecto. Por otra parte, la producción es densa y elaborada, logrando un sonido que es a la vez gótico y experimental, realzando el misterio de las letras. El álbum suena como una ópera rock, una obra para paladares exigentes.
"The Raven" consolidó la reputación de Lou Reed como un artista que no teme explorar nuevos formatos y que busca constantemente los límites de su arte. Su audacia y su compromiso con la experimentación son evidentes en cada pista, demostrando su genio creativo. Por lo tanto, para los amantes de la literatura, la música alternativa y las propuestas arriesgadas, este disco es una adquisición imprescindible. Es una prueba irrefutable de que la visión de Lou Reed era ilimitada y siempre sorprendente.
Listado de Canciones
- Overture1:05
- Edgar Allan Poe3:20
Letra
These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door He'll tell you tales of horror Then he'll play with your mind If you haven't heard of him You must be deaf or blind These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door He'll tell you about Usher Whose house burned in his mind His love for his dear sister Her death would drive him wild The murder of a stranger The murder of a friend The callings from the pits of hell That never seem to end These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door These are the stories of Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door The diabolic image of the city and the sea The chaos and the carnage that reside deep within me Decapitations, poisonings, hellish not a bore You won't need 3D glasses to pass beyond this door Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door No Nosferatu Vincent Price or naked women here A mind unfurled, a mind unbent is all we have here Truth, fried orangutans flutter to the stage Leave your expectations home And listen to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe We give you the soliloquy the raven at the door Flaming pits the moving walls no equilibrium No ballast, no bombast The unvarnished truth we've got Mind swoons guilty Cooking ravings in a pot Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door Edgar Allan Poe Not exactly the boy next door Tell-tale heart a rotting cask A valley of unrest A conqueror worm devouring souls Keep the best for last Rings for Annie Lee As Poe's buried alive Regretting his beloved's death in All her many guises-a - Call On Me2:07
Letra
Caught in the crossbow of ideas and journeys sit here reliving the other self's mournings Caught in the crossbow of ideas and dawnings stand I Oh oh oh oh Reliving the past of the maddening impulse violent upheaval, the pure driven instinct The pure driven murder, the attraction of daring stand I Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call on me Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call [Rowena:] A wild being from birth my spirit spurns control wondering the wide earth searching for my soul Dimly peering I would surely find what could there be more purely bright in truth's day-star Ooohhh Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call, call on me Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call on me Why didn't you call on me why didn't you call. - The Valley of Unrest2:26
- A Thousand Departed Friends4:58
- Change2:18
Letra
The only thing constantly changing is change And change is always for the worse The worm on the hook always eaten by a fish The fish by bird man or worse A spot on the lung, a spot on your heart An aneurism of the soul The only thing constantly changing is change And it comes equipped with a curse The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse The only thing constantly changing is change The living only become dead Your hair falling out, your liver swelled up Your teeth rot your gums and your chin Your ass starts to sag, your balls shrivel up Your cock swallowed up in their sack The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always change on your back The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse, baby The only thing constantly changing is change Ashes to ashes to dusk The deer and the rabbit, the musk of your hole Filled up with myriad dread, ooohhh The dread of the living, the dread of the living The frightening pulse of the night, ah The only thing constantly changing is change It's changes that will kill us with fright The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse The only thing constantly changing is change And it's always for the worse The only thing constantly changing is change The only thing constantly changing is change The only thing constantly changing is change And it comes equipped with my curse - The Bed3:32
Letra
This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night And this is the place our children were conceived candles lit the room brightly at night And this is the place where she cut her wrists that odd and fateful night And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling This is the place where we used to live I paid for it with love and blood And these are the boxes that she kept on the shelf Filled with her poetry and stuff And this is the room where she took the razor and cut her wrists that strange and fateful night And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling I never would have started if I'd known that it'd end this way But funny thing, I'm not at all sad that it stopped this way This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night And this is the place our children were conceived candles lit the room brightly at night And this is the place where she cut her wrists That odd and fateful night And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling And I said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling - Perfect Day3:27
Letra
Just a perfect day Drink sangria in the park And then later, when it gets dark We go home Just a perfect day Feed animals in the zoo Then later a movie, too And then home Oh, it's such a perfect day I'm glad I spent it with you Oh, such a perfect day You just keep me hanging on You just keep me hanging on Just a perfect day Problems all left alone Weekenders on our own It's such fun Just a perfect day You made me forget myself I thought I was someone else Someone good Oh, it's such a perfect day I'm glad I spent it with you Oh, such a perfect day You just keep me hanging on You just keep me hanging on You're going to reap just what you sow You're going to reap just what you sow You're going to reap just what you sow You're going to reap just what you sow - The Raven6:30
- Balloon1:01
Letra
I'm a little balloon and I get puffed up squeeze me and bend me it's never enough Put your lips around me, blow me up but if you prick me I will pop I'm a little balloon full and firm here is my aft and here is my stern Here's my lips and here's my hose put me down or I will burst If you prick me I will burst - Broadway Song3:12
Letra
Like to thank all you people for showing up tonight Sorry about the weather Let's have a big hand for my long time accompianist Manfred Gooseberry Hey Goose Take a bow, relax Be comfortable Have a cocktail on the Poo Poo Lounge And let us entertain you I'd like to sing you a Broadway song I hope that you'll all sing along A little dancing and some sentiment to put your mind at ease I'd like to play you something low and sexy look at our dancers they're so young and pretty, hi Olga And when we start to groove you can hear the saxophones blow Ah, show business is just a wonderful thing All I want is to get down on my knees and sing for you And let the saxophones blow blow baby blow I'd like to sing you a Broadway song I hope that you'll all sing along A little dancing and some sentiment to put your mind at ease I wanna bring a tear to your eye, oh good old Poe don't he make you cry Ain't it great the way he writes about the mysteries of life Ah, show business is just a wonderful thing All I want is to get down on my knees and sing for you And let the saxophones blow Blow baby blow Ah, show business is just a wonderful thing All I want is to get down on my knees and sing for you And let the saxophones blow blow baby blow baby blow baby blow Go Goose go - Blind Rage3:25
Letra
Who's that peeping through my door Sneaking up and down the hall I can't stand it anymore I can't stand it anymore Who's that peeping through my door Sneaking up and down the hall I can't stand it anymore I can't stand it anymore Blind rage I'm in a blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Who's that creeping in my room Blocking out the stars and moon I fear you will attack me soon Who goes there Who's that creeping in my room Blocking out the stars and moon I fear you will attack me soon Who goes there Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage I'm in a blind rage Blind rage You're making me scared Blind rage Make me scared Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage Blind rage - Burning Embers3:22
Letra
Fly through the glass of a window pane Fall through the sky feeling the rain Walk on broken glass your tell-tale heart Look through the bars of a dirty jail cell Soar to heaven dive to hell Listen to your tell-tale heart Setting fires in the ghost twilight We see you dress we bolt with fright You see an apparition disappear Jump to the table, jump up the stairs Stand on the rooftop, looking out through the air Walk on broken glass your tell-tale heart Lenore, am I dreaming How can death keep us apart, mmmm.. Lenore, I see you burning And I'd walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Heart Heart Heart Heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Your tell-tale heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers Walk on burning embers your tell-tale heart - Vanishing Act5:23
Letra
It must be nice to disappear To have a vanishing act To always be looking forward And never looking back How nice it is to disappear Float into a mist With a young lady on your arm Looking for a kiss It might be nice to disappear To have a vanishing act To always be looking forward Never look over your back It must be nice to disappear Float into a mist With a young lady on your arm Looking for a kiss It must be nice to disappear To have a vanishing act To always be moving forward And never looking back How nice it is to disappear Float into a mist With a young lady on your arm Looking for a kiss Looking for a kiss Float into a mist - Guilty4:54
- I Wanna Know (The Pit and the Pendulum)6:58
Letra
Under the intense scrutiny of Ligeia's eyes I have felt the full knowledge And force of their expression And yet been unable to possess it And have felt it leave me As so many other things have left The letter half-read The bottle half-drunk Finding Finding in the commonest objects of the universe A circle of analogies Of metaphors Ooohhh For that expression Which has been willfully withheld from me The access to the inner soul denied I wanna know, ooohhh I wanna know I wanna know, oh I wanna know In consideration In consideration of the faculties and impulses Of the human soul Of the human soul In consideration Of our arrogance Of our arrogance Our radical, primitive irreducible arrogance of reason We have all overlooked the propensity We saw no need for it The paradoxical something which we may call perverseness Perverseness Through its promptings we act without Comprehensible object We act for the reason we should not We act for the reason we should not For certain minds this is absolutely irre-, irre- irresistible irresistible The conviction of the wrong Or impolicy of an action Is often the unconquerable force The unconquerable force It is a primitive impulse It is a primitive impulse Primitive impulse The overwhelming tendency The overwhelming tendency to do Wrong for the wrong's sake To do wrong for the wrong's sake We persist in acts Because we feel that we should not persist in them Because we feel we, feel we should not persist, per-, persist in them, ah Ooohhh So I wanna know I wanna know I wanna know I wanna know I wanna, I wanna know I wanna, I Ooohhh, we persist in action We persist in action Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong Ooohhh Wrong, wrong Oh we persist in action Ah yeah yeah When you know that it's wrong - Science of the Mind1:36
Letra
In the science of the mind there is no forgiving Paralyzed I lay here sleeping quiet as a little child Heart starts beating, blood rushing pounding moving quiet as a little lamb In the science of the mind limbs are bound devoid of movement The injuries we do in kind are visited upon us often In the science of the mind trying hard to move a shadow Don't bury me I'm still alive the science of the mind unyielding The science of the mind unyielding the science of the mind unyielding - Hop Frog1:46
Letra
Well they call me a juicy hop-frog you can see me in any wood bog don't you know that they call me the hop-frog hopping frog I'm a hop-frog a hop-frog they call me the hop-frog hop, hop-frog They call me the hop-frog see me in any wood bog don't you know that call me a hop-frog hop-frog They call me the hop-frog see me in a wood bog they're calling me a hop-frog hop-frog You can see me in a ballroom you can see me in a bedroom you can see me in the woods hop, hop-frog They call me the hop-frog they call you the hop-frog well they call you the hop-frog hop, hop-frog Frog - Tripitena's Speech2:19
- Who Am I? (Tripitena's Song)4:31
- Guardian Angel6:51
Letra
I have a guardian angel keep him in my head When I'm afraid and alone I call him to my bed I have a guardian angel who keeps bad things from me The only way to ruin it would be for me not to trust me The only way to ruin it would be for me not to trust me I have a guardian angel who's often saved my life Through malevolent storms and crystal drums the angel on my right Has lifted me up and set me down always showing me what's right And if my instinct proved me wrong the angel set it right And if my instinct proved me wrong the angel set it right Have a guardian angel I keep him in my head And when I'm having nightmares he shows me dreams instead I have a ring, I have a dress I have an empty shell By the books below tea cups I've kept a kind of hell By the books below tea cups I've kept a kind of hell Panic and anxiety so often in my head But I had a guardian angel who took care of me instead The champagne cork the nightlight owl a raven and a duck The seed of pining parents and your despairing love The seed of pining parents and your despairing love Love and luck both have charmed lives can change all things about I had a guardian angel that's what this is all about I have a guardian angel I keep him in my head When I'm alone and become afraid he saved my life instead When I'm alone and become afraid he saved my life instead Guardian angel guardian angel Guardian angel guardian angel Guardian angel