''The Bells'' is the ninth solo studio album by American rock musician

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

, released in April 1979 by

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

. It is recorded in binaural sound at Delta Studios in

Wilster Wilster () is a town in Steinburg district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. History Wilster was granted town rights under Lübeck law in 1282, and thereby counts itself among Schleswig-Holstein's oldest towns. Wilster forms the centre of the Wilst ...

, West Germany. Production was handled by Reed with

Michael Fonfara Michael Fonfara (11 August 1946 – 8 January 2021) was a Canadian keyboard player who was most notable for his work as a member of The Electric Flag and Rhinoceros in the 1960s, Rough Trade and Lou Reed's backing band in the 1970s and The Downch ...

serving as executive producer. Three out of nine songs on the album are the product of a short-lived writing partnership between Reed and

Nils Lofgren Nils Hilmer Lofgren (born June 21, 1951) is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a membe ...

. More of the team's work appeared on Nils' solo studio album ''

Nils Nils is a Scandinavian given name, a chiefly Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Latvian variant of Niels, cognate to Nicholas. People and animals with the given name * Nils Bergström (born 1985), Swedish ice hockey player *Nils Björk (1898–1989) ...

'', released the same year. Lofgren released his version of "Stupid Man" as "Driftin' Man" on ''Break Away Angel'' (2001). Lofgren resurrected five songs he wrote with Reed in the late 70s on ''Blue with Lou'' (2019). The album features contributions from

, Ellard "Moose" Boles,

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

, Marty Fogel and Michael Suchorsky. The album peaked at No. 13 in New Zealand, No. 44 in Sweden, No. 58 in Australia, and No. 130 in the United States.

Recording

Reed said: "I mastered the art of recording known as 'capture the spontaneous moment and leave it at that'. ''The Bells'' was done like that, those lyrics were just made up on the spot and they're absolutely incredible. I'm very adept at making up whole stories with rhymes, schemes, jokes".

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', music critic

Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, critic, author, and musician. He wrote for ''Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock music c ...

wrote, "With ''The Bells'', more than in ''

Street Hassle ''Street Hassle'' is the eighth solo studio album by American musician Lou Reed, released in February 1978 by Arista Records. Richard Robinson and Reed produced the album. It is the first commercially released pop album to employ binaural recordi ...

'', perhaps even more than in his work with

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise w ...

, Lou Reed achieves his oft-stated ambition—to become a great writer, in the literary sense". ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

said: In a less enthusiastic retrospective review, '' Select'' magazine wrote that "''The Bells'' saw his music disappearing down the pan ... Even self-parody is barely achieved in these half-assed songs played by a bunch of dullards, with Lou sounding painfully uninspired".'' Select'', November 1992

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from ''The Bells'' liner notes. Musicians * Lou Reed –

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

and

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

guitar synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partner ...

, bass synthesizer (track 8), horn arrangement (tracks: 1-3, 5-9), producer * Ellard "Moose" Boles – 12-string electric guitar (track 8),

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, bass synthesizer, backing vocals *

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, backing vocals,

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

– African hunting guitar,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, horn arrangement (track 4) * Marty Fogel –

ocarina The ocarina is a wind musical instrument; it is a type of vessel flute. Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from c ...

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

and

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

, Fender Rhodes (track 9), horn arrangement * Michael Suchorsky –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Production and artwork *

René Tinner René Tinner (born February 18, 1953, in St. Gallen) is a Swiss recording engineer and producer, who has produced over 200 studio records and numerous live performances. Career Tinner began his career as the audio engineer of the German ro ...

– engineer * Manfred Schunke – mixing *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography Ted ...

– mastering * Donn Davenport – art direction, design * Howard Fritzson – art direction, design *

Garry Gross Garry Gross (November 6, 1937 – November 30, 2010) was an American fashion photographer who went on to specialize in dog portraiture. Career Born in New York, Gross began his career as a commercial photographer, apprenticing with photogra ...

– photography

Charts

References

External links

* 1979 albums Lou Reed albums Binaural recordings Arista Records albums Albums produced by Lou Reed {{1970s-rock-album-stub