Lou Reed Between Thought and Expression box set released

Between Thought and Expression Lou Reed

Recorded: 1972-1988 Released: April 14, 1992 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, 165 AU, 12 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: rock

Tracks, Disc 1: Click on a song title for more details. I Can’t Stand It Lisa Says Ocean Walk on the Wild Side Satellite of Love Vicious Caroline Says I How Do You Think It Feels Oh, Jim Caroline Says II The Kids Sad Song Sweet Jane (live) Kill Your Sons Coney Island Baby Tracks, Disc 2: Nowhere at All Kicks Downtown Dirt Rock and Roll Heart Vicious Circle Temporary Thing Real Good Time Together Leave Me Alone Heroin Here Comes the Bride Street Hassle Metal Machine Music (excerpt) The Bells Tracks, Disc 3: America Think It Over Teach the Gifted Children The Gun The Blue Mask My House Waves of Fear Little Sister Legendary Hearts The Last Shot New Sensations My Friend George Doin’ the Things That We Want To The Original Wrapper Video Violence Tell It to Your Heart Voices of Freedom Total Running Time: 219:30

Rating: 4.174 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album This is a well-needed snapshot of Lou Reed’s solo career. While he had few radio hits, this box set does a more than respectable job offering snapshots of some of his best work over more than a decade. The Songs Lou Reed’s first three albums (Lou Reed, Transformer, and Berlin) have dedicated pages. For any songs that appear on this box set and one of those albums, go to that album page for more details. For songs not featured on any of those three studio albums, see details below.

Kill Your Sons Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: March 18 – April 26, 1974, at Electric Lady in New York City Released: Sally Can’t Dance (1974), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: 46 CL, 38 CO, 24 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.99 streaming About the Song: “Even in the very depths of Lou’s worst most cringe-worthy albums, there is always at least one flake of gold…While Sally Can’t Dance is not exactly Lou’s worst, it is at the low end of the totem pole…With that being said, Kill Your Sons shines out like a beaming ray of golden light.” ER-45 It starts off “with a massive serving of 1970s sleaze. Ritchie Dharma’s plodding one-two drums anchor things down, along with Michael Fonfara’s organ chords keeping tone. On bass, Prakash John peps things up a bit with his customary fluidity, but it is Deny Weis who really soars on this track, with his sustained, full-throttle guitar runs. His playing reaches a high point in the chorus where he duets with Lou’s vocals as they both descend the musical scale.” ER-45 “And then there are the lyrics. Beginning as an acoustic demo in 1971 with completely different lyrics that railed against political corruption and the Vietnam War, this revised and recharged version allows the listener to peer into raw personal history.” ER-45 “Lou recalls his time spent in New York psychiatric institutions as a teen, receiving electroconvulsive therapy for his mental health issues.” ER-46

Downtown Dirt Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: January 6, 1975, at Electric Lady Studios in New York City Released: Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.55 streaming About the Song: “There is a feral, teeth-gnashing rage ever present in the lyrics, the vocals themselves, and the band’s performances. While never rising above a cold-blooded murder, Downtown Dirt lays out its disdain with no ambivalence.” ER-65 “We are riding along as Lou’s traveling partner in the nocturnal realms of urban vice once again.” ER-65 In the lyrics, the narrator sings, “I sell you sugar / I’m a humanitarian / I give it all to myself.” Reed has said in “his post-Pickwick Records, pre-VU days, he often sold drugs,” ER-65 but will “sell his unsuspecting marks powdered sugar and keep the dope for himself.” ER-66 The song emerged a few years later on the Street Hassle “in a radically different format” ER-66 under the title “Dirt.”

Leave Me Alone Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: October 21, 1975, at Media Sound Studios in New York City Released: Street Hassle (1978), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.16 streaming About the Song: The first version of this song was recorded during sessions for Coney Island Baby and released on the box set Between Thought and Expression. “This version lacks a certain degree of world-weary disgust and revulsion that makes the official version [released in 1978 on Street Hassle] so complete. This demo version does contain some first draft lyrics; we hear about Lorraine, another botched facelift victim, and Lou even flirts with the limits of good taste (yet again) with some clever wordplay…Despite these slight alterations, the overall message of the song stands firm and unchanging.” ER-67

Coney Island Baby Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: October 18-25, 1975, at Media Sound Studios in New York City Released: Coney Island Baby (1975), Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of (compilation: 1977), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995), Different Times: Lou Reed in the ‘70s (compilation: 1996), The Very Best of (compilation: 2000), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: 16CL, 29 CO, 15 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 27.36 streaming About the Song: “For an already musically low-key album, this song is the mellowest.” ER-63 “the title of this song, as well as many of its lines and phrases, harken back once more to Lou’s adolescence; specifically, his deep and passionate love of doo-wop.” ER-64 He “sing/speaks of his adolescent experience with a smooth calmness that serves the groove well.” ER-63 “Dedicating the song to himself, his lover, and all the kids at his former Brooklyn elementary school is a very fine way to wind down this lover’s tale of triumph against the odds of the world that they live in.” ER-64 “Feeling embarrassed, alienated, ashamed, isolated, stupid, foolish; all are cleansed and absolved by the glory of love.” ER-64 This “is a valid, vibrant call to notice of love’s enduring and all-encompassing nature.” ER-64 “This is the grand declaration of the glory of love that has been realized between Lou and Rachel.” ER-63

Kicks Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: October 18-25, 1975, at Media Sound Studios in New York City Released: Coney Island Baby (1975), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.53 streaming About the Song: “On just about every Lou Reed album, there is…the outlier…Kicks is very definitely the Coney Island Baby outlier…and what an outlier it is. Starting with the ambient sounds of a party in progress…the band falls in with a nervous, simmering groove that favors the ride cymbal. Lou and Bob Kulick’s guitars are engaged in a perfect call-and-response dialog, and Lou weightlessly slips in and asks, shakily, desperately,” ER-61 “How you get your kicks for livin’.” “What started as a mid-party whisper is ultimately kicked up to a full-title jaunt by the song’s conclusion.” ER-61

Nowhere at All Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: October 18-25, 1975, at Media Sound Studios in New York City Released: March 1976 (B side of “Crazy Feeling”), Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of (compilation: 1977), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992), The Best of Lou Reed & Velvet Underground (compilation: 1995), Legendary (box set: 2002) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.42 streaming About the Song: This is “a low-down super-greasy NYC rocker.” ER-66 “The main item here is the rough and ready groove of the track.” ER-67 “Fuzzy guitars and funky drums move it along very well, with Bob Kulick squeezing off all kinds of brief but florid guitar God licks and Bruce Yaw popping in at the high end of the register after each chorus. The lyrics are an unremarkable mention of how the narrator is ‘Nowhere at All’ among the various challenging and troublesome people they might casually encounter.” ER-67

Rock and Roll Heart Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: Recorded 1976 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: 4/22/77 (single), Rock and Roll Heart (1976), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992), The Very Best of (compilation: 2000) Peak: 45 CL, 38 CO, 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.16 streaming About the Song: “Starting with roaring power chords, this simple song goes on to list the many things the narrator does not like, such as opera, ballet, New Wave French movies, messages or ‘something to say,’ and resolves things with ‘I guess that I’m dumb ‘cause I know I ain’t smart / But deep down inside I’ve got a rock and roll heart.’ In spite of all this, the song has a very durable, singable chorus where the song’s title is repeated over a bed of simple chords. As a result, the song has a hidden lasting quality.” ER-71-2

Vicious Circle Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: Recorded 1976 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: Rock and Roll Heart (1976), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992) Peak: 46 CL, 38 CO, 24 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.26 streaming About the Song: “The vibe is switched up just a bit here with a gentle acoustic guitar intro and bass duties handled by Michael Fonfara on a heavily phased electric piano. It’s a much mellower mood here and it serves the lyric well. Never once rising above a baritone croak, Lou speaks of the the 365 degrees of cross-current influence that is often wielded by those we are the closest to.” ER-72 “At the close of the tune, ‘surrounded by your so-called friends’ has been curiously altered to ‘surrounded by all your friends.’ This alteration can seem subtle or distinct, depending on the listener and their circumstances.” ER-73

Temporary Thing Lou Reed

Writer(s): Lou Reed Recorded: Recorded 1976 at the Record Plant in New York City Released: Rock and Roll Heart (1976), Rock and Roll Diary (compilation: 1980), Between Thought and Expression (box set, 1992) Peak: 47 CL, 38 CO, 31 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.71 streaming About the Song: The closing song on Rock and Roll Heart is “the outlier,” ER-73 a song which “lift a lacking album out of the depths and into illumination…Temporary Thing primarily stands out because of its uncut purity. The watered-down gentility that coats most of this album has been stripped away here, as band, singer, and lyrics reveal strained, bared teeth in their intent and delivery.” ER-73 “Beginning with a strong declarative drum-and-piano stomp, Michael Suchorsky rigorously counts out fours on the high hat. The tale within is little more than a lover’s spat; it’s the gritty intensity of the performative declarations, both musical and lyrical, that make the difference.” ER-73 “What exists here is a very real, very human expression of ugliness. The band hangs on Lou’s every murmur and spurt, infinitely in tune with their singer’s performance and intent.” ER-73

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review BE liner notes from Between Thought and Expression box set (1992). ER Ethan Roy (2023). On Track…Lou Reed 1972-1986. Sonicbond Publishing: United Kingdom. Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/2/2026.