My Top 1000 Songs #853: Charley's Girl

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Lou Reed's long solo career was a rollercoaster of delirious peaks (if never quite reaching the groundbreaking triumphs of the Velvet Underground) and frustrating valleys... underwhelming misfires followed by proclamations of a comeback (though fans and critics didn't always concur on which were which). But it's hard to dispute 1976's Coney Island Baby was one of those sigh-of-relief comebacks, following on the heels of Metal Machine Music, an hour of noisy amplifier feedback without actual songs.

I'm fine with Coney, not a favorite, but solid enough, and uncharacteristically amiable throughout. Like some of its predecessors, he's still tossing out some (at the time) unreleased VU tracks as ringers (in this case, a version of "She's My Best Friend" which pales in comparison to the VU original that eventually saw light of day). But the highlight for me is the cheerful, affectionate "Charley's Girl." It's a pithy but endearing pop song, with just enough of Reed's edge to give it some heft--absurdly banal rhymes and unnecessary violence but still ultimately smile-inducing. Sure, the whole thing is just a single riff repeated for just long enough to start to grow tiresome, but it's a great riff. (Did he steal it from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower," released the prior year? Maybe. Hope so.) And it's got more cowbell than SNL could even imagine!

Live 2011: