4/30/2012

Moe Tucker -- "Heroin"

When Lou Reed sings this song, you hear a cynical, streetwise swagger who has already made good time plumbing the depths.  When Moe Tucker sings this song, you hear something different: vulnerability, hesitation, then regret.  She's not sure if she wants to be here, but here she is.  There's a pathos at work here that Lou Reed could not convey, for that matter, did not seem interested in conveying, and yet the song has that capacity built into it.

The second track on Tucker's imminently endearing new anthology.