Douglas Gordon sings the best of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground (For Bas Jan Ader)

Douglas Gordon sings the best of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground (For Bas Jan Ader)

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Nov 19, 1993

Runtime

0h 57m

Genres

Documentary

Original Title

Douglas Gordon sings the best of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground (For Bas Jan Ader)

Director

Douglas Gordon

Description

In the present work, the artists appears lying on his back, his eyes mostly closed, dreamingly listening to a walkman that plays, a recording of 'The Best of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground'. The artist can hear the music through his earphones, but as viewers we are only privy to the sound of his voice that whispers the melody. As we listen to the hypnotic interpretion of the familiar songs - as emblematic for pop music history as 'Psycho' is for film - we are forced to mentally 'reconstruct' the remaining orchestration, instrumentation and vocals. We must attempt to reassemble something we already know to be a fact by negotiating the sticky mess of interpretation, meaning, and memory.