The Blue Mask

The Blue Mask is the eleventh solo studio album by American musician Lou Reed.
The Blue Mask
It was the first album released after Reed had left Arista Records and returned to
RCA Records. The album was released around Reed's 40th birthday, and covers
topics of marriage and settling down,[1] alongside themes of violence, paranoia, and
alcoholism.

Contents
Production and recording
Track listing
Personnel
References Studio album by Lou Reed
Released February 23, 1982[1]

Production and recording Recorded October 1981

Studio RCA Studios, New York
Reed and Robert Quine's guitars were mixed separately in the right and left stereo
City
channels respectively. To differentiate his guitar's sound from Reed's, Quine used D
tuning, playing each song as if it was one major second higher. For example, Genre Rock
"Heavenly Arms" is in G major, so Quine used fingerings for A major to play the Length 40:30
song. Label RCA Records

Quine, who years earlier followed the Velvet Underground across the country and Producer Lou Reed · Sean Fullan
taped several of their early shows (they were later released as Bootleg Series Volume Lou Reed chronology
1: The Quine Tapes), made for a suitable complement to Reed. Quine also toured in Rock and The Blue Legendary
support of the album and can be seen on the recordedThe Bottom Line show titled A Roll Diary: Mask Hearts
Night with Lou Reed. The album contains no instrumental overdubs with the 1967-1980 (1982) (1983)
exception of Reed's guitar on "My House", but all vocals were overdubbed with the (1980)
exception of "The Heroine".
Professional ratings
Fernando Saunders, who subsequently became a longtime Reed
collaborator, plays the bass and adds backing vocals (most noticeably, a Review scores
falsetto refrain in the outro to "Heavenly Arms") to this album and can Source Rating
also be seen in A Night with Lou Reed. In 2000, a remastered version of
AllMusic [2]
The Blue Mask was released. Quine and Reed share the distinction of
Chicago Tribune [3]
being named to Rolling Stone's Top 100 Guitarists of All-Time List.
The drummer for the album was studio musician Doane Perry, who Christgau's Record Guide A[4]
later joined Jethro Tull. [5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music

The album cover was designed by Reed's then wife, Sylvia, and Rolling Stone [6]

features a blue version of a photograph by Mick Rock from the cover [7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
art of 1972's Transformer.
Spin [8]

Spin Alternative Record Guide 9/10 [9]

Track listing
All songs written by Lou Reed

Side one

1. "My House" - 5:25

2. "Women" - 4:57
3. "Underneath the Bottle" - 2:33
4. "The Gun" - 3:41
5. "The Blue Mask" - 5:06

Side two

1. "Average Guy" - 3:12

2. "The Heroine" - 3:06
3. "Waves of Fear" - 4:11
4. "The Day John Kennedy Died" - 4:08
5. "Heavenly Arms" - 4:47

Personnel
Lou Reed – guitar, vocals
Robert Quine – guitar
Fernando Saunders – Bass guitar, backing vocals
Doane Perry – drums

Technical

Sean Fullan – recording engineer, co-producer

References
1. Sheffield, Rob (1982-02-24)."Happy 30th Birthday to 'The Blue Mask,' Lou Reed's Solo Masterpiece | Rob Shef field"
(https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/pop-life/happy-30th-birthday-to-the-blue-mask-lou-reeds-solo-masterpiec
e-20120224). Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2013-08-16.
2. Deming, Mark. "The Blue Mask – Lou Reed"(https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-blue-mask-mw0000204764).
AllMusic. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
3. Kot, Greg (January 12, 1992). "Lou Reed's Recordings: 25 Years Of Path-breaking Music" (http://articles.chicagotrib
une.com/1992-01-12/entertainment/9201040209_1_star-rca-robert-quine) . Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 29,
2013.
4. Christgau, Robert (1990). "Lou Reed: The Blue Mask"(https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=2150).
Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
5. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music(5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
6. Carson, Tom (April 15, 1982). "Lou Reed: The Blue Mask"(https://web.archive.org/web/20090218202637/http://www .
rollingstone.com/artists/loureed/albums/album/98632/review/5941738/the_blue_mask) . Rolling Stone. New York.
Archived from the original (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/reviews/album/7480/37165) on February 18, 2009.
Retrieved August 23, 2016.
7. Hull, Tom (2004). "Lou Reed".In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.).The New Rolling Stone Album Guide(4th
ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 684–85. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
8. Marchese, David (November 2009)."Discography: Lou Reed"(https://books.google.com/books?id=0yvyxlaTDXMC&
pg=PA67). Spin. New York. 24 (11): 67. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
9. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995).Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.

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