Lou Reed - The Kids (Official Audio)

[@jamespettypool2983]

The most brutally honest rock and roll album I've ever heard. Scared the $hit out of me at 16 years old. That was 40 years ago. Feels like an old friend now.

[@Methilde]

The all Lou Reed work is amazing.

[@frommetoyou1981]

Yeah I first heard it at 21 years old....and it scared Me to death. I adore this album.

[@txemanovelo]

❤️

[@cringemaster.69]

Yes sir. How was it when you first listened to this masterpiece??

[@deckofcards87]

More raw honesty than anything by Dylan, even.

[@ddk999]

The most authentic, raw artist in rock music history. Brilliant composer of urban symphonies.

[@ArtTube333]

"Brilliant composer of urban symphonies" that describes him so well

[@deckofcards87]

Yep. Nobody else like him.

[@user-bp9qp2wb4k]

I was 18 when I first heard this album in 1973. Raised in boarding schools since I was 5 years old. This is the most beautiful pop album I have ever heard.

[@rosinatricanico7729]

Lou throwing himself out for the rest of us. Rest in peace. Love you for all you gave us

[@craigsaunders4369]

Hear hear !!!!

[@stevensmoley7983]

Got that right.

[@mathmss]

This is music made out of pain. This is more than music: it’s hurt and anger as pop music.

[@cevach9654]

How can you listen without crying, screaming of horror ? I feel the same as the first time I listened to it 40 years ago...

[@scottbrown6019]

Make it 46 for me. I, obviously still listen and dissect every element of this record - lyrical, musical & perhaps even spiritual. I HONESTLY love it.

[@jasonmee3374]

me to

[@milletrad8871]

It's a relentless and wrenching track. I read somewhere that he got the wails and screams because he had young children on hand, made them believe that their mother had died, and recorded their reactions. (Brilliant concept, cruel execution.)

[@cevach9654]

think I heard something like that too. That he had been awfully cruel with these children. The result is that we feel their absolute distress, but it does not respect the emotions of these kids. I cannot agree with these methods... So each time we suffer with the kids

[@JDC352]

...heroin...

[@ByDraxa72]

like a punch to the gut. hideously beautiful

[@tonwijnen1100]

Great poet, deep emotions: Lou Reed.

[@robertceelen379]

It happens every day , even after 40 years . We miss Lou every day !

[@talileali]

This is my favorite work by Lou! Without a doubt! It chills me to the bone!

[@erwinwoodedge4885]

Fantastic bass-lines by Tony Levin.

[@thepuppethead1188]

the song that doesn't have Jack Bruce has a fantastic bass line,go figure.

[@Evan64m]

Holy crap I didn’t know it was him!

[@stephenwill4852]

masterpiece

[@aguy7321]

They're taking her children away Because they said she was not a good mother They're taking her children away Because she was making it with sisters and brothers And everyone else, all of the others Like cheap officers who would stand there and flirt in front of me They're taking her children away Because they said she was not a good mother They're taking her children away Because of the things that they heard she had done The black Air Force sergeant was not the first one And all of the drugs she took, every one, every one And I am the Water Boy, the real game's not over here But my heart is overflowin' anyway I'm just a tired man, no words to say But since she lost her daughter It's her eyes that fill with water And I am much happier this way They're taking her children away Because they said she was not a good mother They're taking her children away Because number on was the girl friend from Paris The things that they did - ah - they didn't have to ask us And then the Welshman from India, who came here to stay They're taking her children away Because they said she was not a good mother They're taking her children away Because of the things she did in the streets In the alleys and bars, no she couldn't be beat That miserable rotten slut couldn't turn anyone away I am the Water Boy, the real game's not over here But my heart is overflowin' anyway I'm just a tired man, no words to say But since she lost her daughter It's her eyes that fill with water And I am much happier this way

[@craigsaunders4369]

Like sooo many

[@pemulis123]

The kids' crying at the end always kill me.

[@talileali]

Me, too! :(

[@andipandi5641]

more so than ever now cos that is what the most powerful government in the world is doing..

[@caddelworth6794]

I love that part: always makes me laugh!

[@freetofu]

@@caddelworth6794 What makes it even funnier is that it's actually the producer's kids crying because he told them their mother was dead.

[@drunkroku4054]

Pussy.

[@AnnavanderHoek]

Just listened for the first time… I’m only a teenager in a few months.. his singing is so casual but with so much emotion the only song that makes me feel what Lou makes me feel is the great gig in the sky, pink Floyd But I don’t think there’s anyone who makes music who isn’t as real and honest I love his honesty But ye Lou reed has traumatised me with his music love it tho 👌

[@gregorysweeney2047]

lou reeds best album. this is so deep in my DNA that it is actual life. i will love lou reed beyond death. ged from inspired, wearing black as fitting.

[@michaeltsang5653]

Lou Reed’s music also in my blood since my senior lad introduced to me with some good stuffs in my early life in 90s and I’s a 70’s born. Completely go inside the story particularly during in my first divorce, I’m fine now but still can feel the deep feeling of the songs

[@davidanderson9664]

What a masterpiece. A journey through a poor scorned woman's life - we can only feel sadness for her. And the retching of the kids in the end - with British accents, strangely." MummY!" Even for the childless and heartless (me): emotional.

[@bighollywoodproducer]

Unusual Recording Techniques #1: Lou Reed's "The Kids" While flipping through a five-year-old copy of NME in a WFMU bathroom, I came across an article about "scary music" by Mark Beaumont. He wrote that the little kids who can be heard wailing on Lou Reed's track The Kids (from his 1973 LP Berlin) were the young children of producer Bob Ezrin, who were crying because their Dad had told them that their mother had just been killed in a horrible accident. Their mother was fine - the track needed some crying, so Producer Ezrin produced some. The crying starts at the 5:17 mark

[@FM-kd9vh]

bighollywoodproducer Beat me to it!

[@Itsa6stringthang]

@@bighollywoodproducer wow, that's completely fucked up lol

[@scott12xu]

@@bighollywoodproducer That’s an urban legend; not what happened.

[@louskum]

Masterpiece

[@wagnerantoniodeoliveira4858]

Eu não me canso de ler e ouvir Lou. Ele é parte da minha alma. Nunca houve poeta musical igual a ele no rock'and'roll. Todos os dias eu sinto a sua falta. Descanse em paz, mestre!

[@andersonbatista7476]

Esse álbum é o absurdo do lirismo, do retrato da realidade de muitas pessoas e casais, principalmente no Brasil...

[@benabbott6031]

BJ Wilson from Procol Harum playing brilliant drums as usual

[@spibach]

He's what brought me here. I'd never heard this recording before, but Barrie was one of my good friends and a band mate after he left Joe Cockers band.

[@Wtvn123]

@@spibach Barrie James Wilson

[@krisscanlon4051]

That's his octopus style of drumming...indeed...brilliant

[@jameslappin77]

First listened to this a young teenager, early 90s. I was a big VU fan and of Lou's easier accessible music. I didn't like this record back in 1990. Now as a mid 40s man, I absolutely love this record and keep returning to this moreso than any of Lou's other records. But I do remember thinking as a 13yr old kid that the child crying on this song was something I'd never heard before in music. Thus began my Lou Reed love affair.

[@ΟρέστηςΚαραογλάνης]

Maybe the most sad song ever. Lou was the master

[@matteozanasi3271]

Maybe just Sad Song is sadder

[@steveboyd3913]

Rest in Peace Mr Lou Reed 🖤 Thank you for everything 🖤🖤🖤

[@nickanddeb]

I had a cat that didn’t like children. She’d usually ignore anything on the tv or stereo, except for this song. The crying kids at the end were so well recorded and sounded so real she’d leave the room whenever it got to that point!

[@kevinsteviestevenson4001]

The saddest, yet greatest Lou Reed album, ever! I know, I know, Magic And Loss. I say, Berlin!

[@SimonRobeyns]

criminally underrated to this very day i never understood how any critics overlooked this this album was his magnum opus for me

[@elmochaorejas6122]

one of the best lyrics of Lou Reed, is al lirical description of images and stories perfect song

[@williammanroe3411]

jaime nuñez Lou Reed was one of the greatest songwriters I've ever heard songs from, aside from Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan. They wrote some of the most scuzzy, outsider-centric songs of all time. #ripwalterbecker

[@II-xl7lj]

@@williammanroe3411 Don't you dare compare Lou to that shlt, don't you dare

[@tylerryan458]

Fun Fact: The kids you hear are the same children you hear in the beginning of “God of Thunder” by KISS. Bob Ezrin, the producer for both tracks used his 2 sons in the studio to try and make the songs more dark I suppose. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@stevensmoley7983]

Bob certainly accomplished that goal here.

[@diana8259]

Sad & beautiful

[@mikescheibinger5191]

My heart is overflowin' anyway.

[@zetetick395]

This is Lou at his most Leonard

[@brianbarrett192]

NO.

[@johnj165]

One of the beat songs ever written, emotions captured better than anyone ever could do. Lou was gifted.

[@iansummers7241]

Legend 👍

[@lissie3669]

I want it to be over but I want to play it again

[@michaelstevenson470]

It may be the most harrowing song I know; listening to it is close to masochism. It always results in tears - and valium doesn't help the bash.

[@kevincampbell5785]

The kids heard near the end of the song were producer Bob Ezrin's kids. They can also be heard on KISS' "God Of Thunder".

[@davestone4468]

Also loved lou's choice of cords an notes that have natural overtones. Love it an play my version etc.

[@davestone4468]

The recording engineers or whoever recorded their kid crying etc an compressed an whateveted the voices in this sad but true song The Kids. Lou could dethrone an silence a crowd heckler like no one heard LOU!!!! rock on!!!

[@marshsherrif2824]

the greatest disturbing song. lots of stories..........

[@mireillemadeleineschreurs2841]

O ya i remember i bougt this album 48 years ago, and my brother when he heared the music ,he did not like the part when the children starten to cry!; whitch i also did not like i am now 62 years and i also cried when i heared the children creëren and crying for their mammie, aftershave so man years it still hits you; lets us hope we are all going to heaven where there is nothing that takes us away from the love of god and where is happiness,health,Joy!and no broken relations by the way there is no married there.

[@gogoyubari366]

Love Berlin!

[@fulvia651]

la adoro

[@HommeTerre]

~ It Is Like A Prayer ~ 🍀🙏💚

[@HommeTerre]

Beautiful Crazy "Make Me Cry"

[@stevensmoley7983]

Chances are excellent that you will never hear this song in a night club.

[@jaybone58]

Lived it. Thanks Lou.

[@brandilowe1916]

i was a student at a small state school in Michigan. i remember he came through on tour with, Dr John (thought that was an odd pairing). He had dyed blond hair. I was 18. I remember being mesmerized by the whole show.

[@jjacolo1]

A MASTER PIECE,SOME KIND OF PERFECTION, A PARANGON OF POETRY, LOU FOR EVER

[@MelBee128]

Apparently inspired by Lou's wife Bettye who was taken from her mother at a young age after her father left when she was very young. Lou embellished the rest which helped to break up their marriage. Lol

[@OzDuker]

Mel Bee Or alternatively Nico whose biography also fits parts of the song.

[@desolationangel5136]

Betty also cut her wrists in the bathtub.

[@TheJetfighter666]

My mom left me at 10 months. My father punched her in the face on Christmas Eve. They say I cried for her all the time. Molested at five and up from my dad’s Cuban friend. I am alive at 65. Saw Lou ion the Sally album tour. I was there that night when they recorded the LIVE album! Not R&R Animal but the one that came out after Sally Can’t Dance..

[@motorolamotog9433]

Cristo che capolavoro!!!! 🖤💚❤️❣️

[@monkt9056]

Suddenly, I'd like to listen to this song. Autumn feeling~

[@stephendaparma0915]

Louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu 🖤

[@franciscomacia7365]

Hermoso

[@ΟρέστηςΚαραογλάνης]

Saddest song ever

[@sherwpinkhair]

oh man, its almost like lou knew. heh. this album is perfection

[@ennuii6]

Sure is

[@ανναλιζου]

goosebumps when the kids cry...

[@andipandi5641]

more so than ever now cos that is what the most powerful government in the world is doing..

[@RedGoldGreen-Dub]

Lovely song 💙

[@JasonSmith-un7lt]

Lou!!!!!!

[@didierchenet]

Deep and human..

[@kevindearmond523]

Slide guitar is wicked

[@joeyk169]

this song makes me think of the generations of indigenous kids taken from their families to be sent to "residential boarding schools"

[@danmigliore]

good point, its racism too, not just sex and drugs

[@edwardormsby1515]

This song is a cock block for any good feeling that may be pestering you

[@retroloneliness]

LOUUUUUUU

[@isabelledelisere1635]

Cris déchirants.J'ai (je ) cries aussi fort que lui.

[@venturalopezgarcia7548]

Grande lou ree

[@LaRoll]

Bob Ezrin's children crying for real. Ezrin and Reed told them their their mother had abandoned them

[@johnfowler3125]

That's one way to get a sound effect I suppose...

[@LaRoll]

@@johnfowler3125 hard method 😊

[@JamesGames101]

apparently this was just a rumour, but considering the intensity I can definitely see why it'd be believed

[@mrbeanonemillion]

If you are interested check Anthony De Curtis 'Lou Reed A Life'. Lots of background as to how this album came about.

[@ladystardust7773]

J'adore jouer the Kid à la guitare mélodie magnifique la fin est déchirante bob Ezrin avait enfermé les enfants dans le studio en leurs disant qu'ils reverraient pas leurs mère alors ils ont vraiment eu peur on le ressens dans le titre mais c'est quand même une idée de génie d'avoir fait pleurer les enfants comme sa parle d'une maman qui s'occuper mal de ses enfants

[@JontyMaster]

Fact: One rumor states that Bob Ezrin locked his own kids in the studio, told them their mother was dead, and taped the results. From what I heard on TV Tropes, Ezrin said that he just told them to pretend and they did so rather convincingly.

[@brianm5831]

There's a difference in life before and after the 5:15 mark. It's called Lou Reed

[@robertlee8474]

Always liked this song. I figured out a way to do “ the swim” and “ the gator” along with it.

[@TheJetfighter666]

His masterpiece! The press labeled this album as the most depressing album ever recorded. ( until they heard death metal😂)

One of the most harrowing things ever caught on tape.

[@carlcruysberghs2298]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Claytone-Records]

I am just a water boy...

[@alexanderofhollywood]

The real game's not over here.

[@MattHayesVinyl]

I don't know if it's true that the kids near the end were told (falsely) that their mother had just died but it's possible. Something certainly got that kind of a reaction out of them.

[@nickiperk]

Matt Hayes yeah that's true. Maybe Bob Ezrin's actual kids?

[@hanswanker1283]

Nick Perkins yup.

[@mikehuber8068]

Bob Ezrin said he told his child that it was bedtime. Then he did a second recording where he asked them to pretend they missed their mom. The crying is real, but they are just calling "Mommy" on cue (actually the younger one actually did get upset calling for mommy).

[@michaelkilroe5881]

While flipping through a five-year-old copy of NME in a WFMU bathroom, I came across an article about "scary music" by Mark Beaumont. He wrote that the little kids who can be heard wailing on Lou Reed's track The Kids (from his 1973 LP Berlin) were the young children of producer Bob Ezrin, who were crying because their Dad had told them that their mother had just been killed in a horrible accident. Their mother was fine - the track needed some crying, so Producer Ezrin produced some. (Found this on the net today)

[@needtashow]

also , kids that age will cry anyway when they get tired or if they got the wrong piece of candy .

[@krycklund]

Well this became relevant again.

[@juanmanuelelez198]

Berlín es un disco de música y letra y sonido extraordinario. Lou Reed amante de la literatura, quisiera hacer una historia de un matrimonio, enamorado, luego llegaron las drogas, los celos , la violencia, la prostitución, el quitar a los hijos a una madre incapaz de gobernarsexa si misma

[@juanmanuelelez198]

Berlín es un disco con unas letras de el lado oscuro de la vida, de la degradación, de la violencia, del suicidio, de dos jonkys Tematica no habitual en las canciones. Es un disco aterrador, doloroso, triste. Pero a la vez un disco brillante para gente madura que igual lee un relato de Alan Poe, a pesar de lo oscuro de la historia..

[@siegfriedthierree3399]

For someone who doesn't listen to the lyrics, damn, the song was just... Normal.

[@kaiortiz2735]

have you been taken away?

[@jorgeluisnaupariquimber2263]

Me costó mucho poder dejar de escuchar todos los días a todas horas ese disco desde que lo descubrí en esa lista de 1000 y un discos que debes de escuchar antes de morir, porque de él solo conocía el Transformer pero este disco me cambió la vida. Se puede sufrir y seguir viviendo sin desear dejar de sufrir. Tras la muerte creo que lo único que extrañaré de esta vida son algunos discos: este es uno de ellos.

[@kevin104z]

Tony Levin on bass

[@tabascocat5102]

It's a good'un

[@gurrenmed5319]

This song looks like that part of the movie where the Divorced dad is facing the emptiness and depression

[@valerianodiana7016]

Struggente Capolavoro

[@Dopi-1956]

The children you hear on this song are in their fifties now.

[@danielmcinnes20]

👌

[@alexdelarge5800]

this song is so hard to listen, with those lyrics, with the children crying, is so sad :-(

[@lessevdoolbretsim]

Gut-wrenching, one could say.

[@jeffdawson2786]

My introduction to Lou Reed was uneventful. I thought anything after the Velvets was inferior, not worth listening to. I stumbled upon this record in high school by accident. This was the song that changed my mind…

[@krisscanlon4051]

I suppose Ezrin felt that his screaming children would add to the song...I can't say if its the right thing to do however its a depressing song so why not add in the theatricality of it all? As an aside I had been in the grips of addiction when was not the best parent. I eventually got sober now just as long as the time I used. Now they are adults and this song reminds of the pain I caused. No time erases what pain i caused. I didnt legally lose custody but in my heart I lost it already.

[@luismoraless7133]

Why is he much happier? 0:

[@pommelhorsepommelhorse8731]

because jim is a cad and he doesn't want to be bothered

[@hydeparkdirector2756]

@@pommelhorsepommelhorse8731 Right. This is not Lou read speaking--it's the character Jim.

[@lennyrose5852]

He’s lying to himself and pretending not to care

[@dpapa2175]

masterpiece but keep it on the hush-hush

[@worlandow]

Remastered version ... Not as good as the vinyl. Where is the movie . The Kids , The Bed , Sad Song. Decadent Masterpiece. Love is album.

[@PoetryBirdsFly]

💞🌍🌎🌏💞

[@johannesschaller442]

Definitely on Edgar Allan Poe's level.

[@simonjager9259]

The Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band of depression.

[@falloutboygaming2059]

Tenias que cagarla

[@mickje56]

Kippenvel

[@oliviermonjauze1832]

Forever hard to hear these song . The problem was the father ... The sounds of children remenber me too many things ... there was also a flute ... One of my songs .

[@BrunoSantos-cb5xv]

The mother didn't know how to choose

[@oliviermonjauze1832]

@@BrunoSantos-cb5xv ... And liked to yell like a slaughterde saw .

[@zeligwalkenwalken1956]

👍

[@sergelozano2905]

40ans avant quand bande de terreurs sympathiques ?

[@miguelcarvalheira8215]

Ao fdim de tantos anos ... puta que pariu!! Mais nada

[@mike196212]

Bob Ezrin's kids. He in fact told them,to get the desired result,that their mother wasn't coming back.

[@suzannemarker9896]

Mike Poitras That’s just an urban legend. The crying kids are Bob Ezrin’s, but he actually had recorded them at home crying about something the way tired, young children do. FWIW his wife was home when the boys were crying - she took the little one for a bath or something which caused the older one to decide he wanted a bath too which is why he was calling for her.

[@janpoelkamp4229]

@@suzannemarker9896 Glad to hear that. Makes it a lot more palatable.

[@darthvader3465]

this is literature