Metallica & Lou Reed Team Up for Lulu Album Project

Lou Reed Metallica - LuluLou Reed, the godfather of New York avant-garde rock – as a solo artist and as part of Velvet Underground – and Metallica, the kings of metal, have teamed up for a new album project entitled Lulu.

The collection of songs is inspired by German expressionist Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904)’Earth Spirit’. Both plays are set in the 1890s Europe and follow the tragic life of Lulu; her rescue from abuse on the streets of Germany, to affairs as a dancer in Paris to her ultimate demise at the hands of Jack the Ripper in London.

The plays have provided fodder for a 1929 silent film, ‘Pandora’s Box’ as well as the 1935 Opera ‘Lulu’. The subject matter of the original play was certainly as controversial in the early 1900s as it is now.

So, how did the two rock icons get together. Reed had been already been in Berlin working on a theatrical production of the Lulu plays. In 2009 the two acts performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in New York. Following that the original plan was to re-record a group of Velvet Underground ‘lost jewels’ for a joint album, but before that happened Reed proposed that they work together on ‘Lulu’ instead.

Lulu is due to be released worldwide on October 31st, and hopefully we’ll see them take advantage of the full potential of social and emerging media to enhance the album. You can stay up to date on the project on the Lou Reed Metallica website, Facebook page and the Loutallica Twitter profile.