Metallica and Lou Reed Perform ‘Lulu’ Songs on French TV

By Amy Sciarretto

Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujilio appeared with Lou Reed on the French show, ‘Taratata,’ which aired on Nov. 25. The episode was taped on Nov. 9, and in addition to the trio sitting down to field questions about and discuss their collaborative ‘Lulu’ album, the band and Reed performed two songs from the record.

While ‘Lulu’ has sunk like a 50-ton boulder on the U.S. charts, the band and Reed remained on the promotional trail in Europe. It’s endearing to see that they are still supporting it and not letting it go despite the fact that it was a commercial failure and earned ‘Tallica their worst reviews in forever. The jarring nature of the material makes it go down hard, and that’s evident during the performances of ‘White Light/White Heat’ and ‘The View.’ There’s no telling if and when these songs will be performed live stateside, so take a gander to satisfy your curiosity and see what it’s like.

During the chat portion of their appearance, Reed talked about Lulu as an amoral woman who is “young, beautiful and wants to have a good time and that’s it. It’s not that she’s mean; she just doesn’t care.” He does the majority of the talking about the album’s concept, since it was his idea in the first place. Ulrich piped up about how Reed mentioned the prospect of recording together and then called to follow up on the suggestion. He revealed that Reed asked, “Want to take a left turn with me?” That they did.

Trujilio speaks French, so Ulrich wanted to talk and then have his partner-in-rhythm translate. The drummer said that the band will soon be making another Metallica album, which the crowd immediately understood. They erupted into cheers and needed no translator. The language barrier was transcended by Metallica there.