His life was saved by rock n roll.
Just like Dylan in the movies, sometimes it is best not to look back but lets face it, no one is seriously going to tell Lou Reed what to do are they? Well they might but they’d be a fool if they expected him to listen to them. The ‘Berlin’ lp was a record the critics shunned on initial release and such was the ferocity of the criticism and the ebbing fluctuations of Reed, the album never got a proper airing in the live arena at the time.
Perhaps over time Reed has mellowed and decided to give the record another shot or if you are to believe the hype about the curmudgeonly rock star, its likely he has nursed a grievance over the records appraisal and has now decided to unleash it once again. Either way, this live album is a recording of the first live performance of the album and Lou has brought along a few friends to flesh out his original expectations of the record.
Given the passing of time since the original release and the need for Reed to keep reinventing himself, some of the tracks are changed about from the original record. On first release, ‘How Do You Think It Feels?’ was a glam like stomp but on this showing, it has a lot more snarl and dig. The horns and funky guitar are still there but it is an angrier beast this time around, the same as ‘Men Of Good Fortune’, which really owes a lot to its crunching guitar fills.
Another problem with the re-imagining of the some of the songs is that they have become huge favourites of many people over the years and it takes some time to readjust, with ‘Caroline Says Part II’ being the perfect example of this. The track is slowed down, perhaps in an attempt to showcase the story better but the song loses a lot of the urgency and emotion that the original (and the ‘Stephanie Says’ demo recorded by the Velvets) managed to portray.
However, there are still brilliant moments from ‘Berlin’ with the closing ‘Sad Song’ really carrying people away on a wave of upbeat-ness (which is probably ironic given the title) but the backing vocals and swooping strings make the song leap out at the listener, as well as many other moments of individual talent or spontaneity.
It is only the introduction of Antony Haggerty in the encore during ‘Candy Says’ that you fully realise how Reeds vocals have dipped in quality. This track no doubt has poignancy for Heggarty, it was written for Candy Darling, the cover star of Antony & The Johnsons ‘I Am A Bird Now’ album and the younger singer really captures the beauty and heartbreaking quality of the song. Reeds performance merely grunts and limps beside it and on the one hand you have to admire Reed for releasing a performance where he is clearly playing second fiddle (and not in the way that Sterling Morrison played fiddle in the Velvets) to a younger, more dynamic artist.
What ‘Candy Says’ and ‘Sweet Jane’ do reinforce though is the sense of how immensely talented Reed was and how his music deserves to live long after everyone on the planet at this moment has passed on. The re-release of ‘Berlin’ was greeted with much fanfare, including on this site, but the live album is just a step too far. The lp needed a re-release to allow a reappraisal of its talent and to remind people of how majestic a record it was but this live album doesn’t do that. It’s a fine memento for those that were there, it keeps Lou in the public eye and it is probably no worse than a good number of live recordings. You should definitely purchase the re-mastered version of ‘Berlin’ to understand what the fuss is all about.