Lou Reed is one of the legends of Rock having been excessively successful as the leading man in Velvet Underground and then suddenly starting a solo career which led him to the laps of harsh critics and underjoyed crowds. He did not stop, went on and became who he is.
Lou Reed actually has a style which is a mixture of several things. He certainly has the Rock background, but is not esentially too far away from Folk as well. If he was not from Brooklyn, I would have added Southern Rock into the mix easily. He also has a Nick Cave and Bob Dylan way to him also. He is called as a modern poet due to his singing style (Especially later works). The main difference with Bob Dylan in this sense is that Dylan went on to review the social issues in his lyrics while Reed was mainly into his own personal experiences.
This album is the third live recording of Lou Reed and takes place at The Bottom Line in NY. Moreover, this is the first, unedited live album he made. The album spans over 2 records and includes his works as well as chats with the audience and monologues which are really interesting within themselves. He also starts pondering on a music critic of that era and tells a little background story of the "Walk On The Wild Side". He tells the story while signing the song. Interesting man. Love it!!!
We get to listen tons of live albums, but listening a raw one is quite satisfactory since you get to listen to the real thing. The mistakes, the coughs, thank yous, anecdotes, sorry for being late we were tunings etc. You feel like you are there. He even says he doesn't have an attitude without a cigarette. There is an intimacy. On this album you directly get it from the beginning. Actually I bought this album with a bunch of others in a lot sale and it has been waiting for me to listen it for 3-4 months now. I've been into lots of things during that time, but it was always in my mind somewhere. Now having taken a vacation from work to do some home work, I have enjoyed it to the fullest.
One small thing is that Lou Reed's last work has been with Metallica for the album of Lulu. The album is an experiment which seems to have gone wrong. The levels of vocals vs music is not well establisted, there is not really a connection between Metallica and Lou Reed. There has to be a chemical reaction in collaborations and it is clearly missing there. Anyway don't judge a book by it's cover and especially someone by a collaboration. To have a true idea of what Lour Reed is capable of, you have to listen to "Live: Take No Prisoners".
To buy this record:
@ Discogs
@ Ebay
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