lou reed - take no prisoners

In early 1977 Lou Reed witnessed a demonstration of a recording technique called Stereo Binaural, in which two microphones are used, arranged to create the same sort of 3D effect that your ears send to your brain. To facilitate this, the microphones were frequently placed above the ears of a dummy head. The result is a stunningly immediate sound which gives the impression that the listener is right in the middle of the action. As the full effect could only really be appreciated on headphones the technique was never of much interest beyond a small number of sound engineers, though today, with the ubiquitous use of headphones on iPods and the like, it's surprising that this method of recording hasn't had a resurgence. 

Lou Reed had always shown a strong interest in cutting edge sound and decided to experiment with the Stereo Binaural technique. He cut his new album Street Hassle at a small club in West Germany. The bemused audience were confronted with microphones everywhere and a set of almost entirely new songs, some of which were played a number of times to ensure a good recording. Their sporadic applause was carefully edited out and for many years no-one realised the Street Hassle was actually a live album. Some of these tracks such as “Leave Me Alone”, "Dirt" and the scabrously insulting, but subversively funny “I Wanna Be Black” had been knocking around for a few years, but once the live recordings had been overdubbed and and manipulated they changed enormously from the basic tracks that the German crowd would have heard. The weirdest of the lot was the totally out there version of “Real Good Time Together” which took just the throbbing guitar part as the basis for the whole song. Lou's wavery vocals were oddly overdubbed and then without warning the full band was harshly faded in half way through the song. However, throughout all the weirdness it sounds as if Lou is having great fun. Admittedly it’s a perverse sort of fun as the songs are sometimes unpleasant, one chord dirges, with some tuneless harsh singing plonked on top. “Leave Me Alone” is especially hard to get through. But then there is the title track, the only studio cut on the album. "Street Hassle" is a song of beauty and grace and delicacy. Totally out of place amongst the grime. One of Lou's most poetic lyrics, a story from the streets, and some unusually personal lines. Later live performances would significantly lose all the stuff about how 'she took the rings right off his fingers...' which, at the time, Lou candidly said was all true.

For such an experimental album it's perhaps strange that Street Hassle was so widely praised, especially as it was released at the height of punk. Lou declared himself happy with the new recording process but decided that he'd perhaps taken the audio manipulation too far, and that for his next album he wanted to capture his live band in all their glory with as little tweaking as possible. And what a great band it was too, able to twist and turn along with Lou's random deviations and flights of fancy. Reed was very fortunate that most of his band had been with him for some years and all were well honed in coping with any of Lou's frequent mood swings and on the hoof set changes. Lou chose his favourite New York club, the Bottom Line in the heart of Greenwich Village, to be the setting for his next record. This little club, all seated, with a capacity of only 400, also boasted an excellent sound system which pleased Lou no end.

He resumed touring in March 1978, playing a set which mixed the new Street Hassle songs, with obscurities from his back catalogue and a few Velvet Underground favourites for good measure. Fortunately a handful of these gigs from across the USA were recorded for radio broadcasts and all are equally strong shows. The band is superb following Lou's lead at every gig, stretching some songs to 20 minute epics, cutting short other tracks that aren't catching the audience's attention.

For the record the band was - 

Ellard "Moose" Boles - bass,

Marty Fogel - saxophone, 

Michael Fonfara - keyboards, 

Stuart Heinrich - guitar, vocals,

Michael Suchorsky - drums,  

with Chrissy Faith & Angela Howell on backing vocals.

Lou himself handled much of the guitarwork and also played his new discovery, a guitar synth.

The tour opened at the Bottom Line in early March 1978, but it was the shows booked there between 17th and 21st May that Lou had set up for recording. All the performances were captured on tape and the best songs were cherry picked for the double live album. The title Take No Prisoners originated at a Canadian gig early in the tour. A fan in the front row, who had perhaps overindulged, spent half the gig shouting 'Take no prisoners Lou, take no prisoners!!' over and over before he was eventually escorted from the theatre. Michael Fonfara was given the initial task of identifying the best performances - as the band was so consistent across all the gigs and the recording levels were set equally consistently for each show Fonfara proposed editing together the best bits from various performances to create the truly definitive version of each song. Everyone agreed that this would be great and the painstaking editing process was already underway before Lou changed his mind and declared that, as the original intention had been to capture the band exactly as they were on stage, he didn't want any studio trickery or clever editing after all.

As a result the ten tracks that spread across the four sides of vinyl (these are long songs, folks) consist not only of excellent musicianship, but also Lou's fast and furious stories, snappy put downs, jokes and one liners. In short there is as much talking as there is singing. Many tracks feature asides wherein Lou takes swipes at critics, club owners, fans, the audience, movies, the record business and even some of his contemporaries. (Perhaps surprisingly, even Patti Smith gets sniped at). No-one is safe from Lou's sarcasm and barbs. But, crucially, whatever he says is actually genuinely funny. These aren't simply insults as Lou gets his own back on the critics, but a severely witty commentary on the business he's found himself part of. Respected New York critic Robert Christgau took his dig in good humour, commenting that he didn't mind Lou having a go at him on record because Lou Reed had actually pronounced his surname correctly (something that was rarely done). At times Lou's onstage digressions took over the songs entirely. "Walk On The Wild Side" for instance features the band vamping the tune while Lou explains how he came to write "Walk On The Wild Side", potted histories of the various characters in the song plus his thoughts on such varied luminaries as Andy Warhol and Diana Ross. And the whole thing is so wonderfully entertaining that you don't realise that even though it runs for nearly 17 minutes they've only got as far as the first chorus.

But some songs are played straight. "Coney Island Baby" is the most powerful rendition of this classic that I've ever heard. There's a fantastically long drawn out ending as Lou and the girls repeat the 'glory of love' refrain over and over while Marty Fogel blows up a storm on his saxophone. It's incredibly emotional and exciting, and the Stereo Binaural recording is partly the reason, as you genuinely feel like you're part of the audience that night. The immediacy of the band, the clarity of the instruments, there's a palpable presence that leaps off the turntable and grabs you. The band are capable of playing oh so quietly and then, without breaking a sweat, suddenly charging like a locomotive at full speed. Listen to the gentle and delicate piano played by Michael Fonfara at the beginning of "Berlin" and then compare to the full on guitar, sax and pounding piano of just a few minutes later at the song's conclusion. This displays an amazingly strong grasp of the dynamics of the music. Playing these songs in a small club helped - a stadium sized PA doesn't allow for this sort of dynamic range, as everything has to be Spinal Tapped up to 11. But in a club, with a small audience, you can play quietly and tenderly and everyone will still hear. The version of "Pale Blue Eyes" clearly exhibits these quiet moments - guitar synth and keyboards take most of the tune as Lou tones down his vocal accordingly. But then a track such as "Leave Me Alone" opens up the throttle and the band are simply powering along for the whole piece, with no let up whatsoever.

Apart from my favourite, "Coney Island Baby", arguably the most impressive song on the album is "Street Hassle" which manages to keep the taut, elegant beauty of the original studio cut, whilst also adding an edgy unpredictable quality. The power of the bass and the guitar synth after Lou utters the words 'you know what it's called? Baaaaadd luck', is simply stunning. 

But it's the evergreen "Sweet Jane" that perhaps encapsulates the whole album. A sharp and clever mix of caustic one liners commenting obliquely on both the audience and the song itself, mesh seamlessly with the actual lyrics and the band keeps up with every word Lou is saying or singing. At one point Lou starts free associating and comes up with the phrase 'make believe love'. Quick as a flash he turns to Fonfara, 'Hey write that down Michael, Make Believe Love, that's an album title right there...' The band doesn't blink, the beat is solid and the riffs continue. Later a heckler shouts something fairly incomprehensible about writing a review and Lou immediately snaps back, 'if you write as good as you talk then no-one reads you'. This "Sweet Jane" also kicks harder than any other version I've heard. All the musicians are on such good form.

Released in November 1978 Take No Prisoners picked some pretty good reviews, with most commenting on the power of the band and the solidity of the music just as much as they focused on Lou's chatter. Reed himself later commented that perhaps the album should have been called Lou Reed Talks And Talks And Talks and later still he expressed the opinion that perhaps they should have gone with Fonfara's original idea of editing together excerpts from various performances after all, and cutting back on the patter. The initial plan was to showcase the band and perhaps the finished album doesn't quite let them roll as much as Lou would have wanted.

Considering that six or seven complete performances were recorded it's something of a shame that, apart from one unremarkable track on a box set, nothing else from these gigs has ever been issued. It seems to me that these Bottom Line shows marked something of a highpoint in Lou's live performances and to not issue a multi disc set comprising of the whole run of gigs is missing a marvellous opportunity to bring more of this fantastic music to the masses. But that's Lou Reed, an awkward old goat, a man who'll never do what's expected, or even what's sensible, sticking to his own stubborn path regardless of what anyone says. He may not have produced a decent album for over twenty years (and last year's team up with Metallica was quite possibly the most appalling recording he's ever been involved with), but there were twenty five years when he was bloody good (1965 - 1990), and as on Take No Prisoners he was frequently superbly brilliant and pretty much untouchable.