Lou Reed's Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal is simply a brilliant live album, but it could have been even better.
A few years ago I basically restored the whole gig into the proper song order by combining R’n’RA and Lou Reed Live. But even with the magic of CoolEdit it was a tricky job as, despite both albums coming from the same 21st December 1973 concert, the mix on Lou Reed Live is noticeably different to that on R’n’RA. I think actually that that Animal has received slightly more post production as the whole album sounds terrific compared with what are more likely the rawer tapes on Live. Lou Reed Live was an album that was quickly tossed out by RCA to make some money following the debacle of Metal Machine Music - they simply dug out tapes from a two year old gig and issued them in late 1975, and I can’t believe that anyone spent more than a few minutes working on Live.
Anyway CoolEdit and a few evenings’ work sorted out the differences in levels and smoothed over the audience transitions. I also had to flip the channels back on Live as, for reasons that no-one can explain, the stereo image is reversed compared with Animal. Guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner are rather neatly split into each speaker and their twin guitar attack is pretty spectacular at times. But Live has them the wrong way round. So I put it right.
Anyway, in the correct order, this is a stunningly good show. Lou is really on form - at times he’s perhaps a little, shall we say, over-excited, but on the whole he delivers a fine vocal performance. The band is just awesome. All of the musicians bar keyboard player Ray Colcord would decamp to Alice Cooper’s band in 1975. (Colcord is interesting – he’d previously been in Don Maclean’s band and plays on American Pie. Since the Lou Reed tour he’s composed hundreds of TV themes.
Best track – the opening guitar wig out which then dives straight into "Sweet Jane" - that takes some beating. Though the super funky "Rock And Roll" is mighty fine too (it’s worth noting that much of the funkiness of Reed’s bands between 1973 and 1975 is down to bass player Prakash John – he was born in Bombay, but moved to Canada as a child and had worked alongside Bootsy Collins and George Clinton for a few years in the early 1970s, hence the funk).
In between, there are excellent renditions of Transformer tracks ("Walk On The Wild Side" is almost identical to the studio version but "Vicious" is a full on assault rather than the somewhat fey original), some slightly ragged attempts Berlin tunes (notably "Caroline Says" on which Lou attacks the song with rather more enthusiasm than accuracy, although the lengthy "Oh Jim" and "Sad Song" are both pretty spectacular), and some souped up blasts through Velvet Underground songs. Although the amped up take on "Waiting For The Man" is perhaps a little too over the top, the other Velvets tunes are superb. "White Light / White Heat" takes David Bowie's cover as its template and Lou reclaims the song as his own. "Heroin" is a real tour de force. Stunning organ work combines with the majestic guitars of Steve and Dick to create a song that is both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. As mentioned before the extended "Rock And Roll" is another masterpiece and is a wonderful conclusion to 90 minutes of Lou Reed at his very best.
The next few years would see Lou descend the depths of addiction and issue some wildly variable records (along with some worryingly schizophrenic concerts). When he was up to it the 1974 / 75 gigs could be brilliant, with Lou really delivering the goods onstage (despite the turmoil of his personal life), but there were just as many gigs where Lou was all but incapable of performing.
I have a cracking show from Paris in May 1974 - his singing and phrasing is spot on; he sounds like a man possessed and urges the band to really deliver as well. The Sydney gig from August 1974 is one of my favourites and a recording that I first got as a tape off Chelmsford market, back when I was still at school. It's a terrific gig, and a very decent recording too - there's a truly chilling and very spooky version of "Heroin" with a creepy organ dominating the song, a firey "Vicious" and a full on "White Light / White Heat" although it all ends with a very messy and ramshackle encore of "Rock And Roll" which sounds completely unrehearsed (but it was played as an encore at virtually every gig that year, so there's really no excuse!)
Lou Reed at his best was pretty much unbeatable.
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