LOU REED: "Sally Can't Dance"

Original released on LP RCA Victor CPL1-0611

(US, August 1974)

On the live album "Rock N Roll Animal", Lou Reed showed he'd learned how to give his audience what they wanted, and do it well. "Sally Can't Dance", on the other hand, was the polar opposite, a remarkably cynical album that pandered to the lowest common denominator of the market that had bought "Transformer" and "Rock N Roll Animal", and didn't even do it with much flair. Reed's performances here are limited to vocals, except for some sloppy acoustic guitar on one track (this from the man who helped reinvent electric guitar with the Velvet Underground), and the sodden, overblown arrangements sink most of these tunes before they get past the first chorus; much of the time, Reed sounds like an afterthought on his own album. And while Reed's best songwriting ranks with the best rock of his generation, "Sally Can't Dance" is cluttered with throwaways that reach for the boho decadence of "Transformer" and come up empty (with special recognition going to the bizarre and truly puzzling "Animal Language"). Side two does offer two worthwhile songs: "Kill Your Sons," a powerful and deeply personal remembrance of Reed's bouts with shock treatment and brutal psychotherapy, which he would revisit in a much stronger performance on 1984's "Live in Italy", and "Billy," a witty and surprisingly poignant remembrance of an old friend and how their paths in life diverged. But otherwise, "Sally Can't Dance" has the distinction of being the worst studio album of Reed's career; Metal Machine Music may have been a lot more annoying, but at least he was trying on that one. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

LOU REED LIVE!

Original released on LP RCA Victor APL1-0472

(US, February 1974)

In 1974, after the commercial disaster of his album "Berlin", Lou Reed needed a hit, and "Rock N' Roll Animal" was a rare display of commercial acumen on his part, just the right album at just the right time. Recorded in concert with Reed's crack road band at the peak of their form, "Rock N' Roll Animal" offered a set of his most anthemic songs (most dating from his days with the Velvet Underground) in arrangements that presented his lean, effective melodies and street-level lyrics in their most user-friendly form (or at least as user friendly as an album with a song called "Heroin" can get). Early-'70s arena rock bombast is often the order of the day, but guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter use their six-string muscle to lift these songs up, not weigh them down, and with Reed's passionate but controlled vocals riding over the top, "Sweet Jane," "White Light/White Heat," and "Rock 'n' Roll" finally sound like the radio hits they always should have been. Reed would rarely sound this commercial again, but "Rock N' Roll Animal" proves he could please a crowd when he had to. (in AllMusic)

BERLIN By LOU

Original released on LP RCA APL 1-0207

(UK, October 1973)

"Transformer" and "Walk on the Wild Side" were both major hits in 1972, to the surprise of both Lou Reed and the music industry, and with Reed suddenly a hot commodity, he used his newly won clout to make the most ambitious album of his career, "Berlin". "Berlin" was the musical equivalent of a drug-addled kid set loose in a candy store; the album's songs, which form a loose story line about a doomed romance between two chemically fueled bohemians, were fleshed out with a huge, boomy production (Bob Ezrin at his most grandiose) and arrangements overloaded with guitars, keyboards, horns, strings, and any other kitchen sink that was handy (the session band included Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Aynsley Dunbar, and Tony Levin). And while Reed had often been accused of focusing on the dark side of life, he and Ezrin approached "Berlin" as their opportunity to make The Most Depressing Album of All Time, and they hardly missed a trick. This all seemed a bit much for an artist who made such superb use of the two-guitars/bass/drums lineup with the Velvet Underground, especially since Reed doesn't even play electric guitar on the album; the sheer size of "Berlin" ultimately overpowers both Reed and his material. But if "Berlin" is largely a failure of ambition, that sets it apart from the vast majority of Reed's lesser works; Lou's vocals are both precise and impassioned, and though a few of the songs are little more than sketches, the best - "How Do You Think It Feels," "Oh, Jim," "The Kids," and "Sad Song" - are powerful, bitter stuff. It's hard not to be impressed by "Berlin", given the sheer scope of the project, but while it earns an A for effort, the actual execution merits more of a B-. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

"Berlin" is an underrated album, perhaps because many people jumped under the covers when they heard how perfectly depressing it is. But the tone of the music touches you because it is downright lovely much of the time. And I don't mean the whole album is depressing. Reed had to build up the characters on side one in order to set up the big fall, so things start out rather upbeat (but that's not to say Dubonnet on ice is that elegant). There are more guest musicians and instruments on this album than just about any Reed album I know of - but the musical abundance is never overbearing. Instead, what bores into your soul is the use of repetitive sound affects, like babies crying. The concept is a sort of song cycle about the lowest of human experiences, including suicide. Enter if you dare (and aren't currently under a "watch" of some sort). Other than that, jump right in and just accept what the record wants you to feel. You'll survive. After all, Lou did. (in RateYourMusic)

Oh Such a Perfect Day...

Original Released on LP RCA Victor LSP 4807

(US, November 1972)

These days you can find drag queens on TV sitcoms and Broadway shows, "Warholian" has become a common adjective, and "Walk on the Wild Side" is something of a standard. That piquant slice of New York City underground life improbably propelled Lou Reed into the Top 20, and you can still find it on the radio, in films and commercials, and sampled on hip hop records. People may not remember the verses or what they mean, but few can forget that addictive chorus with its staccato "doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.."s. And Reed himself - the "Dark Prince" as the British press used to call him, whose very life expectancy had been speculated upon by both his cruelest critics and fiercest fans during the height of his mid-seventies notoriety. His collected lyrics have been published as volumes of poetry; his opinions have been solicited for the editorial pages of the New York Times; the French Ministry of Culture awarded him its Order of Arts and Letters. At the Jubilee 2000 Concert in Italy, part of a grassroots effort fronted by Bono to erase world debt, Lou even played before the Pope...!

With David Bowie as the young impresario, Lou Reed was re-modeled into a glam punk star for "Transformer". It’s arguably Reed’s best solo record, tapping into the VU vibe to showcase the singer’s bored, angry observations from the strung-out sexual culture of Andy Warhol’s Factory. "Transformer" contains Reed’s biggest hit, “Walk on the Wild Side,” as well as lesser known but equally loved tracks like “Vicious” (a cousin to “Sweet Jane”) and “Satellite of Love” (the best Bowie song that Ziggy never wrote). Though the references to bisexuality belong to a bygone era, the impact of Reed’s lapses of clarity are still powerful today. “Andy’s Chest,” “Perfect Day” and “Wagon Wheel” hover in a hazy understanding punctuated by moments of piercing lucidity; only Reed can make the rhyming of “lazy” and “crazy” seem profound.

The backing musicians, led by Mick Ronson, provide arrangements that are spare but inventive. The music doesn’t always work; Reed’s Muswell Hillbillies impression on “Make Up” and “Goodnight Ladies” sounds out of it, but re-casting the vocalist in a variety of lights does give the material a lot of character. Song for song, "Transformer" is as good an album as Reed has made. Calling this glam is a stretch, since Reed lacks the requisite feyness crucial to glam, yet it is spacey at times. The artwork is also in, er, questionable taste, but as its title suggests, "Transformer" at least partly sought to celebrate the transvestite/bisexual culture. Reed’s status as a self-standing star was established with this record, and it remains a must-own for his fans.

LOU REED Debut Album

Original released on LP RCA Victor LSP 4701

(US, May 1972)

Lou Reed's solo debut suggests that neither Reed nor his new record company were quite sure about what to do with him in 1972. It would be years before the cult of the Velvet Underground became big enough to mean anything commercially, leaving Lou pretty much back where he started from in the public eye after five years of hard work, and he seemed to be searching for a different musical direction on this set without quite deciding what it would be; while the best tunes are admirably lean, no-frills rock & roll, there are also several featuring tricked-up arrangements that don't suit the material terribly well (at no other time in history would anyone believe that Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman would be a good choice as backing musicians for the guy who wrote "Sister Ray"). Lou also didn't appear to have done much songwriting since he left the Velvets in 1970; with the exception of the hilariously catty "Wild Child" and "Berlin," a song Reed would revisit a few years later, nearly every significant song on Lou Reed dated back to his tenure with the Velvet Underground, though it would be years before that band's recordings of "I Can't Stand It," "Lisa Says," or "Ocean" would surface. On its own terms, Lou Reed isn't a bad album, but it isn't a terribly interesting one either, and since superior performances of most of these songs are available elsewhere, it stands today more as a historical curiosity than anything else. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

"Walk On The Wild Side" By LOU REED

WALLPAPER: "Transformer"