Interesting piece in the NY Times today about Lou Reed doing four performances of his 1973 album Berlin at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn beginning tomorrow night. My favorite quote from the piece is this:
“I admire it. It’s trying to be real, to apply novelists’ ideas and techniques into a rock format.” He mentioned William S. Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr., Allen Ginsberg and Raymond Chandler as literary models.I think I might steal that line in the future when I encounter something incredibly pretentious, "That just sounds too B.A. in English."“But it sounds so pretentious saying that.” he added. “It just sounds too B.A. in English. Which I have. So there you go.”
Berlin isn't my favorite Lou Reed solo record by a long shot; my favorite is New York, which I think is one of Reed's greatest showcases of his gift for detail, as well as his famously acerbic sensibility. (I confess to not being wholly familiar with many of his solo records.) But I do wish I had tix for this show.
Download: "Men Of Good Fortune"
3 comments:
Berlin is actually one of my all time favorite albums. A work of brilliance IMO. It is equaled in it's depressive power only by Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night".
Having said that, when i read about this concert, I can't say that i was motivated to see it at all. Lou's live show can be distant and lacking for me.
One of my favorite live music moments was at a Christmas Party at Complete Music Service's headquarters in NYC in '92. Lou showed up (it was his rehearsal spot) and played for about a half hour - I don't even remember what he played, but my friends and I had to pick up our mouths off of the floor.
Guess you caught him on a good night.
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