40 Year Itch : Lou Reed in Paris

   On May 25, 1974 Lou Reed performed at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. He'd just finished recording his fourth solo album Sally Can't Dance at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios before starting this European Tour. With bleached blond hair, the skinny as a rail Lou is barely recognizable.

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40 Year Itch: The Who Summer of 74 Fest

"Charlton was very disappointing , because when we went out the first thing I felt in the air was violence . It was like a feeling of something not quite right . I dunno what it was but I felt very uneasy for some time . The only way I could get myself together was by shutting out the audience and working with the group "
-Pete Townshend

On May 18, 1974 The Who played before a sold out crowd of 50,000 fans at Charlton Athletic F.C. Despite the bill, the opening acts were Humble Pie, a bleached blond Lou Reed, Bad Company ( whose debut album would come out in a few weeks), Lindisfarne, Maggie Bell  and Montrose. 

There was an ugly period in the 70's when people threw glass bottles at shows. (50 people had been hurt at a Jackson 5 concert at RFK Stadium the week before) There are reports of bottles and cans being thrown at this concert but no performers were hit. Just unlucky members of the audience. 

For more memories of Charlton '74 click this link

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40 Year Itch: Animal Lou

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Rock 'n'Roll Animal, what a degrading thing that was

-Lou Reed

Rock 'n'Roll Animal is Lou Reed making good on a promise. He promised RCA he'd made a commercial album after Berlin bombed. The public's disinterest in that 1973 concept album must have hurt. But by the same token, Lou had a hit record under his belt ( "Walk on the Wild Side") so what better time to show the world where he started. Four of the five songs on Rock n Roll Animal are Velvet Underground tunes --as played by a polished hard rock band led by two smokin' guitar gods : Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter who would soon be playing with Alice Cooper.

This live album  and 1975's Lou Reed Live were recorded on December 21, 1973 at Howard Stein's Academy of  Music in New York. Reed performed with swagger even though his singing remained as wooden as ever.

Reviews were mostly good but very, very strange.

Rolling Stone wrote 

Rock n Roll Animal is much less claustrophobic and oppressive than Berlin, but many people will probably loathe it anyway. Faggots, junkies and sadists are not very pleasant, but theirs are the sensibilities Reed draws upon. His songs offer little hope. Nothing changes, nothing gets better 

For NME future Pretender Chrissie Hynde wrote

 He looks like a monkey on a chain, court geek. Listen to him scramble to a corner, damaged and grotesque, huddled in rodent terror. Animal Lou. Lashing out in a way that could make the current S and M trend freeze in its shallow tracks. And the audience cheers after every song: we’re with you, yeah, we always loved those songs, ha ha. Well…he hates you.

But the review that probably hit Lou hardest was from his former Velvets band mate John Cale who was hardly impressed.

He thinks that by sticking to his guns, he'll succeed and he has. He's got the whole sickness market tied up. 

In tours that would soon follow, Reed would pretend to shoot up during "Heroin". The two disc, all-noise "fuck you'"onslaught of Metal Machine Music was just a year away.

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Goodbye Lou!

Short of words at the moment , I offer pictures and music in memory of Lou Reed.

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40 Year Itch : I Am No Waterboy

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When Lou Reed followed up his commercially successful 1972 album Transformer with Berlin, some critics thought he was committing some kind of commercial seppuku. Writing for Rolling Stone, Stephen Davis called the album a disaster:

There are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them. Reed's only excuse for this kind of performance (which isn't really performed as much as spoken and shouted over Bob Ezrin's limp production) can only be that this was his last shot at a once-promising career. Goodbye, Lou. 

40 years later that same publication ranks Berlin #344 of the Top 500 greatest albums of all time.

the 1979 Rolling Stone Record Guide describes the album as "grandiose, decadent", and finally "one of the most depressing records ever made, and oddly beautiful in its own awful way."

I think the earlier review is closer to the mark. 

Lou Reed recorded with one of the most exciting rock artists of his time: David Bowie. And what was his take-away? To make a depressing album of cabaret tunes that form a song cycle about a doomed couple that wallow their miserable way into prostitution and suicide.

OK, you may argue, this is capital "A" Art. Then why is Reed taking two songs from his Velvet Underground days (Oh Jim and Carolina Says (II))? And just in case you want to immerse yourself in a quiet pity party, there's two minutes of screaming and crying infants in "The Kids". A portent ( like the first 15 seconds of the album) of Metal Machine Music.

    The funny thing: I actually like the way Lou reinvented some of these songs for his live tour --witness Rock 'n' Roll Animal and  Lou Reed Live ( both recorded December 21st, 1973).

And yes, the Waterboys got their name from this album.

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40 Year Itch: Crazed Fan Bites Lou Reed's Ass

   

 [Purchase Transformer]

 On March 23, 1973 in Buffalo, NY a crazed fan leaps onstage and bites Lou Reed in the ass. Some concert goers say the fan yelled "Leather!" first. The fan is escorted from the theater and Lou Reed continues the show.

  The incident inspired Lou to record the ultimate "pain in the ass" album, 1975's four sides of guitar feedback , Metal Machine Music.*

*yeah I made that part up.

TOP 10 ALBUMS IN THE US MAR 24, 1973

1. Deliverance Soundtrack
2. Elton John : Don't Shoot Me
3. Diana Ross : Lady Sings the Blues
4. John Denver : Rocky Mountain High
5. Eumir Deodato : Prelude/Deodato
6. Carly Simon: No Secrets
7. Traffis: Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory
8. War : The World is a Ghetto
9. Bette Midler : The Divine Miss M
10. Stevie Wonder Talking Book

TOP 5 ALBUMS DEBUTING ON THE CHART MAR 24, 1973

96 Chi Lites : A Letter To Myself
110 Humble Pie: Eat It
121 Donny Osmond Alone Together
129 Byrds : Byrds ( Reunion album)
158 Fifth Dimension : Living Together Growing Together

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