Lou Reed Live - Lou Reed (Who else?) - RCA Victor (what else?)

Reviewed by David Maclennan

The remainder of the tapes from the concern that produced 'Rock n Roll Animal', so this new one just had to be good - which it is, though perhaps not quite as good as its predecessor. The two together make a fine double-album, really.

What have we got then? Well, it's a well-rounded collection, all of side one being taken up with the three best tracks from 'Transformer,' namely 'Vicious,' 'Satellite of Love' and 'Walk on the Wild Side.' Side two has the Velvet Underground standard 'Waiting For My Man,' plus two from 'Berlin,' namely 'Oh Jim' and 'Sad Song.'

All of the songs are well played and well sung. As with 'Rock 'n Roll Animal,' there is more of that tight guitar interplay between Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter. As for the three Transformer1 songs, while I like the versions I don't think they are as good as the originals: On Transformer,' 'Vicious' had a strong Velvets Feel to it which is lacking here, and as for 'Wild Side,' well, the studio version of that is unbeatable. Still, three nice ones.

Side two, and 'Waiting for My Man.' This is good treatment, though again, it has a different feel from the original. 'Oh Jim' is far and away the best thing on the record, featuring some great guitar from Messrs. Wagner and Hunter. While it lacks some of the menace of the original, the live 'Oh Jim' comes off very well - better than I thought it could be done live, in fact. Finally there's 'Sad Song,' which finishes the album nicely, Not as good as the 'Berlin' version, but no complaints as far as I'm concerned.

So there we have it. A great album from a great artist. While some-er-critics maintain that Lou gave up delivering the goods years ago, there's no way they can say that he's washed-out as a live performer. This album, along with 'Rock 'n Roll Animal' is ample proof of that. Buy this record, go and see him in August: your life may yet be saved by Rock and Roll.

Available from Colin Morris Record's Ltd - student discount available, of course.

(Seems funny that when you admit 6 out of 6 tracks fail to match up to the original versions that you recommend people to spend good money on this record - Ed.)