Rock 'n' Roll Animal

According to certain versions , Lou Reed himself admittedly said once that he was not in good shape during this concert ( as a matter of fact I think he was referring to the whole period , circa 1973 , not just the concert ) . Certainly he was close to an all-time low in terms of psicological and physical exhaustion from the abuse of certain substances , but , ( hey Lou , call me what you want ) I disagree with his own statement . One of Lou's statements I fully agree with is the one that says that rock'n'roll saved his life . Another one that admits no dispute is "I don't like to disguise reality" . And that's exactly what he does in this concert/album . His singing is , probably more than ever , raw , painful , desperate at times . One thing you can't deny is his poetry , the way he communicates how he feels when he sees the world around him coming down hopelessly . These are not precisely lullaby songs . Lou doesn't really sing : he spits words and phrases , and the guitars sound like a machine gun at times to match his outburst. This is a classic album , one that gets better and better with the years , like a good wine . One big contributing factor for the great sound here is , no doubt , the guitar tandem of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner , who were especially inspired that night and provided Lou with a perfect , extraordinary sound environment. Wrapped by these two axemen and propelled by an equally inspired rythm section , Lou was able to shout his guts out . Bad shape ? I call it a marriage made in Heaven . Show me a better version of "Sweet Jane" and I will gladly pay you.Try to match the scorching , spine-shivering intro of Hunter and Wagner's guitars before Lou appears on stage and starts telling us about the mixed-up life of Sweet Jane and other odd characters . The same goes for "Heroin" , with its slow start gradually becoming a vertiginous rush . Life imitates art or art imitates life ? Who cares ? Then Lou goes to a rage-ladden version of "How do you think it feels" , with heart-ripping shouts and all , before he continues with his tales of physical and mental suffering and dark , ambiguous happiness/unhapiness in "Caroline says I" . After that he returns to his adventures with chemicals in an explosive rendition of "White light/white heat" , to me the best ever . I'm ready to take another bet here : show me a better version ! Then comes "Lady Day" which doesn't let the standards fall here , although it is probably the less remarkable song in this album . But , hey , Lou couldn't finish without another memorable tour-de-force , so in the best Reed-style and fashion he delivers "Rock'n'roll" , and for the first time in the concert(it ain't over till it's over , right?)there's a song that is sunnier and somewhat hopeful , if you can see it . Can't see it ? Well , ask the man . He said that rock'n'roll saved his life . And , this time , I believe him .

Maybe I'm stuck in the 70's,but I still love this album. Though, when I first heard the updated version [w/the xtra songs] I thought, "This is why they edited it in the first place". After a few more listens I fell in love with this album/CD all over again, including the added songs. I wore the vinyl off the original album and now I think it sounds as fresh as ever. I turn this on and crank up the volume and listen to Steven Hunter's searing guitar along w/a wonderful rhythm section and I feel the 30+ years come rushing back. Pure Rock 'N Roll Joy. To this day,I can't sit still when these songs start kicking into high gear. My whole body head and body just take on a life of their own. I can remember seeing G.E. Smith [late of The SNL Band, David Bowie, & Hall + Oates, etc.] playing in a local cover band in New Haven,Ct. at the Oxford Ale House back in the mid-seventies. They covered the "Intro + Sweet Jane", from this album,spot on. Being so young, I was blown away at how G.E. Smith hit every note and bent every string just like Steve Hunter did on the album. So maybe Im stuck in the 70's but this album still still makes makes me happy and isn't that what it's all about?

Love this album

You don’t have to have a good voice or even sense of pitch to sing well. It’s not that these qualities can’t help but rather that singing is an act of communicating at heart. Find a way (of your own) to communicate to your auditors what you’ve got to say –information and feeling-- and you’re singing. Think Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady; Louis Armstrong’s recording of Porgy and Bess; Jimmy Smith’s wavering voice, uncertain pitch and perennial problems with his breathing; or “the Schnozz,” Jimmy Durante, singing love ballads. Nowhere is this truth more in evidence than in the counter-culture rock of the early 70s. Lou Reed, for instance, whose voice was nasal, limited in range and intensity. He often sang whole lines in monotone, and when he did move from one note to another, he often didn’t quite land on the new note. But when he was cooking, his voice was perfect for what he wanted to express, which was a deep-seated ennui that rejected all of society’s safe solutions to problems. It’s an uncomfortable music that he produced but sometimes, not all the time, it made you feel things you hadn’t felt before. Or, I suppose, if you were part of his no limits culture, it affirmed what you felt about yourself but nobody else was saying –or at least, not as well as Reed did. His best songs were nightmares, but influential ones that struck chords even in other musicians. (Brian Eno once famously stated that Reed’s first album with the Velvet Underground only sold 30,000 copies but “everyone who bought one of [them] started a band.”) Rock & Roll Animal came out in 1973, after his most controversial album to date, Berlin (also 1973). His fans awaited it anxiously: most of them hadn’t been happy with the direction he’d taken in this previous album. But this new album was recorded live, using a killer band with twin guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. It signaled a return to Reed’s rock and roll roots. Listening now, it’s a mixed bag. Most of the cuts are good to quite good --the bravura guitar lead-in, extending for minutes before it kicks into Reed singing (almost chanting) “Sweet Jane;” cult-favorite “Heroin;” “Caroline Says I;” the closing song, “Rock ‘n’ Roll.” “Lady Day” is a letdown –needlessly embarrassingly stagy. (Ditto the start of “Heroin.”) But over all, Animal is a good album. I can see why it reassured his fans that Lou Reed was still there and kicking. Long live Rock ‘n’ Roll in all its many, rich forms! (Except for the Monkees of course. Or Herman and the Hermits.)

This is one of my two favorite live rock albums (the other is Stand In the Fire by Warren Zevon). This is probably the best live rock album ever. The guitar work is amazing. The energy is explosive. This is what rock and roll should be. Two guitars, bass and drums and four guys playing their guts out (OK, there are keyboards too.) This live version of Heroin, all by itself, should get Lou (as a solo artist) inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. My favorite live rock track of all time. It's a lesson in how to build up a rock song to a screaming crescendo. Like everyone, my only beef with the record was: not enough, give us more! This release includes two additional tracks from the same concert: How Do You Think It Feels and Caroline Says I, which are also great and fit right in. The remastered sound is excellent. This release, unlike to old release on CD, has some nice liner notes. Enjoy.

The intricate, extensive and sublimely rocking introduction to "Sweet Jane" which opens ROCK & ROLL ANIMAL must have made many of this album's earliest buyers think they'd fallen victim to a record company foul-up. Surely the soaring guitars, thundering bass and tight, swirling drums with which they were confronted couldn't have had anything to do with Lou Reed, legendarily laconic purveyor of atonal drones and decadent, rambling anecdotes. But sure enough, after three and a half minutes all that virtuosic showboating somehow morphed into the beloved Velvet Underground classic, with Reed tossing off his lines in a voice by turns sardonic, indifferent and haunted. The result was, and still is, an album both the hardcore Reed fan and the Reed-hating hard rocker can dig, an eminently successful experiment in classic seventies metal from a man whose prior recordings had firmly established him at the opposite pole of the sonic spectrum. In truth, however, ANIMAL is less a Lou Reed album than an album of Lou Reed songs as (stunningly) interpreted by what was then Alice Cooper's touring band. The leader's presence here, while significant in establishing the requisite dark, dissipated and druggy ambience, is ultimately more counterpoint than fulcrum. Instead, it's the beautiful picking of guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, Ray Colcord's nightmarish organ runs and the stop-on-a-dime interplay of bassist Prakash John and drummer Pentti Glan that are the real story, offering up post-Allman Brothers reinventions of Velvets nuggets like "Heroin," "White Light, White Heat" and "Rock & Roll" as well as several tracks from Reed's outrageously underrated BERLIN LP. What starts out looking like the most awkward of musical marriages ends up being one of rock's all-time greatest live albums, its dynamism literally unflagging from one end to the other. Recommended for...well, you.

This album moved me when it was released and still does today. If only I was there, what a "Perfect Day" it would have been. Speaking of perfect day, how great would it have been to hear Wagner and Hunter belting that tune out in RNR Animal style ? This is in my top 5 rock albums of all times . Just ahead of the beatles a Revolver , Genesis Lamb , but just behind Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies and Deep Purple Who do We Think We Are. I read an article that dick hunter and Steve Wagner were fired shortly after this tour because they were too good ? Yes, too good!! And too good they were indeed! This is Lou reed on steroids. Good songs made excellent via gutty guitar work. This is an absolute must buy for any rock fan. Simply my favorite live album of all time. Lou Reeds' contribution to Rock is as significant as just about anyone. Love him !

It was worth it just for Intro/Sweet Jane. Totally rocks!