THEN ONE
FINE MORNING
SHE TURNS ON A
NEW YORK STATION
SHE DOEN'T BELIEVE
WHAT SHE HEARS AT ALL...
Rock 'n' Roll Animal
is a
live album
by American
musician
Lou Reed,
released in
February 1974
by RCA Records.
In its original form,
it features five songs,
four of which
were initially
recorded by
The Velvet Underground.
Reed's band included
Pentti Glan (drums),
Prakash John
(bass),
Ray Colcord
(keyboards),
and
Dick Wagner
and
Steve Hunter
(guitars).
The two guitarists
would later form
the basis of the first
Alice Cooper solo band,
beginning on
Welcome to My Nightmare,
which also features
Glan and John.
The album was
recorded live
on
December 21, 1973,
at Howard Stein's
Academy of Music
in New York City.
A sleeper hit,
it peaked at No. 26
in the UK
and
No. 45
on the
Billboard 200
album chart
during a
28-week stay
before earning
Reed's first
RIAA
gold certification
in 1978.
Background
Paul Nelson
of
Rolling Stone
magazine
was in attendance
that night.
Writing about
Rock 'n' Roll Animal
and its sequel,
Lou Reed Live,
which were both
recorded at
the same show,
he recalled:
"As it happens,
I had seen Reed
and a mediocre
pickup band
at Lincoln Center
some months earlier
in his first
New York
non-Velvets appearance
and he was tragic
in every sense
of the word.
So,
at the Academy,
I didn't expect much
and when his
new band came out
and began to
play spectacular,
even majestic,
rock & roll,
management's strategy
for the evening
became clear:
Elevate the erratic
and unstable
punkiness
of the centerpiece
into punchy,
swaggering grandeur
by using the
best arrangements,
sound and musicians
that money could buy;
the trimmings,
particularly guitarists
Dick Wagner
and
Steve Hunter,
were awesome
enough so that
if Reed were
merely competent,
the concert would
be a success.
And it was,
as one can judge
from the
resultant albums.
The band does not
emulate the violent,
hypnotic,
dope-trance
staccato power
and subway lyricism
of the
Velvet Underground,
but rather opts
for a hard,
clean,
clear,
near-royal
Mott the Hoople/Eric Clapton
(Layla)
opulence
and Reed sings
out most of the songs
in his effective
street-talk style.
Animal,
coming first,
naturally contains
the best performances
"Intro/Sweet Jane,
"White Light/White Heat,"
the first half of
"Rock 'n' Roll"."
"A Record to be Played Loud"
Lou Reed Live
is a
live album by
Lou Reed
released in 1975.
It was recorded at
the same concert as
Rock 'n' Roll Animal ;
on
December 21, 1973,
at Howard Stein's
Academy of Music
in New York.
It features
three songs from
Transformer,
one song from
The Velvet Underground & Nico
(Reed's former band's debut album)
and two songs from
Berlin.
Between this album
and
the remastered
Rock 'n' Roll Animal,
the entire show
has been released,
albeit in a
different order
than the
original concert
setlist.
In 2003,
RCA/BMG
re-issued this album
under their
"Extended Versions"
series.
The title was changed
to reflect this,
but the contents
remained unchanged.
This live album's
stereo mix
differs from its
counterpart
"Rock 'n' Roll Animal"
in that
guitarist
Steve Hunter
is heard on
the left channel,
and
Dick Wagner
is on the right;
this arrangement is
reversed
on
Rock 'n' Roll Animal.
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