Live in Italy [Import, Live]

Lou Reed | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 30, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Live
• Label: Bmg Int'l
• ASIN: B000005S35
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,000 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Lou Reed Live Album, January 14, 2001

By 

Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live in Italy (Audio CD)

Forget about 'Lou Reed Live', 'Rock'n'Roll Animal' and even 'Perfect Night in London'(All great records, by the way), Lou Reed Live in Italy is the best Lou Reed live album, bar none.

Just look at the track list, for crying out loud. After a three seconds long introduction, you can hear Reed's guitar tears into the classic opening chords of Sweet Jane, the best riff he's ever written. This version of Sweet Jane is argueably the best version out there - Lou singing 'You know they're sayin' Jane, oh Sweet Jane' is Lou at his finest, and Robert Quine... we'll talk about Robert Quine.

Oh, why not talk about him now. Robert Quine is the best guitar player to have ever worked with Lou Reed. He is as good as Mike Ranson who worked with Bowie and Lyle workman who played lead for Frank Black. He's quite possibly even better. Listen to the lead guitar in 'Waves of Fear', it's incredible.

Lou's new stuff here is great - Waves of Fear and Average Guy are the stand outs, but the older Reed is what truly shines through. Sally Can't Dance no More is a vicious attack on fame, The Satellite of Love is lou's romance at it's best, and Walk on the Wild Side is, well, a walk on the wild side.

Still, to me this will allways be memorable because of the Velvet Songs. Before and after, Reed will atmpt to make the Velvet stuff feel at home in his sets, and, with the exception of the Loaded songs, he will allways fail. This is the exception. White Light/White Heat, Waiting for the Man and of course, Heroin, Reed's finest song, shine through the able musicians.

I'm way to young to have been alive through that Lou Reed tour, and even through I've seen Reed live, I'm still at agony for not have seen him live at those 1984 shows. This is the closest I'll ever get.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Robert QUINE. The man who revitalized Lou's career., June 16, 2006

By 

Mike (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live in Italy (Audio CD)

This is not the "best" Lou Reed-Robert Quine performance, but if you are even a casual Lou Reed fan you need to own this. The late R.Q. was credited (justifiably so) with encouraging Lou to pick up his guitar again after years of walking through his performances in a drugged, detached stupor. This was the age of "left channel, right channel" dogfights. On the "Blue Mask" album, it gets pretty terrifying. Here, Lou reinvents a few of his classics with a Neil Young & Crazy Horse kind of "Godfather of Grunge" intensity. Highlights? "Kill Your Sons," with the insane solos...and the killer, the "Some Kinda Love / Sister Ray" medley. "IIIIIIIIIIIIm...searchin' for my mainline...Woah, babe...I couldn't hit it side...woah, sideways..." The "Live In Italy" album makes "Rock & Roll Animal" sound like an Eric Carmen album, because Lou is EASILY ten times more insane than Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner will EVER be on guitar. After Quine, Lou never set the guitar down again. R.I.P., Bob...this is a great way for you to be remembered...and the high water mark of Lou's resurrected career.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lou Reed's best record, January 31, 2003

By 

Maria H. R. Souza (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live in Italy (Audio CD)

This is, by far, the best post-VU record of Reed's career!! Lord have mercy, folks, consider only the line-up here: Lou and Robert Quine on the dual assault of white noise-drenched, growling acid guitars, Fernando Saunders on his soaring fuzz-drived bass and the outstanding Fred Maher pounding the drums with skill and fury!!! The set-list is also superb: raging, fast, punky-adrenalined renditions of VU classics like "White Light / White Heat", "Rock and Roll", "Heroin" and "I'm Waiting for my Man", with also great versions of Lou's solo material, with a special remark to a feeback-drived, powerfully scary "Kill your Sons".