Customer Reviews

Live in Italy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had a cassette of this that I never really bothered to listen to until I ran across it one day. I didn't care for Reed's solo stuff prior to giving this a chance, as it was so drastically different then the Velvet Underground and mostly because I didn't like the candy-coated/mainstream production of his solo albums I'd heard. Well, for starters, he has his best back-up band he ever had here. Robert Quine, although not really allowed to shine by Reed, inspired Lou to pick the guitar up again and Fernando Saunders and Doane Perry are a very strong rhythm section. I think as a document the live video release "A Night with Lou Reed" is a better testament to their live powers, as the group was fairly exhausted and not totally cohesive on this tour - Quine was here only for the money at this point and his guitar was being mixed down. But there are some songs here not to be found on the other live release, especially the brutal and clenching version of "Heroin" and the 17 minute medley of "Some Kinda Love/Sister Ray". It's a treat to have "Heroin" as this was rarely played live during the Quine-era, iirc. Regretfully there are not more performances documented of this line-up.

When I first heard Live in Italy, I was a VU fan somewhat leery of solo Lou, and had my head turned around by the fire-breathing version of "Kill Your Sons." That led me to buy a copy and, at the time, since I didn't have any solo Lou, I really got into the solo songs (except for the stupid "Martial Law") but thought that the versions of VU songs were lame. Now, however, I have the studio versions of just about all of these songs, and find just about everything on this album lame, and its very existence pointless, with the exception of "Kill Your Sons" which is actually better than the version on "Sally Can't Dance." So, overall, I recommend seeing if you can download an mp3 version of it somewhere, and skipping the rest of this disc.

You would think that with this band, this would be a great disc, right? Sadly, it's not all that great. Lou and Quine were at loggerheads at the time. As a result, Quine's guitar is oddly muted and minimized on much of this. As much as I love Lou Reed, and I do, he will never be the guitar player that Robert Quine was. This CD suffers, as a result, from Lou's lack of guitar skills - even on his own music, by his own standards. The second thing that makes it a not-buy is Lou's refusal or inability to sing. He simply shouts his way through all the songs. The third reason to give this a pass is that there are no dynamics. All the songs are played as loud as possible, meaning that ear fatigue sets in a little over halfway through. It begins to sound very samey after a while. Lou's best live set remains the semi-bootleg "American Poet" album. Even for a Lou Reed fan, this is not a must, I'm sorry to say.

Fantastic, glorious. this is much more than what I thought. You got it and you got a fantastic live on concert

I love Lou Reed - but I really can't stand that talk-singing thing he started doing in the 80s. This is a pretty unremarkable disc. Some of the Robert Quine work is worth a listen if you can find a cheap, used copy.

Happydog's review is amazingly accurate.....

I'm a Lou Reed fanatic and rather like the loud cacaphony of Lou with feedback and distortion. I bought the original bootleg and have not even listen to this "remaster."

The blow your ears off loud is alright (if you like that as much as I do), but..........

Lou is a great guitarist when he wants to be. Hendrix once said Lou Reed was his favorite guitarist. Lou is also a control freak and spoiled this concert.

After The Blue Mask (with the distinct separate guitar tracks) which displays Reed's and Quine's brillance, this pretty much sucks.

Kill Your Sons is good, nothing else is and oddly we don't get The Blue Mask, or The Gun or many of the great stuff from The Blue Mask era, even though we know it was played. What's a matta, Lou, Quine show you up??

I dunno, but Lou is always a hard read. He has his tantrums and kicks out people like John Cale and later blames Bowie for ruining his career; then kisses and makes up as he did with Warhol. I have always been bothered by the fact that Quine absolutely idolized Reed and the Velvets and Reed seemed to have just dumped him.

I own everything available that he has ever recorded. I truely believe he is one of the three greatest living Poets of our time (along with Patti Smith and Roger Waters).

He is a mystery, when he is great, it is stunning. When he's bad; it's BAD.

He can be great; He can be bad and this is bad.

Ah....the magical combination of Lou Reed and the late great Robert Quine changed my life. Two masters at their craft in their prime. The pinnacle of eaches careers as far as I'm concerned. I would have to say this is one of my favorite albums/CDs ever. Pretty much the definitive versions of 'Kill Your Sons', 'Satellite of Love.' I could have done without the falsetto 'do de do de do do de do do' chorus of 'Walk On The Wild Side', but given the amazing, chiming, snarling, living, fire-breathing guitar work throughout it's a very minor annoyance. Easily five out of five stars!