Customer Reviews

Lou Reed Berlin

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After Lou's career was saved by Bowie IN 1972 with Lou's LP "Transformer", Lou went against expectation, creating his version of conceptual ARTROCK. BERLIN discribes the lives of two lovers, Jim and Caroline, her a singer, speed addict and mother, he a "waterboy". Berlin's reception in 1973 was cool, tho since that time, it has been critically reevaluated, and is now seen as his best, or second best solo LP. I love the heavy orchestration that has seldom been used before or since with Lou's work, and love the intensity of the relationship's tragedy at Berlin's core. Andy Warhol also loved the LP, and when it came out, he tried to get ahold of Lou, in order to mount a "cabaret" version of the LP. Sadly, Andy never connected with Lou, until Lou had morphed into his "ROCK AND ROLL ANIMAL" phase, shooting heroin, bleaching hair, etc. It took Lou only 35 years, to mount his cabaret version of BERLIN, but it was worth the wait. Lou's recent work has been sort of hit and miss, and I didnt expect this DVD to sound like the original album. Nevertheless, ALL the orchestration is intact from the album, and played note for note. Not only that, BERLIN adapts perfectly to the visual medium. Behind Lou, is a projection machine shows us, like the photographs in the BERLIN LP, a cinematic view of the lyrical storyline. Everything combines to bring forth an amazing show, that had me singing along for most of the album. Highlights, like "Caroline Says I", "Men of Good Fortune" and "Oh Jim" brought me goosebumps. When Jim beats Caroline up for shooting speed, and cheating on him, the guitar solo perfectly reflects the fight that destroyed the lover's relationship for the whole album. Its the dramatic summit of the piece. Backed up with the entire "rock orchestra" building on a riff, Lou attempts his Cecil Taylor-influenced guitar soloing, and pulls it off. BERLIN was amazing when it came out, its amazing now. All i can say to recommend this is, "IF" you are a fan of this album, then you wont be disappointed by the DVD, I can guarentee it. The only problem I had at all, was that Lou tried to speak/sing the parts, instead of singing the actual melodic vocal lines, as written in 1973. Since the production is very dense on the original BERLIN album, the vocal lines were often doubled by violin parts, or by the backing singers' harmonies. So, it's sort of sad not having Lou willing (or able?) to sing the original vocal parts. After the BERLIN album is performed, Lou and his basic rock band break into SWEET JANE. Then, CANDY SAYS begins, with ANTONY from ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS singing the song to heartbreaking perfection. The album BERLIN is so visual, so cinematic, that to watch it performed like this, reinforces and elucidates the literary concept so well. For Lou/VU fans that never saw Lou play live, or never got a chance to see BERLIN live when Lou toured it, this DVD is a great consilation prise. I only wish that, like the "A NIGHT WITH LOU REED" video from 1983, the camera could have turned to the audience, to show Andy Warhol enjoying the realization of his dream for the BERLIN concept album, all these years later. Bravo, Lou.

The 1973 album, Berlin, is a dark operatic song-cycle about speed junkies Caroline and Jim. Both of them work the streets but when it is determined that Caroline is an unfit mother and her kids are taken away by social services the story gets even darker and Caroline and Jim's lives take separate but equally horrific turns for the worse. Taken individually songs like "Men of Good Fortune" and "How do you think it Feels" are very good but not quite equal to Lou's greatest. But together these songs build upon each other and combine to create one of the most viscerally wrenching experiences in modern music. Admittedly, much of this sounds like it was written on cocktail napkins during a very dark, albeit painfully lucid, night of the soul. But the result is the most sublime music of Lou's career.

Though Lou always tells his stories through his character's eyes, this feels like confessional music written by an artist who is intimately acquainted with what life feels like in the dark aftermath of vanished love and vanished hope with nothing but the alchemy of his fevered brain to work with. And he produces not just a series of darkly beautiful and hauntingly introspective songs but a magnificently structured rock libretto replete with crashing rock chords, quiet cello and flute interludes, and a soul-replenishing choir. Its as if the artist had confronted oblivion itself, wrestled with it, and come up from the lower depths (or the Hell's Kitchen of the soul) with this magisterial orchestration with which to enchant himself back into life. And then he caps it all off with the most achingly beautiful rendition of "Candy Says" (sharing vocals with the fragile and tender voiced Antony) that I've ever heard. And thankfully so because even though the song is equally nihilistic in its vision of self-escape ("What do you think I'd see if I could walk away from me") it is a much-needed deliverance into the familiar after the soul-tormented foreign tour that is Berlin. "Candy Says" is followed by the rarely performed "Rock Minuet" (another of Lou's epic visions of street struggle), and then Lou finishes the set with "Sweet Jane" to provide emotional catharsis and closure.

Julian Schnabel perfectly complements the fragmented narrative with a collage of disjointed visuals that underscore but never intrude upon or threaten the integrity of Lou's composition. Its a perfect marriage of audio and visual art (Schnabel wisely takes a minimalist low-tech scrapbook approach using wallpapered panels, slides, and, occasionally, super 8 footage to create layers of visuals to complement the layers of sound). Its such a seamless and pleasing blend that I would not be surprised if this concert/art event does not become the new paradigm for concert/art in the decades to come.

Its so intimate and so intense that you feel like you are a kid again listening and responding to an album you just bought. In fact I was not familiar with this record so that is precisely the feeling that I had with this piece of music.

I'll admit that I do not love everything that Lou has done, but this is music that stirs the creative self and the heart and intrigues the ear in endless ways! I can think of very few albums that succeed on so many levels (Lou goes places no other artist goes) and get you responding on so many levels. This is music made and performed by an artist with all cylinders (light and dark) firing; Lou holds nothing back here and so you too respond with everything that you've got.

Highest rating.

Saw the DVD last night. Very short review: 5 stars out of 5. I can't think of ANY other rocker in their mid 60's interpreting their early material from 1973 with this sort of INTEGRITY, power, musicianship, musicality & emotion.

This is MILES beyond anything the Stones, Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, etc have done in the last 20 years.

The only artists I know who come CLOSE to making their early 70's material relevant like this in new performance are Bruce Cockburn & Bowie's 90's work with Reeves Gabrels, neither of whom pulled it off like Reed does here.

Doesn't hurt to have a CRACK band anchored by Steve Hunter & Rob Wasserman (the entire band is tremendous).

What both makes it so special & oddly also at the same time might be my only criticism is this is NOT a greatest hits show. The only song on Berlin that qualifies for ME as a "greatest hit" is Lady Day (though the feel of the song has nothing in common with Billie Holiday stylistically, this song catches her essence better then any book I've ever read!). Berlin has several other strong songs (Sad Songs, Caroline Says, Men Of Good Fortune; there are NO bad songs on it), but again; it's not a hits show. We do get Sweet Jane as an Encore.

There's just something about seeing Reed feel these songs about being a 31 year old love lorn junkie as much at 64 as he did at 31 that melts me.

Highly recommended.

"Berlin" is one of the most depressing albums of all time, along with Neil Young's "Tonight's The Night" and "Faith" by The Cure. Seeing and hearing "Berlin" performed live makes the album even better. And, Antony singing "Candy Says" with Lou for the encore is priceless. It's no surprise that "Berlin" was panned in '73. Like modern classical music, it takes time for its genius to sink in. Lou's age and life experience also makes this a powerful performance. He was still a young man in '73. 35 years later, these songs take on a whole new level of pathos, terror and brilliance.

This is one of the best concert films I've ever seen. Reed performs his sad, sad album 'Berlin" for the first time ever. The sound quality surpasses the album because there is a girls' choir, a horn section and a string section to fill out the sound as well as two fine background singers. And the returnees are no slouches either. Guitarist Steve Hunter from the original album (and, incidentally, Reed's live album "Rock and Roll Animal") rips astonishing solo after solo like a true guitar hero, and also provides tasty fills and riffs when required. Reed himself plays better rhythm guitar than on the original, and though his voice isn't what it used to be, you can see the pain in his face as he recalls the experiences that inspired the songs. Throughout, Schnabel projects interesting images behind the performers. Wish I had been there . . . .

I viewed a German import of this dvd and must say it is even more powerful than the lp that was released over 35 years ago. If anyone questions Lou's stature in the pantheon of rock and roll as an art form, this will convice them of his incredible importance in defining the genre as we now know it. This is a must see video!!!

I should point out that I have not yet seen this film. However, I was at the concert that it captures and I can say with great confidence that if this film captures even a fraction of Lou Reed and companies performance that night than this film will be one of the greatest documents of one of our greatest living artists, Period. Lou along with all of the supporting players that night put on a show that no one who witnessed it will ever forget. See this film, even if you weren't lucky enough to be there and especially if you were. But then again if you were there you don't need me to tell you what you already know.

I hate to disagree with all the 5 star reviews. Berlin is probably Lou Reed's last great album. These musicians are top-notch and the music they create at this performance is extremely impressive. However, Lou's vocals are not up to the music. It seems absurd to say Lou Reed has lost his voice. He lost any vocal range after VU's Loaded album, but remained through the '70's, like Dylan, as one of the greatest rock "attitude" singers.
On this performance, he speaks many of the singing phrases and his vocal rhythm is so off that he barks out lyrics late or too early. I realize the guy is in his mid-sixties and in Keith Richard's years, is closer to 100, but still... The other problem is Julian Schnabel or his daughter's pretentious films, apparently illustrating the story. The woman in the film looks like some drugged-out contemporary model in SoHo, not a 1970's woman in Berlin. I prefer the '93 VU reunion or the Lou 1982 New York show DVD's, but musically and guitar-wise this is strong and will definitely make you want to get the Berlin CD out.

It's been nearly 40 years since the release of "Berlin." While the DVD does not capture the musical production as well as the original recording it is still a welcome addition to any DVD concert collection. It does capture the essence of Lou Reed and the despair which is "Berlin." If you are not familiar with the original recording, it might be best to check that out before viewing the DVD.

I'm going to assume that if you've clicked thru to this product description, you are at least familiar with Lou Reed's "Berlin" album, so I'll dispense with a critique of the album itself. While it was never one of my personal favorites in his catalogue (I favor "Transformer", "The Blue Mask" and "New York" over "Berlin"'s exceptional bleakness/depressing themes, but that's my own opinion), if "Berlin" IS one of YOUR favorites, then you should consider this review to be a five-star rating, and go out and get this DVD immediately. The reason I say that is that this DVD has not only a good-to-great performance, but the sound quality (in 5.1) has a ton of presence and sounded terrific on my home theater, and is extremely well-produced. Nice camera work, but the double exposure/projections sometimes rendered it a bit too arty for my tastes (though I `get' what they were going for, since there's a story here, so this was probably never going to be a `straight concert film' esp. with someone like Schnabel directing). Reed's band this time out is comprised of alumni of his band over the years, including Steve Hunter (wow!), Rob Wasserman, Fernando Saunders, and Antony Hegarty (who takes a nice turn on vocals on "Candy Says", which is also performed), Jane Scarpantoni, etc, so the chops are in the house, plus there are horns and a choir (so the songs are completely fleshed out). As I said before, the sound is excellent - but I would've expected no less from Bob Ezrin and Hal Willner (who have also previously worked with Reed) - excellent mix and you can really hear each instrument in sharp detail, so make sure you play this on a system that's worthy. Reed and band play "Berlin" in its entirety, then add on a couple of songs ("Candy Says", "Rock Minuet" and "Sweet Jane") for good measure. I guess one of the best things I can say about this (aside from everything I've already said) is that it has me reaching for my copy of "Berlin" on my shelf, to give it another spin/reconsideration. (There are also a couple of extras on the disc - the trailer, some tour footage, and a brief clip of Reed and Schnabel on Elvis Costello's talk show).