Customer Reviews

Rock & Roll Heart

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most everyone on this forum seems to agree that this is not Reed's best work. But many of these reviewers point out one special song that stands out and it's often different from anyone else's favorite. That suggests to me that this album is worth checking out.

I would agree that the music itself is a bit pedestrian, sounding a bit like a run-of-the-mill, somewhat jazzy white-funk bar band at times. But it's still pretty enjoyable rock n' roll - certainly nothing objectionable in my book. I personally have *zero* problem with the lack of lyrics in "Banging on my Drum" which is just a fun rocker (even though I love songs that can enhance lyrics that truly have something to say as well). But I would agree with the reviewer that found "Ladies Pay" to be particularly poignant. My personal favorite here would be the wildest track - "Follow the Leader" - which dates back to the Velvet Underground days. There's a cool version of this song from the "Quine Tapes" (live bootlegs available on CD) that goes on forever. As mentioned elsewhere, "Temporary Thing" is another standout track and it has a great jittery-sort-of-nervous quality.

So clearly this is not the place for the Lou Reed novice to start (that, of course, would be with the Velvet Underground's music, specifically their debut THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO), but I would recommend ROCK N' ROLL HEART for anyone who can appreciate some nice, straight-up rock music for its own sake. But the first Lou Reed album I would recommend would have to be TRANSFORMER which, by the way, someone with talent and imagination ought to turn into a Broadway musical. Rock on!

This is Lou pretty much at the height of his wacked-out period, a nice bridge between the slickly bland "Sally Can't Dance" and "Coney Island Baby" and his hardcore "Live: Take No Prisoners" and "Street Hassle" days just around the corner. "I Believe In Love" is one of those great rare songs where Lou is intentionally trying to be funny and succeeds. For the supposed godfather of punk this ode to "good time music" is cleverly dishonest, with a bouncy mid-tempo, horn driven beat. "Banging On My Drum" takes the joke a little too far, with its insipid, repetitive lyrics, but that's followed up by the totally insane "Follow The Leader." I still have nightmares about my friend playing that song and then running at me with the album cover in the dark: just imagine being surrounded by this noise you can't quite comprehend and having Lou's big blue head thrust in your face. Maybe you had to be there. Lou's aspirations toward jazz rock sort of show up here, with staccato, aggressive sax and weird multi-layered drum beats. The title track is a great Lou anthem, with the classic lyrics "I guess I'm just dumb, cause I knows I ain't smart, but deep down inside I got a rock n' roll heart." Beautiful. There's some other gems on here, and some of the silliness is puncuated by blasts of typical Lou bitterness, in this case the closer "Temporary Thing," which may be a kiss off to his attempted pop sensibilities on this and some previous records. It wasn't until the overblown "Growing Up In Public" four years later that he reneged on his promise. "Rock and Roll Heart" benefits from repeated listenings, and it isn't a bad record if you don't take it too seriously.

This is so wonderful. Depressing and full of heart. If you had an unhappy childhood and terrible adolescence, you'll love it like I have since the LP was released.

This came out during the reign of the Ramones and Sex Pistols and Lou didn't really try to compete with them (he'd done it all before) - this album sounds nothing like them, but it does ROCK!
His band sounds great, and there are some fine songs on here. His Arista years are supposedly pretty barren, but "Coney Island Baby", "Street Hassle", "Sally Can't Dance" all still hold up as great albums, and "Rock n Roll Heart", "Growin Up in Public and "The Bells" have great moments, too. Of those last 3, "Rock n Roll Heart" is EASILY the BEST!

Sorry, I must respectfully disagree with most of the comments here about Rock 'n' Roll Heart. Forget the lyrics. Most rock lyrics, even the best, don't hold up on the page or to unaccompanied repetition. Same applies to Lou. He's written some awful stuff, even on what the conventional wisdom says are among his "most brilliant" albums--e.g. Street Hassle and Blue Mask ("The image of the poets in the breeze/ Canadian geese are flying above the trees/ A mist is hanging on the lake/ Our house is very beautiful at night...").
I foolishly listened to the critics and waited some 20 years before picking up this minor masterpiece of mood music. The playing is indeed fantastic, and it's not just Fogel and Fonfara who shine. Suchorsky is a great drummer, as Coney Island Baby and all of the Arista albums showed. "Follow the Leader" is a rock 'n' roll roller coaster. "You Wear It So Well" and "Ladies Pay" are heartbreaking melodies. The whole album is beautifully recorded. I rank Rock 'n' Roll Heart up there with Sally Can't Dance (a great put-on) and Coney Island Baby (as perfect a rock 'n' roll/pop album as has ever been recorded).

Temporary Thing is a brilliant tour de force full of Reed's customary bitterness and caustic wit, with an impressive arrangement and gripping melody. Vicious Circle explores a theme often visited by Lou - the individual on a path of self-destruction surrounded by "so-called friends," and is quite memorable. So is the title track which I find very amusing - the lyrics are saved by the catchy tune and the enthusiastic playing. Yes, it's quite a rocker.

Unfortunately the rest of the album remains very forgettable. It's not that the songs are bad, they just lack passion and good tunes. It would nevertheless be a pity if the 3 above-mentioned songs remained unexplored just because they're buried on a mediocre album.

There are some very strong moments on this album, like "Vicious Circle", "Temporary Thing" and "Ladies Pay", but there are also alot of half-baked throwaways (most of the rest). It is one of the most easily digestible albums in Reed's catalog, but also one of the least rewarding. If you are a fan you'll definitely want it (and not just to complete your collection), but a newcomer may wonder what all the fuss is about. Reed as brilliant rock 'n' roll street poet is not really on display here.

to all my fellow Lou Reed snobs...yup, some of these songs do bite the big one, no disagreement whatsoever
however...there are some very good tracks on this LP...and some excellent musicianship -

my personal "diamonds' to check out, again...in no particular order:

-vicious circle
-temporary thing
-chooser and the chosen one
-senselessly cruel
-follow the leader
-rock and roll heart

In the late 70s I had a friend who decided that "his" artist was going to be Lou Reed. He methodically proceeded to buy just about everything from "Transformer" to "Take No Prisoners - Live" and "The Bells" before giving up. He dodged the bullet that was "Metal Machine Music" but in spite of that, his dismay began early with "Sally Can't Dance" and "Coney Island Baby". He loved the song "Kill Your Sons", liked "Billy", and found "Charlie's Girl" adequate, but the remainder of those two albums left him less than enthralled. Not long after it came out I bought "Rock and Roll Heart" and was able to report to my friend that the confused, aimless sound continued with this one.

Although name talent had been put on the payroll for "Rock and Roll Heart", the album still sounded like an itinerant singer backed by a pickup band he met at that night's bar. At the time I found "Chooser and the Chosen One" an upbeat opener to the album side, but thirty years on it sounds like the Saturday Night Live band or the instrumental musings one might encounter as the talk show host cuts to a commercial. It flowed well into the next track, "Senselessly Cruel", one of Lou's closest approximations to a bouncy pop song.

The album's memorable number was the misogynistic invective of "Temporary Thing", which is the one track that appears on the 3CD Lou Reed box set. It's preceded by one of the VU's scraps, "A Sheltered Life". At the age of 19 I thought it a clever little ditty but over time it now seems adolescent with a snarky touch of condescension. If you're not planning to make extra shelf space in your home for spending through forty years of Lou Reed's ups and downs, you're probably best off summarizing with the 3CD set "Between Thought And Expression". Download "Men of Good Fortune" from his album "Berlin", add "Perfect Day" from the album "Transformer", and you may find you have what the casual fan would need along with a few you don't.

This is probably the weakest Lou Reed Album with the possible exception of Mistrial or Metal Machine Music, which is its own story. The music is Jazz-rock lite. The band really isn't that interesting as well. With that said there is some fun to be had here. I Believe in Love is a hoot and Temporary Thing is one of the best kissoffs imaginable. The title track is OK but probably could've been a huge hit if he had improved the arrangement. Ladies Pay is pretty good as well and important if only for the fact that Lou's first guitar solo since his Velvet days is on there. Sheltered Life is also a hoot, but most of the rest, with the exception of Vicious Circle, is pretty boring.