Lou Reed Berlin - C/D: Sounds great after not listening to it for 5yrs

I think it's the passivity that gets to me -- Lou Reed makes a point of not being explicitly judgemental in his lyrics, so he sings "because *they said* she was not a good mother" as if to say "allegedly, she is not a good mother but how do we really know?"

On the song "The Kids" one hears children crying and calling out for their mommy. The sound is quite realistic and chilling. It has often been written that Ezrin went home one day and told his children that their mommy wasn't coming home any more, recording the resultant trauma for the LP. According to Ezrin the true story is that he went home and told his seven year old son David that he was doing a play in the studio and he needed some kids' voices to sound scared because their mom was being taken away. The first few attempts didn't sound terrifying enough but on the third, unprompted, his two year old joined in and just started screaming. The two children screamed so loud that they distorted the tape. He found that "the more compressed it got the more anguished it seemed. Most people can't listen to it."

The crying heard underneath is simply bedtime at the Ezrin household with the kids letting mom and pop know they are none too happy about having to retire for the night. Ezrin continues: "It's something you've seen a thousand times but because of the compression on it and the way that it's in your face [in the mix] it's relentless. And it's totally dry. It's completely dry, it's distorted, and it's compressed to death. It makes it so unbelievably emotional people accused me of beating my kids.

[typos mine, poor punctuation is sic]

The rest of the album is typically dull late-period Lou. Same with New York. The live version of "Dirty Blvd." on the much-maligned "Perfect Night" album far outstrips the pedestrian performance of the original.

And c'mon. "The Last Great American Whale"? Yeesh.

"New York" is exactly where I lost all my interest in Lou Reed: I can forgive him "The original wrapper", but this album is just so horribly bad.

Lou Reed’s Berlin is a project that brings to life an album which is at once deeply influential and chronically misunderstood. Recorded in 1973, Berlin was the visionary, follow-up ‘concept album’ to his popular hit record, Transformer. Although Berlin became a cult favourite and was reissued, Reed has never performed the album live.

Sydney Festival and Arts at St. Ann’s (New York) have joined forces to present a theatrically realized concert version of Reed’s stylized rock paean to life outside the circle. From Beerhalle staccato to the embers of a final ‘Sad Song’, its orchestrations are filled with the lyrics of the broken hearted and willfully disabled… the drifting tormented addicts of love formalizing their own downfalls in the outskirts of the divided city.

Berlin features the legendary Lou Reed on vocals, accompanied by a band made up of his long-time collaborators. The live score will be augmented by a 20-piece chore of young voices led by none other than Antony of Antony and The Johnsons. Musical direction will be shared by Bob Ezrin, who produced the album in 1973 among other seminal recordings including The Wall, and Hal Willner, the producer behind the 2005 Sydney Festival spectacular Came So Far for Beauty.
The concert will be directed and designed by 1980’s New York art-scene phenomenon and film-maker Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls).

they're going to do the crying at the end of 'the kids', aren't they?

still, i think this performance lark sounds quite intriguing.

I don't understand why this album is obsessing me right now. It's like a virus in my body I can't quit. I've had it on cassette for years, but it made only a minimal impression at the time I first heard it. Now I'm spellbound for some reason.

Also that song about the Kids, now that's what made me search for this cassette in my box of cassettes...

This album's great but I've got the same problem where I can't get through the second half. The songs that shine really shine.

Second half is the best half! By a mile!

As for the story that BEzrin's kids are on "Kids", that would surely mean his kids are English, as the kids on "Kids" are obviously English.

Julian Schnabel has written some pretty decent toons, his album was featured recently on ubu.com (wtf?)

I had never heard this entire album before yesterday (altho I knew "How Do You Think It Feels" from a best-of comp I had in high school, and recognized the handful of bits that were re-worked Velvets tunes). I'm not sure I like it. It has its moments definitely, but it seems unfocused and distracted for long stretches - Ezrin's production seems overly fuzzy in places, has a tendency to crush the emotion out of the material.

"Second half is the best half! By a mile!"

so true. for me side 2 was like plunging in these increasingly deep, cold, dark waters - and then there was "sad song" (almost a relief, until i eventually understood the lyrics).

fuzzy? I meant fussy

where does side 2 start...? the last 3 songs seems like the most fully realized to me.

This record is depressing as fuck. especially the "They're taking her children away" bit that segues into crying babies. Horrendous.

Good but something I can only listen to every so often.

adam bruneau otm. this album is rough, but to me it's undoubtedly great. i don't get how people are mixed on this thing, especially with songs like "sad song" and omg "the kids"

Heard this for the first time two days ago. I fucking love it. "Sad Song" and "Caroline Says I" are all-time.

"The Kids" and the first "Caroline Says" are great, the rest of the decent songs are weighed down by Bob Ezrin production folderol.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto),

Ha, I actually kind of dig the heaviness of Ezrin's production hand. I almost wish he and Reed had followed it up with something even more absurdly grandiose/grandiosely absurd.

I listened to it briefly when writing my obit on Sunday to hear if I'd missed anything and – well, nope. Straining to capture decadence, it sounds as sentimental as the Carpenters. Sally Can't Dance isn't much better but its tunes are funnier and – important– faster. Its decadence at least makes me smile.

i don't think the production is that distracting and the songs are really, really good.

I almost wish he and Reed had followed it up with something even more absurdly grandiose/grandiosely absurd.
yeah, i can almost imagine them going in a Scott 2 direction or something. Or maybe it would've been more Bat Out Of Hell, not sure.

Straining to capture decadence, it sounds as sentimental as the Carpenters.

Karen Carpenter covering "The Bed" would have been something to hear.

wonder if they'll ever get around to reissuing the self titled debut album now. It's a fine record.

i had someone never really listened to this until yesterday...pretty crazy album, i like it

You know what sounded really good to me yesterday? Rock 'n' Roll Animal. I had sold that and Live quite a few years ago because I didn't think I liked the arena-rock guitar and production.

this album is basically a Fassbinder movie

I agree with Alfred's estimation of it. The bombast overwhelms the songs, and the melodramatic aspects become inflated to fairly ludicrous proportions, smothering the underlying sentimentality. it wants to make an epic tragedy out of squalor but the instrumentation and production work against this goal.

It's funny, in revisiting (or in this case, hearing for the first time) Reed's output over the last few days, I'm seeing a lot of similarities in approach between him and Townshend/the Who in that they both swung wildly for the fences and almost seemed to revel in falling on their faces. I can sort of hear this as Reed's Quadrophenia, a not-fully-realized story nearly swamped by the production. But the tension produced by that conflict is what makes them both so engaging for me.

actually, the arrangements teased out the sentimentality

xpost

when did berlin's rehabilitation begin? when i'd first heard of it it was still treated as folly but there were quarters that said 'no, in fact it's a masterpiece' and these quarters tended to be one's that got lou more or got him the same way i got him so i was always on the look out for it and eventually found it in italy where tbh i found alot of lou reed albums that i never did come across over here. then it finally came out on cd and critics had to explain what this album was and maybe were surprised that wow lou reeds 'worst album' was actually pretty great and then the live concerts/album sealed the revision in and what was once an album that had to have 'defenders' is now this kinda overrated monolith (cf on the beach)(maybe tusk except i don't think that thing's really overrated yet, rumours is too strong competition and too firmly embedded in rock history and beloved by the general public to somehow end up overshadowed). i love it (i love scott walker, i love opera)(i love steve winwood!) but i'd take a few other 70s albums over it (coney island baby, the bells, even transformer) and probably the blue mask if not any of the other post-70s albums.

lol how could this ever have been considered his worst?!

yeah i was gonna say

Not his worst, but it's in the ambitious-but-bleh circle with M&L.

no I mean even by the end of the 70s he already had half a dozen records that must have been more critically and commercially reviled than this one (MMM, his debut - which appears to have been instantly forgotten, Sally Can't Dance)

well Sally Can't Dance sold really well so maybe strike that one

haha wow RS *really* hated it at the time

Lou Reed's Berlin is a disaster, taking the listener into a distorted and degenerate demimonde of paranoia, schizophrenia, degradation, pill-induced violence and suicide. There are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them. Reed's only excuse for this kind of performance (which isn't really performed as much as spoken and shouted over Bob Ezrin's limp production) can only be that this was his last shot at a once-promising career. Goodbye, Lou.

I heard they ran the same review in 2011 just swapped out "Berlin" for "Lulu"

berlin's 'bad rep' must surely come from it not being Transformer Pt 2, or even a studio equiv of Rock'n'Roll Animal - it sounds more like No Other by Gene Clark, or something else equally out-of-step and baroque from the early 70s.

first got to know and love it when it became commonly available on vinyl again in the UK in the late 80s.

when did berlin's rehabilitation begin?

It was one of his biggest selling albums in the UK, reached No. 7

Hearing this for the first time right now. It's overproduced as hell.

hell yeah

Has its moments

The lyrics are really good. But jeez, did everything need strings or horns?

The production in this album is one if the best things about it, along with the great studio musicians. Ezrin is a better match for Reed then Floyd.

I think it's borderline overproduced, but the songs are great enough that they don't get overwhelmed. And on some of the tracks, ie, 'How Do You Think It Feels?', the production really helps.

Some of these songs like Sad Song remind me of Bowie stuff like Time or Sweet Thing, similarly pompous and arguably overdone, but great. Nobody complains about how those records sound.

That's because Bowie sings like he's singing over a bunch of strings and horns. Lou's monotone just sounds out of place.

They're different yes, but Lou's dislocation is central to the effect here.

After one front to back listen, I have to say the second half drudges on a bit.

this album is basically a Fassbinder movie

Ha, I find it impossible to watch this sequence from Fassbinder's "Beware of a Holy Whore" and not think of the cover of "Berlin" (which it predates btw):

https://waterfrontcinema.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1970-beware-of-a-holy-whore.png

After one front to back listen, I have to say the second half drudges on a bit.

I said it upthread but Side 2 is what makes this album for me, I mean, "The Bed" makes Leonard Cohen sound like the 1910 Fruitgum Company. The vocals seem to get more numb and bombed out as the album progresses, which works perfectly - though whether this was intentional or due to Lou himself becoming more numb and bombed out as the album progresses, I know not.

I don't know what it is. . . I definitely thought the songs on side two were better. They just go on too long I guess.

I don't know. That was **literally** my first listen. It hasn't really sunk in yet.

I heard the record in the 80s without knowing that it was controversial, and it never occurred to me that anyone could actively dislike it until I read about that later. I still find it bizarre to imagine that anyone could think this was a bad album. I just found out that the 8 Track version has an extra piano interlude after "Berlin." I like Berlin better without it, but I heard it on vinyl first so who knows.

You mean 8-track, as in, the format?

Or, a version of the album that omits two songs?

Berlin aside I posted on the Dylan Bootleg Series thread (in followup to eyewitness testimony re Baez busting Bob)
xxpost, yeah, I was just reciting that as remembered, glad it's online--thought it might have been written by another of the Stone's Rolling Thunder correspondents, Larry Sloman, dubbed "Ratso" by some of the touring minstrels (he was also assigned to walking Dylan's dog)(Ratso pronounced Lou Reed's Berlin "The Sargent Pepper's of the Seventies," which sounds about right; the mid-70s, anyway, unless it was Tonight's The Night).

― dow, Friday, November 6, 2015 3:53 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Also, Lester Bangs hailed Berlin as "the most depressing album ever made." Not a complaint. I listened on headphones and thought it might be like having your head in the oven, while the gas leaks. Wonder if I've still got the original LP, with that big booklet? Photography like the cover (more wasted than the Fassbinder still).

Yeah, this was a headphones listen for me. It was the 1998 CD remaster.

Interesting thought RE: Berlin as Sgt. Pepper of the 70's. Seems like something you'd have to live through to properly assess, I reckon.

Well, in the mid-70s, some people actually used to complain about it being the 70s, like people in other decades might complain about disgusting weather, smells, etc. And somewhere in the mid-70s (wanna say '75 was the nadir), Bangs came up with "I am pathetic, therefore I have charisma," re recent Lou, Neil, Lennon (maybe less about the latter's music than Yokoless outings with Nilsson, wearing Kotex on forehead, standing on chairs in nightclubs, screaming "I'M JOHN LENNON! I'M JOHN LENNON!" Middle-age crazy, before he got back with Yoko.) Not everybody was like that, and some good albums came out of the midst of it, but punk couldn't come too soon. Yeah, hadda be there, lucky if you weren't.

(maybe less about the latter's music than Yokoless outings with Nilsson, wearing Kotex on forehead, standing on chairs in nightclubs, screaming "I'M JOHN LENNON! I'M JOHN LENNON!" Middle-age crazy, before he got back with Yoko.)

New board description, mayhaps?

i'm gonna stop wastin' my time

xpost. Yes, 8 Track as in format. It's up on youtube...

Ahh, that's kind of cool. Is there a thread for pieces of music that are exclusive to the 8 track (like this one and Pink Floyd's Animals)?

Should I start one?