Lou Reed's "Berlin"

[Teratogen]

I just came home from seeing the new Julian Schnabel directed film of Lou Reed's performance of his Berlin album in its entirety. Being one of the most interesting pieces of music I've ever heard, and just plain being a fan of Lou Reed this was a must-see for me. Clocking it an about 80 minutes I didn't quite expect much, but boy did Lou deliver.

Besides Lou and his regular bandmates of Tony "Boom-Boom" Smith on drums and Fernando Saunders on bass we were treated to some new and some old. New being a children's choir and a three-person backup vocal team which included Antony, and old being Steve Hunter on guitar (who played on the original album) as well as Bob Ezrin conducting an orchestra on stage. It was a pretty big production for Lou, but small in a way that, well, it's Lou. I heavily enjoyed watching this.

Spliced between the live footage were images of a man and a woman, specifically playing the characters of Jim and Caroline, for those of you who know this album and its story well. The contents of it are very hard and deep and quite depressing--one of the most depressing pieces of music I've ever heard. At times it was amazing to watch how the music was performed live, seeing as it was nearly an exact replica of the studio version, but very harrowing during the last four songs or so when it became almost hard to watch. After the length of the album was completed we were treated to a very strange amalgam of "encore" presentations of "Candy Says," featuring Antony on lead vocals, "Rock Minuet" and "Sweet Jane" to close out with the credits.

Overall it turned out better than I expected and it was very awesome to see. I had seen him perform some of the songs live before... actually, perhaps I've only heard him do "Men of Good Fortune" live, but still... what a treat it really was to hear (and see!) the entire album performed in a live setting with such a great production set up for it.

[efc]

Great post. I saw the show a few weeks ago (in the Albert Hall, London), and the film version the other day. Lou certainly seemed quite emotional (for him) at one point in the film. I don’t know if it’s a sort of release from the unrelenting depression of the album but I do find some humour in "Bed" eg. The line “This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night/ And this is the place our children were conceived candles lit the room brightly at night/ And this is the place where she cut her wrists that odd and fateful night” comes over as a bit of a guided tour.

I’m not sure what the “the Welshman from India” from "Kids" is about but perhaps the “inspiration” for that comes from John Cale somehow. Funnily enough people who try to imitate a Welsh accent sometimes come over all Indian.

Btw I think the announcer, in the film, said that Lou’s mother was in the audience. I presume she already knew the lyrics to Rock Minuet!?

Apparently the DVD is due out fairly shortly.

Rob

[Teratogen]

Glad someone else was able to see it! You are lucky to have seen him perform it live. But you are right, as soon as they started playing "Caroline Says II" I sensed Lou becoming quite emotionally invested in the whole thing. I'm not sure about the "Welshman from India" line in "The Kids." Just because Cale is Welsh I don't think that means anything. I spent more time trying to figure out the meaning of "I'm the waterboy" line when I first heard the song than about who the Welshman from India was.

And yes, his mother was in the audience, and I thought the same exact thing when he started playing "Rock Minuet!" I chuckled at the thought of it.

[trevor73]

i just discovered this one, agree it's awesome. So what did you come up with as the meaning for "I'm the waterboy." the way he says it, mixes frustration with acceptance and confusion, i'm not sure either.......(i guess if he's the artist, i'm the waterboy.)

[dtonerisarugbygod]

I saw him twice in concert once in the marquee in Cork 2008 doing Berlin which was amazing. and than again in 2011 at Hammersmith Apollo which he did a greatest hits which was very odd because he did not do any greatest hits just ones he want to do.