Rock 'n' Roll Animal

According to certain versions , Lou Reed himself admittedly said once that he was not in good shape during this concert ( as a matter of fact I think he was referring to the whole period , circa 1973 , not just the concert ) . Certainly he was close to an all-time low in terms of psicological and physical exhaustion from the abuse of certain substances , but , ( hey Lou , call me what you want ) I disagree with his own statement . One of Lou's statements I fully agree with is the one that says that rock'n'roll saved his life . Another one that admits no dispute is "I don't like to disguise reality" . And that's exactly what he does in this concert/album . His singing is , probably more than ever , raw , painful , desperate at times . One thing you can't deny is his poetry , the way he communicates how he feels when he sees the world around him coming down hopelessly . These are not precisely lullaby songs . Lou doesn't really sing : he spits words and phrases , and the guitars sound like a machine gun at times to match his outburst. This is a classic album , one that gets better and better with the years , like a good wine . One big contributing factor for the great sound here is , no doubt , the guitar tandem of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner , who were especially inspired that night and provided Lou with a perfect , extraordinary sound environment. Wrapped by these two axemen and propelled by an equally inspired rythm section , Lou was able to shout his guts out . Bad shape ? I call it a marriage made in Heaven . Show me a better version of "Sweet Jane" and I will gladly pay you.Try to match the scorching , spine-shivering intro of Hunter and Wagner's guitars before Lou appears on stage and starts telling us about the mixed-up life of Sweet Jane and other odd characters . The same goes for "Heroin" , with its slow start gradually becoming a vertiginous rush . Life imitates art or art imitates life ? Who cares ? Then Lou goes to a rage-ladden version of "How do you think it feels" , with heart-ripping shouts and all , before he continues with his tales of physical and mental suffering and dark , ambiguous happiness/unhapiness in "Caroline says I" . After that he returns to his adventures with chemicals in an explosive rendition of "White light/white heat" , to me the best ever . I'm ready to take another bet here : show me a better version ! Then comes "Lady Day" which doesn't let the standards fall here , although it is probably the less remarkable song in this album . But , hey , Lou couldn't finish without another memorable tour-de-force , so in the best Reed-style and fashion he delivers "Rock'n'roll" , and for the first time in the concert(it ain't over till it's over , right?)there's a song that is sunnier and somewhat hopeful , if you can see it . Can't see it ? Well , ask the man . He said that rock'n'roll saved his life . And , this time , I believe him .

Maybe I'm stuck in the 70's,but I still love this album. Though, when I first heard the updated version [w/the xtra songs] I thought, "This is why they edited it in the first place". After a few more listens I fell in love with this album/CD all over again, including the added songs. I wore the vinyl off the original album and now I think it sounds as fresh as ever. I turn this on and crank up the volume and listen to Steven Hunter's searing guitar along w/a wonderful rhythm section and I feel the 30+ years come rushing back. Pure Rock 'N Roll Joy. To this day,I can't sit still when these songs start kicking into high gear. My whole body head and body just take on a life of their own. I can remember seeing G.E. Smith [late of The SNL Band, David Bowie, & Hall + Oates, etc.] playing in a local cover band in New Haven,Ct. at the Oxford Ale House back in the mid-seventies. They covered the "Intro + Sweet Jane", from this album,spot on. Being so young, I was blown away at how G.E. Smith hit every note and bent every string just like Steve Hunter did on the album. So maybe Im stuck in the 70's but this album still still makes makes me happy and isn't that what it's all about?

This is one of my two favorite live rock albums (the other is Stand In the Fire by Warren Zevon). This is probably the best live rock album ever. The guitar work is amazing. The energy is explosive. This is what rock and roll should be. Two guitars, bass and drums and four guys playing their guts out (OK, there are keyboards too.) This live version of Heroin, all by itself, should get Lou (as a solo artist) inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. My favorite live rock track of all time. It's a lesson in how to build up a rock song to a screaming crescendo. Like everyone, my only beef with the record was: not enough, give us more! This release includes two additional tracks from the same concert: How Do You Think It Feels and Caroline Says I, which are also great and fit right in. The remastered sound is excellent. This release, unlike to old release on CD, has some nice liner notes. Enjoy.

The Lou Reed album for non-Lou Reed fans (even Lou Reeds HATERS love this one), ROCK'N'ROLL ANIMAL left me non-plused in '74 and kinda still does today. As a fan, I bought it, of course, and gave it a good listen or two before deciding that it was "good of kind" (but what was the KIND?) but not my cup of white light/white heat. In theory, I was not against Lou teaming up with guitar heroes Hunter and Wagner and coming out with something like the Velvet Underground Meets Derek and the Dominoes. There was even something of a thrill to the opener, "Sweet Jane," a tune that you can do hundreds of ways and still come up with a definitive rock'n'roll tune. "Heroin," though, was more problematic. Thundering guitars COULD begin to reproduce the rush of John Cale's viola runs, but what was with the "Phantom of the Opera" organ in the middle. Just wrong, wrong, wrong. I'm sorry. As is typical of the genre, moments of grandeur slip readily into sheer grandiosity. And "White Light/White Heat" without the madcap piano? I dunno. The album ends pretty well with another great song from LOADED that you can't really muck up too readily--although stretching out to ten minutes doesn't really help much. Fans of the album are quick to point out that it was only half the show (actually, less than THAT, but that's been remedied, you could say, by the inclusion of CD "bonus tracks," "How Do You Think It Feels?" and "Caroline Says I"). I've always found it personally significant that when more outtakes from this concert were released a year or so later (under the title LOU REED LIVE), I never quite got around to buying it. I don't even recall HEARING it. Maybe someday I will yet. In a kind of first, the two bonus tracks are NOT tacked on at the end of the CD, but sandwiched in the middle. That may reflect something nearer to the original set list and certainly does allow the current product to end on a stronger "Rock'n'Roll" note. The concert tour WAS supposed to be in support of the BERLIN album, so their inclusion (along with that of "Lady Day") makes sense and does fix the album temporally. Listening to it almost 40 years on, I find I do like it more now than I did then. Still Lou was pretty much drowned out by Hunter, Wagner and Co. That's what some "Classic Rock" fans prefer, as it turns out, and believe it or not, I understand that sentiment. But when I listen to Reed's strained vocals on this record, I realize what he was up against with these flashy musicians. "Classic Lou," as opposed to Classic Rock, was all about leanness, meanness and less being more. I can be generous and say that ROCK'N'ROLL ANIMAL was a valid experiment. And I'm glad it exposed his work to a new audience--some of whom may have actually found it a revelation. For others, it was probably a pretty good HUNTER AND WAGNER record.

Love this album

The intricate, extensive and sublimely rocking introduction to "Sweet Jane" which opens ROCK & ROLL ANIMAL must have made many of this album's earliest buyers think they'd fallen victim to a record company foul-up. Surely the soaring guitars, thundering bass and tight, swirling drums with which they were confronted couldn't have had anything to do with Lou Reed, legendarily laconic purveyor of atonal drones and decadent, rambling anecdotes. But sure enough, after three and a half minutes all that virtuosic showboating somehow morphed into the beloved Velvet Underground classic, with Reed tossing off his lines in a voice by turns sardonic, indifferent and haunted. The result was, and still is, an album both the hardcore Reed fan and the Reed-hating hard rocker can dig, an eminently successful experiment in classic seventies metal from a man whose prior recordings had firmly established him at the opposite pole of the sonic spectrum. In truth, however, ANIMAL is less a Lou Reed album than an album of Lou Reed songs as (stunningly) interpreted by what was then Alice Cooper's touring band. The leader's presence here, while significant in establishing the requisite dark, dissipated and druggy ambience, is ultimately more counterpoint than fulcrum. Instead, it's the beautiful picking of guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, Ray Colcord's nightmarish organ runs and the stop-on-a-dime interplay of bassist Prakash John and drummer Pentti Glan that are the real story, offering up post-Allman Brothers reinventions of Velvets nuggets like "Heroin," "White Light, White Heat" and "Rock & Roll" as well as several tracks from Reed's outrageously underrated BERLIN LP. What starts out looking like the most awkward of musical marriages ends up being one of rock's all-time greatest live albums, its dynamism literally unflagging from one end to the other. Recommended for...well, you.

This album moved me when it was released and still does today. If only I was there, what a "Perfect Day" it would have been. Speaking of perfect day, how great would it have been to hear Wagner and Hunter belting that tune out in RNR Animal style ? This is in my top 5 rock albums of all times . Just ahead of the beatles a Revolver , Genesis Lamb , but just behind Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies and Deep Purple Who do We Think We Are. I read an article that dick hunter and Steve Wagner were fired shortly after this tour because they were too good ? Yes, too good!! And too good they were indeed! This is Lou reed on steroids. Good songs made excellent via gutty guitar work. This is an absolute must buy for any rock fan. Simply my favorite live album of all time. Lou Reeds' contribution to Rock is as significant as just about anyone. Love him !

its always been a great album,i bought this one because its got a couple of extra tracks my original version didn't have.