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Lou Reed - Phantom Animal (1973)

Track listing:
  1. Intro/Sweet Jane 9:37
  2. How Do You Think It Feels? 3:42
  3. Caroline Says 1 3:39
  4. I'm Waiting For The Man 5:06
  5. Satellite Of Love 5:12
  6. Walk On The Wild Side 5:10
  7. Oh Jim 5:13
  8. Heroin 13:22
  9. Rock And Roll 6:59
  10. White Light/White Heat 5:05
  11. Vicious 7:25

Notes

Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen

Lou Reed: vocals
Steve Hunter: guitar
Dick Wagner: guitar
Peter Walsh: bass
Ray Colcord: keyboards
Pentti Glan: drums

A reasonable quality recording (soundboard?) of Lou and band at one of the first shows on the European tour to promote the "Berlin" LP. Lou reputedly asked Andy Warhol for advice about stage lighting schemes and Andy supposedly recommended "stark white spotlights". Lou followed Andy's advice and emphasisied the effect by layering his face in white makeup - by wearing black leather and adding mascara to his eyes he ended up looking like an overweight panda. At this stage of his career Lou's drug of choice was alcohol - and lots of it. But he seems to have been relatively "together" for this show, and manages to remember the words to most of the songs. (Compare with the Glasgow Apollo Theatre on 24th September - at that show he had to be propped up at the mic by the road crew after repeatedly collapsing on stage.)

It's hard to imagine what the audience thought of this set. Lou had not toured Europe to push "Transformer". "Berlin" had just been released and was being promoted as the "Sergeant Pepper of the 1970s" - it even made the top 20 LP chart in the UK. As it was, he restricted himself to only 3 "Berlin" songs, and padded the rest of the set out with full frontal assault "heavy metal" arrangements of his back catalogue. Unbelievably, "Caroline Says 1/Caroline Says 2" was issued and promoted as a 45 in the UK, and "How Do You Think It Feels" was selected as a 45 for the USA market.... (you really have to wonder who at RCA made those decisions!).

This band would get tighter and tighter as the tour progressed, culminating in the recording of "Rock And Roll Animal" at New York's Academy Of Music in December 1973. Sales from that LP, and the follow-ups "Sally Cant Dance" and "Lou Reed Live" would keep RCA happy for a many months - the "Metal Machine Music" debacle was still nearly 2 years away......

Gold Standard

original artwork included (note inappropriate front/inside cover photos from 1974 and incorrect band credits The back cover shot is from the Crystal Palace Garden Party in London on 15th September 1973)