Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse Lou Reed and Berlin producer Bob Ezrin always had their eyes on a stage adaptation of this narrative; in 2006, that finally became a reality, with appearances by Sharon Jones and Antony Hegarty. This is the soundtrack to a Julian Schnabel film about those performances.
At a time when the price of concert tickets is rising sharply and public demand is shrinking, a number of veteran artists have sought to make their shows seem more like events by performing one of their more celebrated albums in full as part of the concert, with the All Tomorrow's Parties and Pitchfork music festivals making this gambit a regular part of their annual programming. Lou Reed is an old hand at this game -- when New York was released in 1989, Reed performed the album in full and in sequence each evening on tour, and he followed suit for the shows supporting 1992's Magic and Loss. But it was a collaboration with artist and director Julian Schnabel rather than anything so crass as economics that prompted Reed to revisit his 1973 concept album Berlin for a series of multimedia concerts, with Reed and his band joined by a vocal chorus (including guest singers Antony and Sharon Jones) and a small orchestra directed by Bob Ezrin, who arranged and produced the original album. Schnabel filmed two of the Berlin concerts staged in New York City for a documentary, and Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse is essentially the soundtrack album to Schnabel's film. While in many respects these performances honor both the sound and the intent of the 1973 studio album, the Lou Reed who walked on-stage in New York in 2006 sounds recognizably different than the man who recorded these songs 33 years earlier. Reed didn't play electric guitar on Berlin, but he does here, and the elegant brutality of his soloing adds a new flavor to the melodies, and while three decades of wear and tear on his voice bring a welcome character to "The Kids" and "The Bed," the curious timing of his new phrasing doesn't serve his lyrics especially well. But Reed and his band (including Steve Hunter, another veteran of the original recording sessions) perform this music with skill and empathy, and while the highly polished production of the original album sounded a bit chilly, on-stage this music reveals a warmth and a damaged yet unaffected humanity. As an encore, Reed performs an additional three songs, and while "Rock Minuet" doesn't fare much better here than it did on the flawed Ecstasy, his umpteenth recording of "Sweet Jane" is full of life and Antony's guest vocal on "Candy Says" is a thing of rare beauty. In its original form, Berlin was a work of tremendous ambition that didn't quite live up to its own high standards, and this live recording seems to trade a roughly equal number of new flaws for those of the original album, but this performance sounds like a legitimate attempt by Reed to revisit his past without being shackled to it, and on that level it's a brave and compelling experiment that (often) works.
Berlin es el tercer álbum solista del músico Lou Reed, lanzado por RCA Victor en 1973. El disco fue producido por Bob Ezrin, y contó con la participación de nombres como Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Aynsley Dunbar y Tony Levin, entre otros. A pesar de las críticas negativas hechas en su momento, la revista Rolling Stone clasificó a Berlín en el puesto nº 344 de su lista "Los 500 mejores álbumes de todos los tiempos". Grabación y Contenido Tras el éxito de Transformer, Lou Reed decide realizar un proyecto más ambicioso y más elaborado. Para ello viajó a Inglaterra una vez más y reunió a una serie de músicos de renombre para llevar a cabo este álbum. Es un disco temáticamente muy obscuro y sobrecargado, y una de las obras clásicas del artista, no obstante un periodista de la influyente revista Rolling Stone lo catalogó de "desastre que lleva al oyente a través de un submundo de esquizofrenia, paranoia, degradación, violencia anfetamínica y suicidio", asegurando que el disco seguramente sería el fin de la "otrora prometedora" carrera de Reed.1 También el critico de rock Robert Christgau calificó al álbum con una "C". Durantes los siguientes años, Berlín nunca fue presentado oficialmente por completo, dado la mala aceptación por parte de la prensa, sin embargo Reed interpretó "Lady Day", "How Do You Think It Feels", "Oh, Jim" y "Sad Song" como parte de su habitual repertorio en directo. En 2007 consiguió llevar a cabo un concierto interpretando el álbum por completo con un arreglo orquestal y coro. El director Julian Schnabel grabó el concierto y fue publicado en 2008 como Lou Reed's Berlin.
Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse
ResponderEliminarLou Reed and Berlin producer Bob Ezrin always had their eyes on a stage adaptation of this narrative; in 2006, that finally became a reality, with appearances by Sharon Jones and Antony Hegarty. This is the soundtrack to a Julian Schnabel film about those performances.
At a time when the price of concert tickets is rising sharply and public demand is shrinking, a number of veteran artists have sought to make their shows seem more like events by performing one of their more celebrated albums in full as part of the concert, with the All Tomorrow's Parties and Pitchfork music festivals making this gambit a regular part of their annual programming. Lou Reed is an old hand at this game -- when New York was released in 1989, Reed performed the album in full and in sequence each evening on tour, and he followed suit for the shows supporting 1992's Magic and Loss. But it was a collaboration with artist and director Julian Schnabel rather than anything so crass as economics that prompted Reed to revisit his 1973 concept album Berlin for a series of multimedia concerts, with Reed and his band joined by a vocal chorus (including guest singers Antony and Sharon Jones) and a small orchestra directed by Bob Ezrin, who arranged and produced the original album. Schnabel filmed two of the Berlin concerts staged in New York City for a documentary, and Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse is essentially the soundtrack album to Schnabel's film. While in many respects these performances honor both the sound and the intent of the 1973 studio album, the Lou Reed who walked on-stage in New York in 2006 sounds recognizably different than the man who recorded these songs 33 years earlier. Reed didn't play electric guitar on Berlin, but he does here, and the elegant brutality of his soloing adds a new flavor to the melodies, and while three decades of wear and tear on his voice bring a welcome character to "The Kids" and "The Bed," the curious timing of his new phrasing doesn't serve his lyrics especially well. But Reed and his band (including Steve Hunter, another veteran of the original recording sessions) perform this music with skill and empathy, and while the highly polished production of the original album sounded a bit chilly, on-stage this music reveals a warmth and a damaged yet unaffected humanity. As an encore, Reed performs an additional three songs, and while "Rock Minuet" doesn't fare much better here than it did on the flawed Ecstasy, his umpteenth recording of "Sweet Jane" is full of life and Antony's guest vocal on "Candy Says" is a thing of rare beauty. In its original form, Berlin was a work of tremendous ambition that didn't quite live up to its own high standards, and this live recording seems to trade a roughly equal number of new flaws for those of the original album, but this performance sounds like a legitimate attempt by Reed to revisit his past without being shackled to it, and on that level it's a brave and compelling experiment that (often) works.
Berlin es el tercer álbum solista del músico Lou Reed, lanzado por RCA Victor en 1973. El disco fue producido por Bob Ezrin, y contó con la participación de nombres como Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Aynsley Dunbar y Tony Levin, entre otros. A pesar de las críticas negativas hechas en su momento, la revista Rolling Stone clasificó a Berlín en el puesto nº 344 de su lista "Los 500 mejores álbumes de todos los tiempos".
ResponderEliminarGrabación y Contenido
Tras el éxito de Transformer, Lou Reed decide realizar un proyecto más ambicioso y más elaborado. Para ello viajó a Inglaterra una vez más y reunió a una serie de músicos de renombre para llevar a cabo este álbum.
Es un disco temáticamente muy obscuro y sobrecargado, y una de las obras clásicas del artista, no obstante un periodista de la influyente revista Rolling Stone lo catalogó de "desastre que lleva al oyente a través de un submundo de esquizofrenia, paranoia, degradación, violencia anfetamínica y suicidio", asegurando que el disco seguramente sería el fin de la "otrora prometedora" carrera de Reed.1 También el critico de rock Robert Christgau calificó al álbum con una "C".
Durantes los siguientes años, Berlín nunca fue presentado oficialmente por completo, dado la mala aceptación por parte de la prensa, sin embargo Reed interpretó "Lady Day", "How Do You Think It Feels", "Oh, Jim" y "Sad Song" como parte de su habitual repertorio en directo. En 2007 consiguió llevar a cabo un concierto interpretando el álbum por completo con un arreglo orquestal y coro. El director Julian Schnabel grabó el concierto y fue publicado en 2008 como Lou Reed's Berlin.
Staring at my picture book
ResponderEliminarShe looks like Mary, Queen of Scots
She seemed very regal to me
Just goes to show how wrong you can be
I'm gonna stop wastin' my time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
My castle, kids and home
I thought she was Mary, Queen of Scots
I tried so very hard
Shows just how wrong you can be
I'm gonna stop wasting time
Somebody else would have broken both of her arms
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song
Sad song, sad song