A Night With Lou Reed

• Cat.no: CMPL 6079
• Cert: E
• Running time: 60 minutes
• Sides: 1 (CLV)
• Year: 1983
• Pressing: UK, 1996
• Chapters: 13
• Sound: Stereo
• Presented in Fullscreen
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : None
  

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  Director:

  Clark Santee

  Producers:

  Bill Boggs and Richard Baker

  Featuring:

  Lou Reed (Vocals and Guitar)
  Robert Quine (Guitar)
  Fernando Saunders (Bass)
  Fred Maher (Drums)

A Night With Lou Reed is the only intimate record of Lou Reed’s sold out gig at the The Bottom Line in his home town of New York City, in 1983. The concert was a homecoming for him, whose career began in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, and serves as a fine testament to the man whose personal appearances are so rare.

Lou Reed has been around for over 20 years, and this performance sees him bonding well with Robert Quine also on lead guitar, Fred Maher on drums, and Fernando Saunders on bass.

A full track listing appears below, but as a taster, the disc kicks off with one of Reed’s best-loved oldies, “Sweet Jane”, and later on we are also treated to classics like “Walk on the Wild Side” (referred to on this track listing only as ‘Wild Side’), and “Satellite of Love”.

The picture quality is good, although a little soft all the way through. I presume it was filmed on NTSC equipment and then converted across, but it sets the mood well.

What can be said of the sound quality? Nothing short of excellent. Lou Reed’s music comes across superbly, and many of you into his music will most likely have bought his compilation album from a few years ago, “Retro”, and if you have a laserdisc player too, then you have no excuse other than to get this disc.

There are 13 chapters in all, one for each song, and the track listing which speaks for itself is as follows :

1. Sweet Jane
2. I’m Waiting for the Man
3. Martial Law
4. Don’t Talk To Me About Work
5. Women
6. Waves of Fear
7. Wild Side
8. Turn Out The Lights
9. New Age
10. Kill Your Sons
11. Satellite of Love
12. White Light/White Heat
13. Rock ‘N’ Roll

To sum up quite simply, buy this disc, put it in the player, press play, turn up the volume, and all the coloured girls go, “do do-do, do-do do do-do do do-do do-do, do do-do do….”

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.